March Monologue Madness

Local talent dives in

NEWPORT — Public speaking is hard. It could be argued that getting up in front of an audience and convincingly speaking as someone else is harder, especially when the viewers are in on the pretense.

However, that’s part of the challenge for the cast and crew behind March Monologue Madness at the Pend Oreille Playhouse Saturday-Sunday, March 7-8, 7 p.m. and 3 p.m. respectively. Co-directed by Amy Dawson and Amy Encinas Yount, the performance includes seven actors in a variety of ages doing two monologues each, one comedic and the other dramatic.

“It’s fun for the actors to show their range, as well as different ways to approach a scene,” said Dawson, who directed last year’s The Wizard of Oz at the playhouse.

A monologue is a speech by one actor in a play or movie. Think of the classic, “To be, or not to be” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet or Miranda Priestly’s (Meryl Streep) cutting, sardonic assessment of Andrea’s (Anne Hathaway) lack of fashion sense in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada.

“If you like to watch good acting and you’re interested in the nuance of performance and storytelling, come watch this,” Encinas Yount said. Encinas Yount worked in film for four years in Los Angeles, studying at the Deborah Lemen Acting Studio. She made her first theatre debut as the Scarecrow under Dawson’s direction in The Wizard of Oz. Encinas Yount has been able to share many of the acting techniques she has learned with the cast of March Monologue Madness, utilizing Ivana Chubbuck’s 12-Step Acting Method described in the book “The Power of the Actor”. The method is designed to help actors develop realistic performances with a psychology-based approach. “The point is to help the actor use their own emotional experience to drive a character’s goals as opposed to just being showy or overly dramatic,” Encinas Yount said.

Dawson added that kind of one-on-one coaching between a director and actors isn’t usually common in volunteer-based community theatre.

“More often than not when you’re doing a musical or a production with a lot of people, there’s just not time to really help actors dive into characterization,” Dawson said. “I’m not putting down musicals or big ensemble shows because I love watching them and being involved in them, but when you’re a theatre company that is run by volunteers and you have a big cast, you don’t have a lot of time for that individual instruction on what makes a character tick. People have jobs, school, a lot of other things happening outside of the theatre, so your rehearsals are really concentrated overall.”

The cast includes Brenyn Longly, Jace Connelly, Robert Balow, Alexa Kuno, Autumn Longly, John Connelly and Julia Reilly.

“We’re really proud of them,” Encinas Yount said of the actors. “It’s been so much fun to delve into their characters with them and watch them have these realizations about how they can better connect with what they’re saying and how to communicate that to an audience.”

There will be a 15-minute intermission during each performance. Tickets are $10 a piece and can be purchased at www. cue.circleupapp.co/org/ pend-oreille-players/ tickets/march-monologue- madness. For more information go to www. pendoreilleplayers.com or call 509- 550-2155. If no one answers, leave a clear, detailed message and someone will reply.

The Pend Oreille Playhouse is located at 236 S.

Union Ave., Newport.

SOPHIA MATTICE-ALDOUS IS A MURROW NEWS FELLOW WORKING DIRECTLY WITH NEWSROOMS AT THE NEWPORT MINER AND RANGE MEDIA THROUGH A PROGRAM ADMINISTERED BY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY. HER REPORTING IS AVAILABLE FOR USE VIA CREATIVE COMMONS WITH CREDIT.

Autumn Longly rehearses, “How Was Your Day, Darling Face?” in preparation for March Monologue Madness at the Pend Oreille Playhouse. Longly is one of several local actors who will be performing dramatic and comedic monologues at the two-day event.