S3 E1: So You Think You Know Soliloquies?

Definitions

Speech
  • A largely uninterrupted speech of length (approximately more than one inch of text) delivered by any single person to any person or people.
  • A speech may be formatted in paragraph, verse or any sort of formatting
  • A speech may use prosaic, rhetorical, poetic, or any literary style

Types of Speeches Delivered by Characters

Soliloquy
  • A largely uninterrupted speech of length delivered by an isolated Character (or in some instances characters), who does not intend to be overheard by any other character in the world of the play.

Monologue
  • A largely uninterrupted speech of length delivered by a non-isolated Character (or in some instances characters), who does intend to be overheard by and is speaking directly and specifically to another Character in the world of the play.

Address
  • A largely uninterrupted speech of length delivered by a non-isolated Character (or in some instances characters), who does intend to be overheard by and is speaking generally within the world of the play to any interlocutors, including Character, Chorus and the Audience.  The Character treats everyone as a chorus.

Other Types of Character(s) Speaking

Aside
  • A short spoken line (generally less than an inch, or no more than about four lines) delivered by a Character either to a specific other Character on the stage, to themselves, or to the audience, which is meant to be heard in a very limited capacity.  A defining feature is that it is short,  interspersed in the middle of dialogue, and the character is only momentarily speaking in semi-isolation.

Dialogue
  • When Characters speak to each other in a scene.  A dialogue may be interspersed with monologues or addresses, as well as asides.  It is also possible to insert a cutaway soliloquy within a dialogue.  However the portion which is a dialogue is when multiple characters are speaking to each other within the world of the play.

Types of Theatrical Roles

  • Theatrical Roles are when all parties - the actor and the audience - are aware that the actor is not behaving as themselves, but is instead pretending to enact a role, within a pretended world.  See also: Verisimilitude

Character
  • When the Theatrical Role involves the the Character having wants, needs, objectives, character arcs, and the ability to affect the world of the play.

Chorus
  • When the Theatrical Role involves the Chorus Member who doesn't have particular, textually written wants and needs, but still functions within the world of the play, typically without much affect on the actions of the play.

Narrator
  • When the Theatrical Role involves the Narrator who doesn't have particular, textually written wants and needs, and functions just outside the world of the play, typically commenting or expositing on events of the play.  The Narrator themself performs a role, but treats the audience not as a chorus but as their real selves.

Resources

The Taxonomy of Performance
Community
T. S. Eliot
C. S. Lewis
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
  • Farmer Refuted
  • Wait for It
  • History Has Its Eyes On You
  • The World was Wide Enough

Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods
  • Prologue: Into the Woods

William Shakespeare
Dylan Thomas
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
  • Prologue

RELATED EPISODE: Defining Verse Drama

INTERVIEW: Peter Oswald

UNHINGED RANT: The Plays of T. S. Eliot