"Macbeth brought to life!"

Today's meeting heard an assignment we rarely hear - a monodrama. Main thing for the speaker to achieve is NOT to look at the audience! This is something most Toastmasters have a problem with as we are always taught to maintain eye contact with the audience.
But Mike's assignment, The Monodrama, called for us to 'overhear' words by the speaker. Mike chose two soliloquies from 'Macbeth',  and performed them very well. (He just needed a kilt!) Noel had difficulty finding a recommendation for Mike, who we, suspect, has now found another talent!

Laurence had a speech from the advanced manual, Public Relations: his subject? '"The Secret of Public Speaking".  As well as a well constructed speech he gave excellent ideas for a public relations speech of goodwill for Toastmasters publicity. He used rhetorical questions  to the audience to begin his points and maintain interest. Evaluator Wendy found it difficult to find a recommendation for an experienced speaker.
At the conclusion of the meeting we wished Laurence well as he begins a course of study at EIT.

Toastmaster Viv ran the meeting smoothly, and enabled us to use our fifty minutes to good effect.
An example of the quotes she used on the programme sheet - "I didn't attend the funeral but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it" from Mark Twain.

Table Topics, run by Jan, was pets with a difference. Speakers were required to give positives and negatives when they owned a:-
Graham Eagles, our newly-inducted member, had a panda bear for his pet. Bigger than him,  splotchily coloured in black and white, needing special heating. Feeding was a problem but bamboo and other goodies from Asian restaurants helped.
Cheryl loves her ten meerkats - they like company- who play happily in her backyard, don't make much noise so the neighbours are happy, and they dispose of all her unwanted food scraps.
Darryl recently acquired an alpaca, but had yet to be comfortable hugging its long neck. They also spit water as a sign of affection! But provide wonderful fur/wool at shearing time.
At the conclusion of the meeting there was time for two more topics - The audience fell in love with Barbara's turtle and decided that we, too, needed one, to help us operate our iphone/ipad. Ian will probably not be obtaining the skin of a tiger to decorate his lounge, wonderful as it would look on his floor.

Graeme led the business session, with next week's programme outlined, and the induction of our newest member, Graham Eagles.
General Evaluator Graeme evaluated all those not previously evaluated, including the Table Topics. He had recommendations and commendations for the other evaluators.
Timekeeper Sue kept us on time - hence the two extra table topic participants.
Graeme chose Laurence as Best Speaker, and Noel Evans as Best Evaluator. Graham was awarded Best Table Topics for his panda story.
Thirteen members attended today and every member had the opportunity to speak.
We look forward to another stimulating meeting next week, and hope the sun shines as it did today.