When Maria and I were finished calling our regular Friday night Bingo game – only a handful of residents remain at the Mansion, their wing was not affected by the water damage in the other parts of the building – I asked Madeline and the other residents if I could read my monologue for acting class – The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot – them and get their feedback.

My assignment in my acting class is to read this work often and work on my voice and emotion, to feel the work as read as read the work. I’m working on it, I thought I did  really well with Maria last night.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t read it with as much feeling and emotion as I have been doing, I didn’t want to come on too strong to people who were already emotional and challenged by what was happening to them.  And the troubles of the man reading the poem were a trifle compared to the men and women I was reading to.

Madeline is a Mansion resident, she is 93 years old and a former actor and singer in New York singer, she loves the theater and she said she would be glad to hear my monologue.

I also want to read the monologue in front of as many audiences as I can to get used to the idea of opening up to strangers.

It sound flat to me, and without the emotion I have been working to put into it, but still, it was a special moment for me and I think the residents and staff enjoyed it as well. It was definitely something different for them, but the poem deals with many of the issues in their lives and they were paying close attention.

I loved the feedback Madeline gave me. Come and see and listen for yourself. The Mansion is a very special place for me, and it was meaningful to read this piece to them. They listened, which is a lot.