Monologue Coach Blog - TRANSITIONS

When working on a scene or monologue for an audition (with or without a coach) look out for those transitions. If each beat is a new way of talking about a subject, or if a beat is a completely new subject, between the beats are transitions.
Let’s say there are two kinds of transitions: Fast and slow.
In most cases transitions should be as quick as possible. I recently worked with an actor on a monologue. We recognized that the character was smart, and eventually agreed that he was very, very smart. We noticed the faster the transitions, the smarter he seemed. And since the character’s objective was to attract the person he was talking to, the smarter he looked the more enticing he became.
If there is a situation where you feel a transition needs to be longer, where the character is contemplative, perhaps deciding what to do or say next, that transition needs to be filled – alive, even if it’s only with thought. As a matter of fact, all it takes is the thinking. Indicating the thought is unnecessary and will cheapen the work. Think the thought; don’t act it.  
All that said, you should always default to the quick transition, just as you should default to taking out all of the pauses. Coincidently (or maybe not) those pauses that your director is always harping on are often in the transitions. Always be working to get the air out of your transitions. Assume your character is at least as smart as you are. Think (don’t indicate the thinking) and think fast.
When looking for a monologue to work on, find one that changes throughout and will show different energies, with a couple of beats and therefore a couple of transitions. I’ve seen a lot of auditions where the energy is all the same. I only see one color – one thing that the actor can do. And then I’m not so sure they can do anything else. Often, a monologue is in a play to make a specific point and that means there may only be one energy. It can be a challenge finding the right one. Dig. Break everything down into beats and see if you can apply different tactics to each beat. Different tactics, equals different energies, equals a good monologue to work with.