I'm Sophia Tsoltoudis.
I went to GRC Oatley and my monologue
is from the play '100 Words for Snow'.
It's actually a monologue play.
So it's one character, the character of Rory.
She's dealing with some grief,
because she lost her father to a car accident.
The part of the monologue that I talk about is discovering
that he was planning a trip for them to go on
to the North Pole because he was a geography teacher,
he loved places and travelling.
It ends with me taking him to the North Pole.
I've been in the performing arts my whole life.
It's predominantly drama but I did dance,
I did music, I did all of the fun stuff and
I never was really sit down and study.
I really loved using my body,
and using my words and my actions.
So choosing drama was just a hundred percent,
knew I was going to do that from right at the beginning.
So when I first got the piece,
it's you got to start somewhere,
I find it's the hardest to start.
So the way I began was just reading the whole play,
and then choosing the part of the play
that you're going to recite.
That's what I did.
I then tried to learn it.
I find learning it straight away,
and getting it into your body gives you
a very big advantage when it comes to blocking
the piece out and actually performing it,
'cause once it's in your body, it's,
just will always be there and you can make more choices
once you're performing it.
Some early challenges when doing my monologue
was juggling other subjects.
I mean, I was doing two other major works as well,
and they were all happening around the same time.
The trials were in a couple weeks of each other.
So it was just separating all three creative art subjects
were really important.
That eventually led me to not hate doing it,
because when you're so tired and exhausted
of doing the same thing over and over again,
it just is not enjoyable,
and you won't feel like you're doing your best work.
So by, I guess, scheduling your time,
and separating each subject that you have
is really important to
give your best go.
Performing and feedback was super, super important,
I feel, especially for me.
I had the wonderful Ms. Pryce.
She would always put us on the spot, randomly say,
"All right, we're going to perform our monologues now."
And then choose names out of a hat,
and then get us up and do what we know.
Sometimes it'd be nothing,
sometimes it'd be the whole thing,
sometimes it'd be half.
But each time, you would have your peers and your teachers
giving you important feedback.
I think if you're gaining knowledge,
and you know a fresh set of eyes is watching your work,
it's so much easier to incorporate it,
and make it stronger than it was before.
I think Sophia was selected for onstage,
because she portrays a character who is very complex,
and flawed but very human and she's able to create a world
for us using not very much at all.
She creates spaces and people simply through her gaze,
and through her tone of voice and how she interacts
with them.
In guiding Sophia to success,
there was a lot of communication and also a lot of trust.
We developed a creative partnership between us,
which allowed her to have the confidence
to try out different edits of the script,
and different ideas.
And then she trusted the feedback that she was getting
from me.
Typical features of an A range performance
would be material that is theatrical,
and can stand alone for those six to eight minutes.
That it's a complete world by itself and doesn't rely on
assumed knowledge and context of the audience.
You're going to see characters that are complicated,
that are sophisticated,
that have subtext in the lives that they're showing us.
You're going to see the performer using their space
in inventive and theatrical ways and that
could be choices to use a lot of movement or choices to use
not very much movement at all,
but there's certainly going to be an element
of heightened reality, heightened theatricality
that draws us in as an audience,
and keeps us engaged in wanting more in the performance.
I find it's very important that the student has awareness
of the audience and their needs and that
they are performing for the audience,
and that they're not performing for themselves.
I don't think it's ever too late
to introduce new material.
I did have to change a few things after trials,
such as blocking,
and
my stage directions.
Initially I'm like, "No, I like my way, I like my version.
It's perfect, I don't want to change it."
But really you have to listen,
and you have to implement those changes.
Because at the end of the day, whoever marked your trials
knows what the markers want in the actual HSC.
There are things that I would've changed,
or done differently.
I think it would've been separating
every single element of, I guess,
the rehearsal process and even the performance.
Separating them all and all, giving them equal attention,
whether it's your energy, your voice,
and then the separate ones like staging, blocking,
and then a couple others.
And it's really important to make sure all
of those are at the same level of strength.
Because otherwise, it's just lacking in some areas.
And that's what I found could lose me marks.
To be selected for Onstage,
it's a really great accomplishment.
There are so many hardworking people
that you're surrounded by,
hardworking students that have all been chosen as well.
And it's just like a big celebration of the work
you put in for the past year and a half.
Drama is, I think, one of the most enjoyable subjects
you can do whilst you're doing HSC.
It's not just seriousness, it's,
can be fun, it can be silly, it can be sad,
it can be anything you want it to be.
And just making it a fun and enjoyable thing to walk into,
And just making it a fun and enjoyable thing to walk into,
and then you won't hate it.
And then I find your other subjects won't be as hard
to complete because you do have this really amazing one
that you look forward to completing,
and doing a really good job in.
