At first I read the entire text out loud. Then I broke it up into beats and sentences so that I could track Mouth's thoughts. Kat C and I read through our shared text together and through repetition helped to memorize it. Alone, I recorded the entire text in GarageBand and would listen to sections, repeat them and then check for accuracy, in this way stringing together the monologue. After I felt I had memorized a sentence or two, I would go back and run the monologue from an earlier point. Once I felt more solid, I would run the monologue from the beginning and see if I still remembered the section I thought I had memorized from more of a distance.
Thoughts about questions:
Who is this character? Mouth seems to be the victim of an extremely traumatic event which has rendered her mostly mute and emotionally crippled. This traumatic event involved a man and a (now dead?) baby. Potentially a rape or a relationship that went badly. From the breeches reference, seems likely that sexual violence was involved.
People of the town she lives in seem to accommodate her speechlessness.
Why does she say these things? Once or twice a year, words flow from her. It seems like these words need to be released as part of a healing or exorcising process related to her past trauma.
What happens during this play? Mouth can't hold in her pain any longer and her broken words flow from her. A stranger listens and attempts to comfort(?) at points, but comforting in the face of such brokenness is not possible.
What is she trying to achieve/achieving by saying what she does? I think she's trying to free or rid herself from her demons in a ritualistic process (once or twice a year, always winter) but is unsuccessful as the attempt to cleanse herself starts to reinforce the trauma in a cycle - she wants to forget but through trying to forget she remembers and is further traumatized.
What do I need as a performer to be able to find and perform this role? A good memory... empathy.
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