• Acting is an illusion; it is not life
• Acting cannot be too real or the illusion is destroyed
• “Speak the Speech”
• Emotional (subjective) acting
• Technical (objective) acting
• Stanislavski: “method acting” and “magic if”
• Deep examination helps to reveal the layers of themes in the play

• Most approaches today are a combination of the two-we need the balance of connecting with the character on a personal and emotional level as well as the technical part to be consistent and convincing as the character
• Not as stressful on the actor

• Ones you know
– Leading role
– Protagonist
– Antagonist
– Principals
– Supporting roles

• New words
– Juvenile: young male lead between16-30
– Ingénue: young female lead between 16-30
– Foil: character opposite another character to highlight their qualities (usually opposite the protagonist, but is not always the antagonist)
– Straight Parts-actors resemble in appearance and personality of a character (cast by type)
– Character parts-actor portrays a character much different that his or her own (raspy voice, physical disability, etc).
– Typecasting-casting an actor in the same type of role over and over again.

• Stage 1: Grasp the fundamental personality of character
• Stage 2: project the personality so it becomes a living, convincing being
• Substance of acting
• Actor’s job is to gain knowledge about lives and emotions of characters to know how they behave

• Identify Theme and author’s intent
• What is the main problem
• How is the plot structured?
• Where is the climax of the play? Of each scene?
• How does it end? What is the effect?

• Four basic questions to ask to develop a character sketch
– Who am I?
– Where am I?
– What do I want?
– What stands in my way?
• You can ask more (107-108) as you figure out these four basics.
• Role Scoring-can help you understand the character-it’s sort of like a personality test

• It’s basically creating your music notes so that you can “sing” your words with the right tempo, pitch, etc.
• Create your own key—keep it simple so you remember what everything means.

• Collaborative process with director’s vision
• Primary Source: study someone who is like your character
• Secondary Source: read books, watch movies, conduct research about time, place, mood, etc.
• Action! Use what you’ve learned on stage to be the character

1. Internalize: develop deep personal understanding of character (only you do this)
2. Externalize: Make those understandings visible to the audience through nonverbal communication, voice quality, and physical actions
3. Concentrate: direct energy into what the character is doing at a single moment-don’t get distracted by your life off stage.

4. Observe: not just on stage, but in the real worldpeople watch and incorporate some of those qualities you observe into your acting—it’s actually sort of fun to experiment
5. Emotional Memory-use your personal experiences to help you to connect to your character; young actors’ biggest challenges are not having the experiences to connect. How might you connect if you are a father whose child died? A old man, dying without family?

6. Project: Use strong volume and exaggerate facial expressions and gestures to reach all people in the audience-even that last row.
7. Motivation: Why does a character do something? Identify the inner force before doing something. The audience should know why an actor is doing something.

8. Stretching a Character-Make your role unique and different from other characters; what is the primary personality trait of the character?
Now emphasize that.
9. Consistent Inconsistency; chose something that makes the character unique (dialect, posture, etc.) now maintain it (unless it is purposely dropped by the character) and don’t lose it—takes away from believability.

10. Play the Conditions: Once setting is identified, you must act as if they are there; hot, humid. 1776. Midnight on Halloween.
11. Play the Objectives: How is your character going to meet his or her goal?
12. Play the Obstacle: Face it as your character would face the obstacle
13. Play the Object: How does your character use objects on stage. Use objects to emphasize lines or actions in the script

14. Energy: This is what drives the show for actor and audience; know how to control and conserve energy for the right moments in the play
15. Focus: This is the target that character wants to hit and it changes constantly during the play as obstacles are met or conquered. This is character focus, not actor focus.
16. Uniqueness: Each actor is unique, not a copy of someone else’s interpretation of a character

• Relies on body language (nonverbal comm.)
• Gestures and the bubble analogy (pg 121) creating conflict and the shift of attention.
• Master gesture: the distinctive action that serves as a clue to the character’s personality
• Lead with part of body that helps us to understand the character’s personality

• When coming on stage, keep in mind the character came from somewhere (where and why?)
• Know how your character appears when you come on stage (posture, facial expression, clothing, props, etc)
• Plan the entrance so you can speak on cue

• Plan ahead for leaving (path across stage as an actor)
• Leave in a specific state of mind-you are going some where off stage-not just to the dressing room.
• If you have a line to stay before leaving, pause so we can hear and understand, then leave.

• Movement sends the audience messages about motivation
• Cross: move from one position on stage to another
• Move in a curved pattern-allows actor to stay open to the audience
• Moving toward character is more forceful than moving away and standing is more forceful than sitting

• Don’t cover another actor
• Don’t hold the same position (arms on hips, or crossed) as another character; rather create interest with different positions.
• For each cross, we need a countercross to maintain the balance of the stage
• Try not to move on your important lines because it distracts from the words.

• Pg 124-shows what message you are sending based on the way you stand in relationship with the audience
• Dos and Don’ts chart pg 125—committ to memory as an actor

• Cheat out-facing the audience
• Share a scene-standing parallel with another actor
• Giving the scene-crossing downstage and then turning upstage to shift attention to upstage actor
(remember upstage has the most power)
• Turing the scene in- non-key characters shift angle to look and key characters in scene (very picturesque looking)
• Taking yourself out of a scene—actor turns ¾ or full back position to draw attention away from self

• Position furniture in triangles and arrange actors in the triangles
• Platforms or levels help create pleasing pictures; also suggests dominance for character positioning
• In Western society stage DR is stronger than
DL
• Avoid straight lines (the gunman should not be able to get all of you in one shot!)

• Careful with props-requires practice to know how to handle such things, especially if historical
• Real food-be careful!
• Instead use “look alike” food and convince the audience you are enjoying it

• It’s never a game, it’s always planned
• Take care of the other actor
• Use of the knap to create effect
• Kissing scenes- four parts
– Feet position
– Body position (especially of hands)
– Exact time count (depends on kiss)
– Smooth break (and look as if it were enjoyable)

• Pitch-highness or lowness of voice
• Pitch up- characters who lack confidence
• Pitch down- characters who are self-assured
• Inflections-rising and falling pitch patterns
• Practice inflection on pg 133

• As an actor respond to the emotion, pitch and volume of other actors, but keep your character’s personality
• Remember your character might respond very differently than you, yourself would.

• You are very limited as an actor as long as your script is in your hand
• Whole-part memorization: read over the play several times, and then over your specific scenes several times, focusing on individual lines only after the basic idea of the whole play is learned (helps get overall feel for the play)
• Part-whole memorization: memorize line-by-line
– Disadvantages-lines are learned in isolation and lose connection with the play
– Teaches actor to focus on cues rather than on meaning of the words

• Subtext: What your character does not say
• Think like the character to create deeper meaning about what is going on when words aren’t being spoken
• Dilemma of the illusion
– It’s not real, so “forget what you know” like the impending doom behind the door or the surprise
– “playing the moment” in present time, don’t anticipate what is coming next
– Work backwards- because you know the outcome, you can incorporate little hints in character mannerisms so that the end is not so shocking—help the audience connect the dots.

Pg 136 exercise 2

• Substitution-using similar emotional experience (death of pet) to substitute for the actual experience being portrayed (death of child)
• Improvisation-once you get to know your character improv a scene that isn’t in the script

• Cut-off lines (indicated by dash): what the—
– This indicates interruption by the following character
– The character who speaks the cut off line should imagine what the rest of that line is; finish it mentally and react
– Actor cutting off the character needs to establish the cue word where he or she will break in; actor shouldn’t wait until the dash
• Fade-off lines (indicated by dots): what the. . .
– Happens because of interruption that doesn’t come or doesn’t need to be stated
– Used often to indicate pauses in phone conversations; write out the entire conversation so you know how long to pause

• Significant lines must be heard by all!
• Mark these lines in your script
• Let your face respond DURING not before or after the lines are spoken
• Pick up your cue immediately so the play doesn’t lose momentum
• Ad-lib only to avoid dead silence, be sure not to change intent or lose character
• Pointing lines-placing emphasis on exactly the right word at the right time for audience to get full emotional impact

• Key lines usually include a character’s name
• How the name is spoken tells us how the one character feels about the other
• Exercise pg 142

• Laugh curve- wait for the peak to pass before speaking
• Always hold for laughs or the audience will stop laughing
• How do you get the laugh?
– Have perfect timing
– Milk the audience for the laugh

• Laughing is harder than crying
• To master use vowel combinations used in laughs and combine that with quick breaths and rapid contractions of the abdomen
• Crying-quick breaths and flex abdomen in short movements, words are spoken in gasps
• When crying the whole body should reactshoulders, facial expressions (very important)