Monologist
Encyclopedia
Monologist
A monologist is a solo artist who recites or gives dramatic readingsOral Interpretation
Oral Interpretation is a dramatic art, also commonly called "interpretive reading" and "dramatic reading", though these terms are more conservative and restrictive...
from a monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
, soliloquy
Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters, and is delivered often when they are alone or think they are alone. Soliloquy is distinct from monologue and...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
or work of literature for the entertainment of an audience. The term can also apply to one who dominates a conversation or a bird with a repeating monotonous cry.
Dramatic Monologist
A Dramatic Monologist is a term sometimes applied to an actor performing in a monodramaMonodrama
A monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character.- Monodrama in opera :...
often with accompaniment of a musical score. In a monodrama the lone player relays a story through the eyes of a central character, though at times may take on additional roles. In the modern era the more successful practitioners of this art have been actresses frequently referred to by the French term “diseuse”.
Diseuse
Diseuse, French for "teller", also called talkers, storytellers, dramatic-singers or dramatic-talkers, is a term, at least on the English-speaking stage, that appears to only date back to the last decade of the 19th century. The early usages of “diseuse” as a theatrical term in the American press seem to coincide with Yvette Guilbert’sYvette Guilbert
Yvette Guilbert was a French cabaret singer and actress of the Belle Époque.-Biography:...
tour of New York City in the mid 1890s. Cosmopolitan Magazine in a February, 1896 article on Guilbert described the term as a "newly-coined and specific title". Diseuse is the feminine form of diseur, a derivative of dire, Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
for “to say”, that in turn came from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
“dicer”. It would appear that over the last century or so few male actors became noteworthy performing solely as a dramatic monologist, though many well known actors have played in monodramas over their careers.
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
Ruth Draper
Ruth Draper was an American actress, dramatist and noted diseuse who specialized in character-driven monologues.-Early life and family:...
, Cornelia Otis Skinner
Cornelia Otis Skinner
Cornelia Otis Skinner was an American author and actress.-Biography:Skinner was the daughter of the actor Otis Skinner and his wife Maud Skinner. After attending the all-girls' Baldwin School and Bryn Mawr College and studying theatre at the Sorbonne in Paris, she began her career on the stage...
, and Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Irene Grenfell, OBE was an English actress, comedienne, diseuse and singer-songwriter.-Early life:...
. 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 goes on to suggest that Sid Fields was an actor of comparable talents.
In the book "The Guest List" 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"
In the December 21, 1935 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
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
Regional Enterprise Tower
The Regional Enterprise Tower is a skyscraper in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, formerly known as the Alcoa Building. It was completed in 1953 and has 30 floors. It is the 15th tallest building in the city and is adjacent to Mellon Square...
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.”
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."
Actresses who have been called noted diseuses over the years include Yvette Guilbert
Yvette Guilbert
Yvette Guilbert was a French cabaret singer and actress of the Belle Époque.-Biography:...
, Ruth Draper
Ruth Draper
Ruth Draper was an American actress, dramatist and noted diseuse who specialized in character-driven monologues.-Early life and family:...
, Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Irene Grenfell, OBE was an English actress, comedienne, diseuse and singer-songwriter.-Early life:...
, Cornelia Otis Skinner
Cornelia Otis Skinner
Cornelia Otis Skinner was an American author and actress.-Biography:Skinner was the daughter of the actor Otis Skinner and his wife Maud Skinner. After attending the all-girls' Baldwin School and Bryn Mawr College and studying theatre at the Sorbonne in Paris, she began her career on the stage...
, Lucienne Boyer
Lucienne Boyer
Lucienne Boyer was a French diseuse and singer, best known for her song "Parlez-moi d'amour". Her impresario was Bruno Coquatrix.-Early career:...
, Raquel Meller
Raquel Meller
Raquel Meller , born Francisca Marqués López, was a Spanish cuplé and tonadilla singer. She was an international star in the 1920s and 1930s, appearing in several films and touring Europe and the Americas...
Odette Dulac
Odette Dulac
Odette Dulac was a French singing actress, born 14 July 1865 in Aire-sur-Adour a diseuse in the manner of Yvette Guilbert, who became a militant feminist and novelist...
, Beatrice Herford
Beatrice Herford
Beatrice Herford was an American actress, diseuse and vaudeville performer born in England.The daughter of a minister, Herford spent her youth moving between England and the United States, following her father's changing jobs. In her twenties, she participated avidly in private theatricals,...
,
Kitty Cheatham
Kitty Cheatham
Katherine "Kitty" Cheatham was an American singer, diseuse and actress. She was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee...
, Marie Dubas
Marie Dubas
Marie Dubas was a music-hall singer, diseuse and comedienne.Born in Paris, France, Marie Dubas began her career as a stage actress but became famous as a singer. Using the great Yvette Guilbert as her model, Dubas started singing in the small cabarets of Montmartre mixing comedy into her routine...
, Claire Waldoff
Claire Waldoff
Claire Waldoff was a German singer. She was a famous cabaret singer and entertainer in Berlin during the 1910s and 1920s.- Biography :...
, Lina Cavalieri
Lina Cavalieri
Lina Cavalieri was an Italian operatic soprano and diseuse known for her grace and beauty.-Biography:...
Françoise Rosay
Françoise Rosay
Françoise Rosay was a French opera singer, diseuse, and actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure in French cinema...
, Molly Picon
Molly Picon
Molly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
, Corinna Mura
Corinna Mura
Corinna Mura was a cabaret singer and diseuse. She had a small role in the classic film Casablanca as the woman playing the guitar while singing "La Marseillaise" at Rick's Café Américain....
, Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
, Lia Rosen, a Jewish actress (German or possibly Austrian) who began by giving dramatic readings from the Old
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
and New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
s Dela Lipinskaja, a Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
actress popular in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
between the wars
Between the Wars
Between the Wars is the thirteenth studio album by Al Stewart, recorded with Laurence Juber. Its major theme is of the period 1918 to 1939 - "Between the Wars"...
, Marjorie Moffett, American diseuse and author and Albertine Zehme, a German actress from Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
who was close to Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
.
Humorist
Humorists have been among the better known monologists over the years. More than joke tellers, these artists used their wit to weave humorous and sometimes poignant stories about the human conditionHuman condition
The human condition encompasses the experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context. It can be described as the irreducible part of humanity that is inherent and not connected to gender, race, class, etc. — a search for purpose, sense of curiosity, the inevitability of...
. Charles Mathews
Charles Mathews
Charles Mathews was an English theatre manager and comic actor, well-known during his time for his gift of impersonation and skill at table entertainment...
, Marshall P. Wilder
Marshall P. Wilder
Marshall P. Wilder was a famous actor, monologist, humorist and sketch artist who was one of the first persons with a disability to become a celebrity on his own terms.-Early life:...
, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
, Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
, Mort Sahl
Mort Sahl
Morton Lyon "Mort" Sahl is a Canadian-born American comedian and actor. He occasionally wrote jokes for speeches delivered by President John F. Kennedy. He was the first comedian to record a live album and the first to perform on college campuses...
, Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory
Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory is an American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur....
, Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
, Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
and Spalding Gray
Spalding Gray
Spalding Rockwell Gray was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist and monologuist...
are just a few of many who come to mind when discussing the genre.
Oral Interpretation
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.Soliloquist
The term soliloquist can apply to a monologist reciting a soliloquySoliloquy
A soliloquy is a device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters, and is delivered often when they are alone or think they are alone. Soliloquy is distinct from monologue and...
, 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
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
.