YOUR ASSIGNMENT: STEP 1: Writing the Monologue
PLEASE UPLOAD THE WRITTEN PART OF YOUR MONOLOGUE HERE
As previously noted, you will start with writing a one to two page monologue which will tell a story about an aspect of your life in the current moment based on the theme of…
How is the Corona-Virus Outbreak Affecting Your Life?
Please remember that there should be comedic elements in your monologue. As a reminder, here are the areas of comedy that we focused on during the semester:
1. Absurdism
2. Surrealism
3. Sketch Comedy
4. Satire
5. Political Comedy
6. Slapstick Comedy
7. Physical Comedy
8. Rap/Hip Hop and Musical Comedy
Here are some writing prompts that may help you decide what to write about:
1. What changes, big or small, are you noticing in the world around you?
2. How has the virus disrupted your daily life?
3. What affect has this crisis had on your own mental and emotional health?
4. How are you coping with stress, worry and anxiety?
5. What do you miss most about your life before the pandemic?
6. How can we help one another during the outbreak?
7. What songs matter to you now? What songs are important and significant?
8. If you moved back home, how is that going?
9. Is is okay to laugh during these dark times? What have you found humorous?
10. What are your hopes and worries for Summer 2020?
11. What weaknesses has the corona-virus exposed in our society that is affecting you?
12. How is remote learning affecting your education?
13. What have you learned about home cooking?
14. Are the animals in your life providing comfort? How?
15. What acts of kindness have you heard about or participated in?
16. What is it like to “go out” during this lock down?
17. How has the pandemic affected religious or spiritual traditions you or your family observe?
18. Holidays and birthdays are moments to come together. How are you adapting these?
19. Other topics you find relevant!
Here is a Writing Sample from the New York Times: (Though not comedic, you could easily add in comedic elements to this)
Example: In “Surviving Coronavirus as a Broke College Student (Links to an external site.),” Sydney Goins, a senior English major at the University of Georgia writes the following:
College was supposed to be my ticket to financial security. My parents were the first ones to go to college in their family. My grandpa said to my mom, “You need to go to college, so you don’t have to depend on a man for money.” This same mentality was passed on to me as well.
I had enough money to last until May— $1,625 to be exact — until the corona-virus ruined my finances.
My mom works in human resources. My dad is a project manager for a mattress company. I worked part time at the university’s most popular dining hall and lived in a cramped house with three other students. I don’t have a car. I either walked or biked a mile to attend class. I have student debt and started paying the accrued interest last month.
I was making it work until the corona-virus shut down my college town. At first, spring break was extended by two weeks with the assumption that campus would open again in late March, but a few hours after that email, all 26 colleges in the University System of Georgia canceled in-person classes and closed integral parts of campus.
UGA professors are currently remodeling their courses and revising their syllabuses for online learning. Students were advised to not return to the campus at Athens from their vacations or hometowns. Our May graduation ceremony was even canceled without any hope of rescheduling it for a future date.
After this news, one of my housemates drove for 12 hours to her mom’s house in Chicago. Another gave me a few rolls of toilet paper and left with her boyfriend for a neighboring county.
The dining hall I worked at remained open. UGA allowed to-go meals for those still living in their dorms without a place to go. Student workers who didn’t leave for the break could call in and ask to work their usual shifts, but on many occasions, the staff wouldn’t answer the phone.
On Thursday night, Athens-Clarke County unanimously passed an ordinance that enforces social distancing and a “shelter in place” rule, eliminating nonessential travel and large gatherings. Over 60 percent of the city’s population — the homeless, elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions — are susceptible to Covid-19.
Local grocery stores had already limited their hours and lacked essential food items like beans, rice and paper goods, showcasing barren shelves. I had a panic attack, looking at items marked “out-of-stock” on the Instacart app and watching peers post photos online. I asked my mom if I could come home.
We drove through the empty Atlanta highway, away from my struggling college town. Now, I am back in Suwanee with dwindling savings, still having to pay rent until the end of my lease in July. I won’t have an income to pay it.
For college students like me, the current solutions are: File for unemployment! Find a job at Kroger or Aldi at the detriment of your physical health! Call your potentially toxic parents! Tax refund! Personal loan! Sell your belongings!
These options are not good enough. College was supposed to give us hope for our financial future, not place us back in our parents’ houses without jobs.
Mortgage and rent payments must be suspended, so further debt and illness can be avoided, especially for restaurant servers, broke college students and those in the working class who cannot afford to escape financial crises. Our rent is still due. How will we pay it?
