We were having a play reading in Markaryd, where everyone in the class had prepared a piece each. As it was a reading, I didn't know mine by heart but had an idea of how I wanted to portray the character.
However, everyone else had prepared themselves really well and did their pieces without scripts on stage whereas I was reading from a book. This would probably have been fine if not for the fact that I accidentally closed the book every few lines and then couldn't find my way back, causing me to stagger and improvise. After a while I gave up the improvisation, as it was so obvious, and let the audience, who consisted of secondary school students, wait in silence while I found my place again.
One of the girls in the front row then spoke up.
"Hjalmar, is this your own diary you're reading or is it a fictional character?" she asked. Or something along those lines. Seeing as how I was letting the audience wait and this probably wasn't very interesting to watch anyway, I broke character and answered that this was indeed a fictional character. She then fell into tears with excitement that I had broken character and answered her question. It was very sweet, as if I were her greatest idol.
Then, as I found my lines in the script again, I heard some rustling further back in the audience. One class was ushered out by the teachers as they had to get back to school and I probably had been dragging on too long with my slow pace and repeatedly getting lost. The other students grew restless at this and so they eventually all got up and started moving out, so that I had to wrap up my monologue, not even half-ways through it but well over time.
However, everyone else had prepared themselves really well and did their pieces without scripts on stage whereas I was reading from a book. This would probably have been fine if not for the fact that I accidentally closed the book every few lines and then couldn't find my way back, causing me to stagger and improvise. After a while I gave up the improvisation, as it was so obvious, and let the audience, who consisted of secondary school students, wait in silence while I found my place again.
One of the girls in the front row then spoke up.
"Hjalmar, is this your own diary you're reading or is it a fictional character?" she asked. Or something along those lines. Seeing as how I was letting the audience wait and this probably wasn't very interesting to watch anyway, I broke character and answered that this was indeed a fictional character. She then fell into tears with excitement that I had broken character and answered her question. It was very sweet, as if I were her greatest idol.
Then, as I found my lines in the script again, I heard some rustling further back in the audience. One class was ushered out by the teachers as they had to get back to school and I probably had been dragging on too long with my slow pace and repeatedly getting lost. The other students grew restless at this and so they eventually all got up and started moving out, so that I had to wrap up my monologue, not even half-ways through it but well over time.
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