Ta(l)king Your Head Off! — Collaborative Monologue

Dismantling the Left-Brain Conspiracy and Entering the Explosive, Colorful, Absurdity of Experiential Speech

Once you discover that language is a visceral experience, that words are not purely mental constructs but actual body experiences, your improvisations crank up. You are no longer limited by what you think you should say or believed should be said. You are being led by the experience. Each word, each vowel and consonant, on the tongue, in the mouth, teeth, air leads the improvisation. Awareness of the sensations becomes the driving force for language not thought. Thought and imagination are assistants on the path of language, not the directors.

Day 1: Catch The Music

• Connecting the body with the voice
• Allowing association(s) to add quirky, exciting details
• How not knowing what to say is an opportunity
• Pausing so imagination instead of obligation fills the space
• Listening to the traffic at the crossroads of alliteration, internal rhyme and mood
• Turning “I don’t know” into vibrant, endless imagery
• Using rhythm as the driver for text production
• Being satisfied with less

Day 2: The Wild Story

• Flipping dis-belief into naming the present
• Confession as a tool for developing content
• Zooming in and zooming out from an image as a tool for expanding story
• Simultaneous Monologues
• Collaborative Monologues
• Merging and Diverging Monologues
• Shifting between Simultaneous Solos and Direct Dialogue

Ta(l)king Your Head Off is intended for dancers who want to feel their text in the flesh, actors who want to feel the flesh of their text, those who find joy in the use of language, as well as, those who hope to find that joy.