{"id":2408,"date":"2018-08-02T11:03:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T11:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spotlight.com\/?p=2408"},"modified":"2026-03-04T10:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T10:40:57","slug":"how-to-prepare-for-a-showcase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spotlight.com\/news-and-advice\/young-performers\/how-to-prepare-for-a-showcase\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Prepare for a Showcase"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Imelda Staunton, Alex Jennings and the Spotlight Showcase nominees share their advice for selecting and performing a monologue successfully<\/h2>\n<p>Need to prepare a monologue? Imelda Staunton, Alex Jennings and all our nominees and winners from the\u00a0Spotlight Showcase 2018 give their tips on how to choose your material and making the most of your preparation time to ensure your performance is a success.<\/p>\n<div class=\"responsiveEmbed\">\n<div class=\"embededYoutube\"><iframe id=\"286442915\" title=\"How to Prepare for a Showcase\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ULwaTvdWGaA?rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fspotlight.com\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-2257647_115=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-7=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-12=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-17=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Tips for Selecting Your Showcase Monologue<\/h3>\n<h4><strong>Do pick a monologue that:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>You love doing and that you can find new things in every time you do it<\/li>\n<li>Sits naturally with you<\/li>\n<li>Feels like\u00a0&#8216;home&#8217; to you, where the audience doesn&#8217;t even notice you&#8217;re doing a monologue<\/li>\n<li>Has a build, where you can show real contrast in your performance<\/li>\n<li>Feels like you&#8217;re the only person who could do it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Don&#8217;t pick something:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Just for the shock factor<\/li>\n<li>Because you think will show your crazy (or whatever) side<\/li>\n<li>Just because it&#8217;s competitive.\u00a0Think about you, who you are and what you want to showcase.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Tips for Preparation<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Do your preparation in the weeks, or months, ahead of the performance<\/li>\n<li>Read the piece over and over, then try to get a lot of association for yourself in it<\/li>\n<li>Look for similarities between yourself and the character, and the differences, then try to balance the two<\/li>\n<li>Think about the facts in the whole &#8216;world&#8217;, how the character lives and what they believe in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Tips for Performing a Monologue<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t let the words do the work<\/li>\n<li>Do perform with confidence as so much of it is about convincing the audience<\/li>\n<li>Do make the audience feel at ease<\/li>\n<li>Do think about breath and voice as they&#8217;re important for how the character moves<\/li>\n<li>Do show a version of yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read more advice about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotlight.com\/news-and-advice\/?tags=monologues\">choosing, preparing and performing\u00a0a monologue.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Find out more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotlight.com\/spotlight-prize\/\">Spotlight Prize<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imelda Staunton, Alex Jennings and the Spotlight Showcase nominees share their advice for selecting and performing a monologue successfully Need to prepare a monologue? Imelda Staunton, Alex Jennings and all our nominees and winners from the\u00a0Spotlight Showcase 2018 give their tips on how to choose your material and making the most of your preparation time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[42,69,76,52,70],"class_list":["post-2408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-young-performers","tag-graduates","tag-monologues","tag-spotlight-prize","tag-video","tag-young-performers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Prepare for a Showcase | Spotlight<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Prepare for your showcase with tips from Imelda Staunton and Alex Jennings. 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