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Our Town Wiki Writing Assignment

Your text offers suggestion on two basic approaches to acting, ie. the internal and the external. Chose either one and take the scene between Emily and George as your reference point and develop a fragment of "inner monologue" OR tactic concerning interpretation underlying a short section from the scene. I suggest the men choose to deal with George and the women choose to deal with Emily, although if you wish you may choose to develop an "inner monologue" or "external tactic" for either character. You may use up to 500 words for this module, given the complexity of the requirement. Be sure you let me know exactly which section of dialogue you plan to use for developing your answer.

The internal approach to acting allows the actor to essentially become the character. The actor attempts to create a life and background story for the character in order to understand the character’s motivations more clearly and to make for a more convincing performance. An inner monologue is created throughout the play for the character in the actor or actress's head. This means the actor or actress always has a stream of thoughts running through his or her head that are very similar to what the character would be thinking. When attempting to portray a character as emotionally complex and unstable as a teenage girl, this method of acting can be particularly helpful.

In this scene of Our Town, Emily has just told George that she feels he has changed. They also discuss him leaving to go to state agricultural college for three years.

Our Town – Act II page 54-55

George. Y’know, Emily, whenever I meet a farmer I ask him if he thinks it’s important to go to Agriculture School to be a good farmer.

Emily. (Looks at him, Happy that he may not leave town) Why, George –

George. (Eagerly) Yeh, and come of they same it’s even a waste of time. (She looks out down R., happy) You can get all of that stuff, anyway, in the pamphlets the Government sents out – and Uncle Luke’s getting’ old, - he’s ready for me to start taking over his phone tomorrow, if I could.

Emily. (Glowing) My!

George. (Front) And like you say, being gone all that time – in other places and meeting other people – Gosh, if anything like that can happen I don’t want to go away – I guess new people probably aren’t any better than old ones. I’ll bet they almost never are. Emily – I feel that you’re as good a friend as I’ve got. I don’t need to go and meet the people in other towns.

Emily. (To him, arguing nobly against her inclinations) But George, maybe it’s very important for you to go and learn all that, - about cattle-judging and soils and all those things. (Adding feebly) Of course, I don’t know.

Emily’s Inner Monologue:

Does this mean he might not go to agriculture school? Oh, how happy I would be if he decided not to go and to stay in town! I would still be able to see him then. That would be even better than just writing him letters, as he suggested. I can’t show him I am too excited though. Let’s see what else he has to say… I like where he is going with this. Oh, how I would love it if he stayed here! We could start talking more and have a life together. Now that he knows that I did not like the change that occurred in him earlier in the year. I do wish he would stay here with me! He thinks I am a good friend to him. He’s right, he doesn’t need to meet any new people at agriculture school. I’ll tell him that it is okay for him to go though… I don’t want to see too eager to have him stay. I do love him though. I would be so upset if he decided to go after this talk and everything. It would make me so happy if he didn't go off to school for three whole years. I just can't believe he would choose me over all the people he could meet! And over agriculture school too! The thought of him leaving is just so scary. I do not want to get so close to him if he is going to go away to school, but if he just decides to stay here now I won’t be as afraid to get close to him! I wish he would understand how I feel about him. I don't want to tell him I love him - why can't he just understand? We could be so good together. We would be so happy together.

Analysis on Inner Monologue:

 It appears that Emily has had a crush on George for quite some time, demonstrated by her initial comments about having watched him for a while and having noticed a change in him. She gets extremely excited when he says that he might not go away to agriculture school after all. She has always hoped that this would happen, but would never have articulated this wish before. It appears as though George is offering this because he has begun to realize how Emily might feel. By the end of this scene, it seems that they both understand how the other feels without having said anything specifically about their feelings. They dance around the subject, as typical teenagers do. Through their unspoken communication and hints at their true feelings on the matter, they are able to get their point across, however bogged down it may seem.