Mademoiselle
Senior acting thesis of Theresa Beardsley
Mission Statement:
Mlle. X does “Strangers in Disguise” is a one-woman show about a group of people united by the unawareness of their own tragedies or their “otherness”. It will consist of seven monologues based on real people encountered or experienced through others. It is hoped that these portraits can ignite a sense of recognition among the audience members of ourselves in those who are marginalized or outside of our experience.
About:
The idea of creating a solo show came from an exercise in Steve Kent’s Acting Studio class. We were asked to create “interview monologues” which is real dialogue from a real person that the actor encountered in real life. We were only required to find and perform one interview monologue for the class; however, when I started searching for the right monologue I discovered a bunch of interesting people who I never thought I’d have a relationship with. Note: “interview monologues” are not about making fun of anyone which I suppose it’s always easy to pick on people, rather – the way I look at it, is a high form of compliment and in creating a portrait like this requires a great deal of empathy and understanding.
In fact, my grandmother was the goddess of empathy. She had a motto: “strangers are only ourselves in disguise,” which is a kind of extension of the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This philosophy was firmly instilled within me by my parents growing up and will always carry it in my heart. It became the primary theme of my solo-show. Then all I needed was something or someone to tie it all together. That answer was obvious: me.
Because I couldn’t figure out how to write for myself I created a character based on three observations: who I think I am, how other people see me, and who I would like to be. I harnessed my Francophilia and summoned the spirit of Madam X, a portrait of young socialite by John Singer Sargent currently hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My Mlle. X has her own rules of time and space, her back story is wild, she travels the world having tea parties and hanging out with the most interesting people in the world. Beyond Strangers In Disguise Mlle. X is a character that can and will be used for future show development
