Our very own Liz Hardy – actor, improvisor and Oicker – tells us why she loves the scripted and the unscripted.
I love my improv… of course! But must admit to an equal love of all acting. Since my very first ventures at the end of 2018 when I discovered Merseyside Academy of Drama (or MAD as we love to call it) and got the taste for all things thespian, I have been hooked. Taking part in a scripted play and duologues sees you learning your lines based on cues and interactions with your fellow actors. As well as relying on your own memory you also have to hope your cues keep coming. Learning a monologue though… well you only have yourself to blame!
Those words, ‘Yes, I would love to try learning a monologue’ must have been said by me at some stage in the last couple of years probably when feeling uncharacteristically brave! Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I am standing in front of my laptop in my living room on a Zoom showcase performance, playing to an invisible but ‘sensed’ audience thinking ‘this is it, no escape’, while managing to somehow fix my pretend confident smile. Somehow all thoughts of anything just managed to stay out of reach and for the next 3 minutes I was on autopilot. So pleased with myself that I somehow did it and rose to the challenge. And yes… I would do it again!
A green teddy or a stress ball
Getting into the character is the key of course and the main reason why I love acting, as well as using my props of course. Give me a huge pair of glasses, a beanie hat and a green teddy or a stress ball and I am in my element. For monologues – getting into character is vital and the only way it can work. You have to think like, dress and look like that character and get into their mind so you actually feel their feelings and know their thoughts. All this of course while learning those lines.
Actually learning the lines is only the first part, and of course at my great age I found this a challenge to my ‘old brain’ but especially in this past years it gave me a great focus and something to distract from the ongoing saga of lockdown times. Delivering those lines with the right voice, mannerisms, posture and expression of the character comes next and in my character of the supercilious, scary ‘Principal’ of a teacher training college in the 1970’s, this was a dream of a character mainly because it was my polar opposite and for just a few minutes I could be a new different me.
Standing in front of a real audience and doing the same on Zoom are two quite different but similarly scary experiences, each with their own challenges, but also resulting in a sense of relief and achievement when you finally say that last word, and your brain returns from mush to its normal consistency. It seems like another lifetime since I last stood in front of a live audience, or indeed within 6 feet of any other human, and somehow now it feels much more normal to only speak to people on Zoom including my lovely fellow Oickers, most of whom I have only ever met online! That thought needs to go away to be honest, I can’t carry on just being virtual!
In-person improv gig
What a great bunch of wacky people are we Oickers – each with our own set of skills, whether it’s the love of dressing up and using props, ability to use different voiced and accents, think up puns and lightning quick responses to whatever is thrown at you in a very gentle improv-type way, or just the natural ability to be silly and make people laugh, being part of a comedy improv troupe is most definitely a welcome distraction in these times. I am honoured to be part of this fine and fruity bunch.
But for now I just have to keep that thought at the forefront of my mind that, as humans, we are most definitely social animals, and so I for one can’t wait to stand in front of real people again and feel the fear and excitement of becoming someone else just for that few minutes of time.
Roll on future monologuing opportunities… and of course that first Oickers in-person improv gig!
Check out our Liz’s MAD character monologue as the character, Joyce. She has been put in a nursing home by her son Alan. Joyce is unable to communicate verbally and these are her inner thoughts about a memory.
And here Liz is the character, Prin. She is a principal of a 1970’s teacher training college who is speaking at a college open day.
The Oickers 