CONTEMPORARY MONOLOGUE 2 CHARACTER BACKGROUND
The Fastest Clock In The Universe Synopsis/Plot
'‘The Fastest Clock in the Universe’’ is about a young man named ‘Cougar Glass’ who adores his looks, but hates his age which he improbably claims is only 19. Cougar lives with Captain Tock, who is infatuated with him. As the play begins, Cougar & Captain Tock are setting a trap. Cougar has stalked and lured (Tempt- a person or an animal, to do something or to go somewhere, esp. by offering some form of reward: ‘’the child was lured into a car’’) 15 year old Foxtrot Darling to the lair the two men share under the pretext of celebrating his own 19th birthday-yet again young Foxtrot has recently lost his own older brother, a role that Cougar hopes to fill briefly and expand upon. He intends to use the boy to satisfy his own desires, sexual and otherwise, and then to dispose of him as callously as possible, a repetitive scenario that disturbs the Captain. This plan is set awry, when Foxtrot arrives with his pregnant fiancée, ‘Sherbet Gravel’.
Name:Cougar Glass
Born: 23rd February 1983
Age: 30
Eye Colour: Dark Brown
Height: 5 ft 11
Ethnicity: British
Class: Middle Class
Hair Colour: Black
Weight: 85.7kg
Siblings: 1 Brother
Best Friend: Captain Tock
Spouse: Savannah Tock (2003-2008)
Hobbies: Pool, Tennis and Swimming
Occupation: Bar man, as well as pouring drinks for his customers, he even talks to them e.g. like Alfie Moon from Easterners who loves to chat and entertain his customers to make his pub a relaxing place.
Salary: £200 weekly
Religious Views: Atheism
Residence: Tower Hamlets, East End of London
DESCRIPTION OF COUGAR’S HOME
Cougar lives in a council tax home next to a dilapidated room above an abandoned factory in the East End of London. Inside Cougar’s house there are many large cracks in walls, a table, hard-backed chairs, sofa, cupboard, sideboard, window, fridge, sinks, gas cooker and a mirror. However the main feature is birds-stuffed birds, china birds, paintings of birds, etc. - giving the room an atmosphere somewhere between a museum and aviary. Also inside Cougar’s house there are two doors: the first leading to his bedroom, the second- the front door- to a corridor outside. Out of these 5 Cougar’s favourite places is……….
*The bathroom,
His least favourite place is the kitchen, garden and store.
Cougar lives in a council tax home next to a dilapidated room above an abandoned factory in the East End of London. Inside Cougar’s house there are many large cracks in walls, a table, hard-backed chairs, sofa, cupboard, sideboard, window, fridge, sinks, gas cooker and a mirror. However the main feature is birds-stuffed birds, china birds, paintings of birds, etc. - giving the room an atmosphere somewhere between a museum and aviary. Also inside Cougar’s house there are two doors: the first leading to his bedroom, the second- the front door- to a corridor outside. Out of these 5 Cougar’s favourite places is……….
*The bathroom,
*His bedroom
*The living room
His least favourite place is the kitchen, garden and store.
(COUGAR’S KITCHEN)
(COUGAR’S BEDROOM)
(HIS BATHROOM)
(HIS LIVING ROOM)
(CAPTAIN TOCK’S BEDROOM)
FAVOURITE CLOTHES
Cougar has a range of favourite clothes and here is the type of clothes that he loves to wear…………...
All of these are the types of clothes that Cougar loves to wear day in and day out but every now and again he would still wear Nike or addidas trainers/clothes. Cougar loves to dress casually and decent.
PROBLEMS IN THE PAST
During Cougar’s teenage years he’s been through a lot of stress and trouble, doing things that he shouldn’t have been doing and has experienced things very early. Cougar sometimes enjoyed his life but he always used to let the little things that bother him get to him which made him not able concentrate properly in school but he still passed his GCSE’s and passed his A-Levels AS/A2.
Also Cougar was a victim of bullying. He didn’t really get on with the other kids in his secondary school; he got into fights, quarrelling with the girls and unnecessary arguments with his classmates & the teachers. Time after time he was very close to getting kicked out of Cardinal Pole Catholic School.
Even though he as close with a few people at school he was not really sociable with them. The person he was really close with was his P.E teacher Mr Farrelly who would always pick out on Cougar whenever he did great stuff in his P.E lessons.
There are times when Cougar was bad and that he feels guilty about which he regrets doing. Here are the main 3 bad things that he did………..
During Cougar’s teenage years he’s been through a lot of stress and trouble, doing things that he shouldn’t have been doing and has experienced things very early. Cougar sometimes enjoyed his life but he always used to let the little things that bother him get to him which made him not able concentrate properly in school but he still passed his GCSE’s and passed his A-Levels AS/A2.
Also Cougar was a victim of bullying. He didn’t really get on with the other kids in his secondary school; he got into fights, quarrelling with the girls and unnecessary arguments with his classmates & the teachers. Time after time he was very close to getting kicked out of Cardinal Pole Catholic School.
Even though he as close with a few people at school he was not really sociable with them. The person he was really close with was his P.E teacher Mr Farrelly who would always pick out on Cougar whenever he did great stuff in his P.E lessons.
There are times when Cougar was bad and that he feels guilty about which he regrets doing. Here are the main 3 bad things that he did………..
1) Bunking his R.E lessons
2) Slapping a girl
3) Quarrelling with his teachers (Except his P.E teacher Mr Farrelly)
1) Bunking his R.E lessons
3) Quarrelling with his teachers (Except his P.E teacher Mr Farrelly)
Out of these 3 the worst of them all is him slapping a girl and this is what got a lot of students to hate him. Cougar didn’t mean to hit this girl, he just wanted to attempt to slap her as a threat so that this girl could stop getting on his nerves. Since she continued to provoke him Cougar just lashed out and hit her. Later on that day Cougar was sent to the deputy heads office and was permanently suspended from Cardinal Pole.
Cougar is a nice bloke (was and now turned into a crazy maniac) but when you get on the wrong side of him that is when things would turn upside down.
Out of these 3 the worst of them all is him slapping a girl and this is what got a lot of students to hate him. Cougar didn’t mean to hit this girl, he just wanted to attempt to slap her as a threat so that this girl could stop getting on his nerves. Since she continued to provoke him Cougar just lashed out and hit her. Later on that day Cougar was sent to the deputy heads office and was permanently suspended from Cardinal Pole.
Cougar is a nice bloke (was and now turned into a crazy maniac) but when you get on the wrong side of him that is when things would turn upside down.
BEST THING COUGAR DID
On that day Cougar was suspended from school, his mum was annoyed but at the same time she didn’t really care because the mother herself has been kicked out of several secondary schools with both her parents not caring so she decides to continue it on in the family. Plus the mother is a drug addict. That night Cougar went upstairs to his room and thought about what he has done which wasn’t right for him to do, not just him slapping that girl but the other bad things that he has been doing which were bunking his R.E lessons & quarrelling with his teachers and many more. Later on he got a pen and paper and wrote an apology letter to his classmates, his teachers and to that girl Jade that he slapped.
After Cougar had finished writing this letter he sent to his school and the teachers were so intrigued with that letter that he wrote and cut his 1 week suspensions to 5 days because he knew that he was really honest and that he wanted to have a fresh new start and stay out of trouble.
CHARACTER EXERCISE/OBSERVATION
Monday 25th March last week all BTEC Level 3 YR 1 had a task set for us which was to go out to any public place (outside of the college) and observe people, how they walk, talk and gesture with their hands- whether they’re at a park, shopping centre, bus stop, station or any place. For this task all of us had to work in pairs with the people in our groups. My partner for this exercise was Ahmed and the public place we went to was Tesco’s but the one in Lea Bridge Road Bakers arms. We could have gone to a better place/location, unfortunately because we both had our Maths lesson which was in an hour’s time we couldn’t go far otherwise we wouldn’t make it back to college in time which would mean that we would have been late for Maths.
When we got to Tesco we started observing. At first I found it hard trying to find the one person who would grab eye and would be interesting with their characteristics, but because there was so many and most of the customers would be leaving the store. This meant that me & Ahmed had to be very vigilant and make sure we both don’t get caught observing our people. Since I couldn’t find any person to observe I focused on the security guard of the store and there were 7 things that I spotted that this man does which were………………
*He walks fast/paces
*He’s very stiff
*Clenches his fist sometimes/Moves his hands
* He stands still and looks bored but at the same time he’s focused on the job
*Blinks Constantly
*Always has a straight face
*Backside moves side to side as he walks
These were 7 main things that I spotted for this security guard and out of these there are two main points that I picked out which I could use for my character Cougar Glass. These two pints are……....
1) He walks fast/paces
2) Backside moves side to side as he walks
There wasn’t that much stuff that this security guard does except stand around at the counter near the main entrance and just look out for any trouble. For this task we had to observe a lot of people but I couldn’t because people were just all over the place.
The next day when Group 2 had to do the 2ndexercise, again me & Ahmed went to Tesco’s and I
wanted to go somewhere else but because English was still clashed with my free time we had to do the same routine as yesterday. When we both arrived at Tesco’s we chose different people to observe. I only focused on two people for this exercise, an old man and a man with his wife. I only spotted five things for each of these 2 people.
Here are the five things that I spotted that this old man does……….
*He walks slow/normally
*Very relaxed, laid back
*Always smiles
*If another customer takes long at the till, he wouldn’t complain
*He fidgets with his hands a lot while he’s at the queue
What I think about this old man is that he comes across as a nice fellow, innocent, caring and fun. Generally I think this man is loved from everybody, whether he is at any public place people see him as a kind bloke. When I first spotted him in the store he was speaking to one of the employers, talking about why they throw away any roast or barbeque chicken that hasn’t been bought and how it starts to go bad. This was at isle where they sell barbeque and roast chicken. Also the old man was cracking jokes and talking about his life story. The reason why I think that this man smiles a lot because of the troubles that he has seen on the street, a strict/disciplined family or he doesn’t just care about himself he cares about others and wants people to be safe. These thoughts occurred to me as my first impression of this old man.
These are four things that I spotted about this man and his wife (mainly focusing on the man)…………………
*He’s a fast walker
*He’s very tense
*Always miserable/annoyed
*His hands are always in his pockets
My first impression of this man is that he comes across as an aggressive guy, always moody, rude and impatient. When I first spotted this man he was in the isle where they sell biscuits/chocolates, his wife picked up a big packet of milky bar and all I hear is ‘‘Can you buy something else, you bought that the last time!!!’’, his wife just sighed & rolled her eyes which shows that he probably does this regularly. The reason why I think that this man has an aggressive side to him is because he may not have been treated well by his or other students throughout his secondary- college years or maybe he grew up with not enough discipline.
DEVELOPMENT FOR MY CHARACTER: APPLYING TO WHAT I HAVE SEEN
Having doing this observation exercise was fun and I really enjoyed but what I found hard is that we had to be very vigilant and not get caught observing our people. Another thing that I find quite hard is that whenever you are trying to observe someone they always stop whether they’re on the phone or waiting for someone and you have for the next move. Overall I enjoyed this exercise and hopefully we should this again.
While doing this exercise I picked out a range of possible ideas that I could use for my character Cougar e.g.
1)The aggressive man with his wife
2) The old man
Here are the main points from these two characters that I could use for Cougar…………
* Very relaxed, laid back
* Miserable/annoyed
* Impatient
These are the three main points that I picked out which I could probably use for my character and I am hoping that these three ideas would help me play my character better and bring the excitement to the panel.
Video of myself doing my monologue
My first impression of this man is that he comes across as an aggressive guy, always moody, rude and impatient. When I first spotted this man he was in the isle where they sell biscuits/chocolates, his wife picked up a big packet of milky bar and all I hear is ‘‘Can you buy something else, you bought that the last time!!!’’, his wife just sighed & rolled her eyes which shows that he probably does this regularly. The reason why I think that this man has an aggressive side to him is because he may not have been treated well by his or other students throughout his secondary- college years or maybe he grew up with not enough discipline.
DEVELOPMENT FOR MY CHARACTER: APPLYING TO WHAT I HAVE SEEN
Having doing this observation exercise was fun and I really enjoyed but what I found hard is that we had to be very vigilant and not get caught observing our people. Another thing that I find quite hard is that whenever you are trying to observe someone they always stop whether they’re on the phone or waiting for someone and you have for the next move. Overall I enjoyed this exercise and hopefully we should this again.
While doing this exercise I picked out a range of possible ideas that I could use for my character Cougar e.g.
1)The aggressive man with his wife
2) The old man
Here are the main points from these two characters that I could use for Cougar…………
* Very relaxed, laid back
* Miserable/annoyed
* Impatient
These are the three main points that I picked out which I could probably use for my character and I am hoping that these three ideas would help me play my character better and bring the excitement to the panel.
Video of myself doing my monologue
Video of myself doing my monologue
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