The Seven Keys to Characterization
CONCENTRATION
The first key to characterization is concentration. This is the ability to direct all
your thoughts. Energies, and skills to what you are doing at any single moment. It often
helps to remember that every line comes from the middle of some larger thought. Lines
are not isolated and independent from other thoughts and actions. You, as an actor, must
know how to concentrate simultaneously on character, line, and action, sustaining your
concentration over each performance and over the length of the production’s run.
OBSERVATION
The second key to characterization is observation. Observe people carefully,
noting fine shades of emotions, workings of small facial muscles, distinguishing physical
characteristics, and unique voice and dictation patterns. Do what most professional
actors do: begin an actor’s notebook, where you record your observations. Also include
pictures of real people and you might want to use a makeup model in the future. Jot
down comments and suggestions made by your directors, other actors, or authors.
EMOTIONAL MEMORY
The third key to characterization is the use of the emotional memory. Emotional
memory is the recalling of specific emotions as you experienced them. You have
experienced fear, joy, jealousy, timidity, anger, love, and many more emotions. As an
actor, you draw upon your emotional memories to give life to your characters. However,
your emotions as you remember them might be adjusted to fit your character, the
situation, the time, and the environment of the play.
As you well know, people experience more than one level of emotion at a time.
People are sometimes happy and sad at the same time. As Romeo said, “….parting is
such sweet sorrow….” It is a real challenge to you when a part calls for multiple
emotional expressions. It is such a that you must reach back into your emotional memory
bank to determine how to play a role so that the audience will see the emotional conflicts,
the tug of war between two feelings, within your character.
EXTERNALIZATION
The fourth key to characterization is externalization. This is the process by which
the deep personality of a character is made visible for an audience. This is done through
careful interpretation, nonverbal expression, vocal quality, pitch, rate and physical action.
For example, in The Caine Mutiny Court Marshall, the paranoia of Captain Queeg is
externalized through the ball bearings he carries in his pocket. Whenever he becomes
nervous and panicky, he removes the ball bearing from his pocket and begins fidgeting
them in his hand. As a result, the audience can see evidence of the inner men breaking
down.
PROJECTION
Now that inner feelings have been externalized for the audience, they must be
projected to the audience. Projection is the fifth key to characterization. Although strong
volume is part of projecting, projection is more than being loud. Projection is the
“reaching out” to the last person in the last row of the balcony typical of fine acting. You
project your character through dialogue and action made larger that life. It is this largerthan-life exaggeration that carries the subtleties of a polished performance beyond the
proscenium. This projection of character generates an electricity between actor and
audience that creates the dynamics of the theatre experience.
MOTIVATION
The sixth key to characterization is motivation, the why of characterization. Your
character’s behavior, to be believable, must be driven by an inner force, which is intent.
Intent is what the character wants to do: motivation is why the character wants to do it.
For example, does the character want to help, heal, or hide? Motivations impelling a
character to act are influenced by personal convictions, mind set, self interest, past
experience, situation, environment, friends and loved ones.
UNIQUENESS
The seventh key to characterization is uniqueness. Every actor who plays a
character should be unique in that role, not a carbon copy of someone else. Each actor
and each director will have a different picture of the play and its characters. The director
envisions each character as part of the total production. Within the director’s image of a
character, the actor must shape a personality special unto itself.