Becca's Actor's Blog

Yoga Fart - Amy's monologue

About the monologue - Fart Yoga

The monologue I have chosen to do is from Yoga Fart by Gabriel Davis. The basic plot of this play is that Amy's big sister Zelda is getting married and it's not long till her wedding. However, she wants Zelda to have a perfect wedding even though she slept with Amy's boyfriend. To stay calm, Amy is focusing on herself by going to a few yoga sessions.

In this monologue, she talks about how proud she feels to find her 'greatest strength' which is not just farting in public. Amy 'felt a lightness, wonder, awe' and it makes her realise that other people's disapproval won't stop her for being herself.

Thoughts and ideas to perform the piece

Based on what I found online, lots of people who auditioned with this monologue focused on making sure their voice was clear and didn't focus on their character so much. There's not much that I know about this monologue as I've never had chance to read the play. When I do my interpretation of this monologue, I will be at home with my best friend as I try to teach her yoga.

Recently I found someone on YouTube who had performed with different yoga poses which has made me feel less anxious performing yoga. Amy Amierah's video has helped me see a lighter side to the character Amy.

Yoga Positions form Diana Antholis's Yoga video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNokxiopp7s)

Diana Antholis's yoga video - Mountain pose

After watching a few of her yoga videos, I noticed that she started off in the same position called Mountain pose where you stand up straight, then start to focus on breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth to relax. This is also a good way to help me with breathing control. It helps to rest my hand on my stomach and have my eyes shut because I will be focusing on my breathing, also the character Amy is focusing on herself which is what I need to do but, show how I focus in my own way.

Next thing Diana said was to bringing the arms over my head as you breathe in and out then move your arms back down again. When repeating the simple movements, I need to concentrate on my breath as it helps me to relax and warm up my body. As I bend forward, I need to remember to let my torso hang then place my hands on the floor. I bend my knees for a deeper hamstring stretch. Looking up I need to flatten my back and hold onto my shins. After that, I move into to the plank position (see picture below).

Plank position - Diana Antholis's yoga video

Plank position is something I have struggled with a lot and it takes a lot of focus let alone practise to balance yourself well. From this position, I need to lower myself to the floor and then push up on my arms this is called the upward dog.

Upward dog pose - Diana Antholis's yoga video

Downward dog - Diana Antholis's yoga video

Pushing backwards whilst lifting your hips to form a triangle shape. This is called the Downward dog. It is extremely important to concentrate on your breathing, yoga is teaching me inner strength to cope with any situation. These moves I shall be using throughout my piece and probably repeating them to become a routine. At times I shall be using one of the most well-known yoga positions which is the Cobbler's pose.

Warm up exercises

To me the Cobbler's pose is the easiest and most helpful pose to do but, I need to sit up straight this helps with posture. Apart from focusing on these yoga positions, I also have practised on different warm up exercises whilst sitting in the position. For example, red lorry yellow lorry or unique, New York. Tongue twisters help with articulation and pronunciation. I find closing my eyes helps me to stay focus.

Yoga Fart monologue

I farted in Yoga class. It was loud. And I didn't die. My heart started pounding but it did not explode. I thought I would be devastated but I was not. Instead something unexpected happened.   I laughed. At first a little giggle and then a full blown belly laugh. In fact, I laughed so hard that I farted again. And again, and again. Embarrassing, no? No. No.

I could feel people staring but I didn't care. I thought I would care. Feel my palms grow clammy, my chest tighten. No. I felt a lightness, wonder, awe. Who knew I had so much air inside me. My body had deflated but my spirit had inflated!   I waited for the self loathing to come. But there was only... Stillness. Silence. Then in that silence, a little voice. I love you. Your body is amazing.

I realized, this was why I'd come to yoga in the first place. No, not to fart publicly. To fart publicly and survive it. I know, it's unladylike. But in the depth of this indignity, I had found my greatest strength. Here I was looking my fear in the face   And believe me, I had feared this moment. I had played it out in my mind. And it always ended with all the ladies around me pulling hidden rocks out of their lululemon attire and stoning me mercilessly. But not much happened. Here i was staring fear in the face and realizing...it was a bunch of hot air. And i could release it!

I breathed in deep, so deep another loud exclamation of my new found freedom erupted from my behind. "Excuse me," the woman behind me said. "But could you step outside for a moment. Some of us are trying to practice yoga..."   This should have destroyed me. It should have sent me whimpering out of the room. But I felt my calm breath, heard myself say: "Excuse me,but I am practising my fartnassanas thank you very much."

Then something amazing happened. A little noise erupted from another corner of the room. A few other people giggled, then laughed, and then more noises erupted. And it was beautiful. A symphony of fartnassanas. I was free, they were free. And I realized in that moment...I was free of you, too.   You can't hurt me any more.

This piece is longer than 2 minutes when performing with yoga poses. As it's a long monologue I have cut it down a bit to fit it in with the time allocated. The red words have been removed because I needed to keep the funny aspects of the monologue but, make sure it still flows.