Monologist

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An actor delivering a monologue

A monologist (/məˈnɒlədʒɪst, -ɡɪst/), or interchangeably monologuist (/məˈnɒləɡɪst/), is a solo artist who recites or gives dramatic readings from a monologue, soliloquy, poetry, or work of literature,[1] for the entertainment of an audience. The term can also refer to a person who monopolizes a conversation; and, in an obsolete sense, could describe a bird with an unchanging, repetitive song.[2]

Dramatic monologist[edit]

A dramatic monologist is a term sometimes applied to an actor performing in a monodrama often with accompaniment of music. In a monodrama the lone player relays a story through the eyes of a central character, though at times may take on additional roles.[3] In the modern era the more successful practitioners of this art have been actresses frequently referred to by the French term “diseuse”.[4][5][6]

Diseuse[edit]

Diseuse (UK: /diːˈzɜːz/, US: /diːˈzuːz/)[7][8] French for "teller", also called talkers, storytellers, dramatic-singers or dramatic-talkers[9][10] is a term, at least as used on the English-speaking stage, that appears to date to the last decade of the 19th century. The early uses of “diseuse” as a theatrical term in the American press seem to coincide with Yvette Guilbert’s tour of New York City in the mid-1890s.[11] In a February 1896 article on Guilbert, Cosmopolitan Magazine described the term as a "newly-coined and specific title".[12][13] Diseuse is the feminine form of the French word diseur "teller", a derivative of dire "to say, to tell", which came from Latin dīcere.[14] Few male actors became noteworthy performing solely as a dramatic monologist, though many well known actors have played in monodramas over their careers.

In the December 21, 1935, edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an entertainment columnist wrote:

The English language does not contain a word which perfectly describes the performance of Ruth Draper, who comes to the Nixon next Thursday for the first time in several years to give a different program at each of her four performances here. "Speaking Portraits" and "Character Sketches" are the two terms most frequently applied to Miss Draper's work; and yet it is something more than that. "Diseuse" is the French word, but that is more readily applicable to an artist like Yvette Guilbert or Raquel Meller. Monologist is wholly inadequate. The word "Diseuse" really means "an artist in talking" so that may be the real term to use in connection with Miss Draper.[5]

The publication Theatre World wrote in a 1949 piece: "In our time we have fallen under the spell of three remarkable women practising the art of the diseuse—Ruth Draper, Cornelia Otis Skinner, and Joyce Grenfell. Each of these great artists has the gift of crowding the stage with imaginary figures who become so vivid as to be practically visible, but as all of these artists happen to be members of the fair sex it could be assumed that they possess a magic denied the mere male of the theatre." The article suggests that Sid Field was an actor of comparable talents.[15]

Joyce Grenfell wrote in Darling Ma: Joyce Grenfell's Letters to her Mother 1932–1944, "What makes a good diseuse is a capacious verbal (and visual) imagination, and an excellent oral delivery. Call these witty ladies Diseuses of the Heart and Lungs. I do."[16]

In the book The Guest List (2010) by Ethan Mordden, the art of the diseuse is defined as "a speaker of lyrics: in effect, one who uses the music to get to the words".[17]

Actresses who have been called noted diseuses over the years include:

Oral interpretation[edit]

Oral interpretation, sometimes called dramatic reading or interpretative reading, is the oral staging of a work of literature, prose or poetry, by a person who reads rather than memorizes the material. Typically they are performed by solo artists who – unlike players in a monodrama – do not assume or tell the story through any one character, but do so instead with oral nuances to bring the story alive with their interpretation of how the creator of the piece intended the story to be told.[39][40]

Soliloquist[edit]

The term soliloquist can apply to a monologist reciting a soliloquy, usually from a play, to entertain an audience. Passages in which characters orally reveal their thoughts are probably most associated with the works of William Shakespeare.[41][42]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Monologue". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
  2. ^ "Monologist." Oxford English Dictionary. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Retrieved via OED Online, 2017-07-15.
  3. ^ Pavis, Patrice (1998). Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis. Translated from the French by Christine Shantz. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802081636. "Monodrama", pp. 217–18.
  4. ^ The Dictionary of World Literature: Criticism, Forms, Technique By Joseph Twadell Shipley 1964 p. 383
  5. ^ a b Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - the December 21, 1935 p. 11
  6. ^ Tennyson's Rapture: Transformation in the Victorian Dramatic Monologue By Cornelia D. J. Pearsall 2008
  7. ^ "diseuse". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.
  8. ^ "diseuse". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020.
  9. ^ Theater Dictionary.com
  10. ^ Beaver County Times (Earl Wilson column), March 9, 1972 p. 13
  11. ^ Le Mars Semi-Weekly Sentinel. Lemars, Iowa. January 09, 1896. p. 3
  12. ^ Cosmopolitan. February 1896. p. 44
  13. ^ TheaterDictionary.com
  14. ^ Merriam Webster's Dictionary
  15. ^ "Whispers from the Wings", by "Looker On". Theatre World. April 1949 (vol. 45, no. 291), p. 32. Snippet preview on Google Books.
  16. ^ Darling Ma: letters to her mother, 1932–1944, by Joyce Grenfell, 1988
  17. ^ The Guest List: How Manhattan Defined American Sophistication—from the Algonquin Round Table to Trumam Capote's Ball by Ethan Mordden (2010)
  18. ^ The Entertainment of a Nation: or, Three-Sheets in the Wind By George Jean Nathan, 1942, p. 265
  19. ^ Lina Cavalieri: the Life of Opera's Greatest Beauty, 1874–1944, By Paul Fryer, Olga Usova, 2004, p. 4
  20. ^ "Kitty Cheatham Honored; To Give Recital to Students ..." (preview only; subscription required). The New York Times. July 27, 1913. p. C2. Retrieved 2017-07-15. "Miss Kitty Cheatham, the well-known American 'diseuse,' has received an invitation from the Faculty of the University of Berlin to give one of her recitals of children's folklore songs before the students at the Royal Academy of Music of Charlottenburg."
  21. ^ Mitchell, Herbert (January 6, 1946). "Kitty Cheatham, Diseuse, 81, Dead; Interpreter of the Literature and Songs of Childhood Was Author, Lecturer, Pacifist" (preview only; subscription required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-07-15.
  22. ^ a b Sir John Gielgud: A Life in Letters By John Gielgud. 2005. p. 516
  23. ^ A French Song Companion by Graham Johnson, Richard Stokes. 2000 p. 5
  24. ^ The Secrets of a Showman by Sir Charles Blake Cochran, 1942, p. 97
  25. ^ Problems of the playwright, By Clayton Meeker Hamilton, 1917, p. 89
  26. ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography being a multi-volume collection of biographical articles and portraits of Americans, published since the 1890s. Volume 2 by James Terry White - 1967
  27. ^ Biography of Kurt Weill, Pickford Prod., Inc (unpublished biography April 20, 1945) Yale Music Library
  28. ^ Stravinsky: a Creative Spring : Russia and France, 1882–1934, Stephen Walsh - 2002. p. 189
  29. ^ The Jewish Response to German Culture: from the Enlightenment to the Second World War by Jehuda Reinharz, Walter Schatzberg, 1985, p. 299
  30. ^ Syracuse Herald, April 12, 1931, p. 3 (Magazine Section)
  31. ^ The One-Woman Show: Monodramas, By Marjorie Moffett, 1935, p. 1
  32. ^ Oakland Tribune, Saturday, October 20, 1956. p. 5
  33. ^ Tucson Daily Citizen (Tucson, Arizona), August 29, 1952, p. 16
  34. ^ Design, Volume 9, 1965, p. 24
  35. ^ Syracuse Herald (Syracuse, New York), December 12, 1926 p. 20
  36. ^ Theo: the autobiography of Theodore Bikel, By Theodore Bikel, 2002, p. 94
  37. ^ The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood By Diana McLellan, 2001, p. 109
  38. ^ Orientations: Collected Writings By Pierre Boulez, Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Martin Cooper, 1990, p. 331
  39. ^ Dictionary of Communication By James Fernandes 2005 p. 302
  40. ^ "Studyygs.net". Studygs.net. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
  41. ^ "definition of soliloquy by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia". Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
  42. ^ "Soliloquy – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
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