HAMLET. …God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another…
Hamlet (3.1)
Like explorers embarking on an expedition into unknown territory, all the maps of the surrounding area have been examined and all the appropriate equipment has been gathered together. Experts have been consulted and facts have been analysed. With the research completed, it is now time to take the first steps on the journey. It’s time for the actor to get creative. Try things out. Make things up. And be inventive.
When painters are preparing new works, they will often make sketches of their ideas. They’ll draw a bit, think about what they’ve done, set the sketch aside and draw some more. Eventually, as a result of these sketches, a complete picture will form in the painter’s mind, and they will start to mix their paints and apply them to the canvas.
The following exercises are like a series of painter’s sketches. They stimulate the actor’s imagination and give them the opportunity to try things out. Each actor will respond differently, but all the exercises are worth trying because no one knows what will happen without giving them a shot.
Actors have to understand what it is like to be someone other than themselves – and that is very complicated. A character in a play exists for about two-and-a-half hours and that is all we know about them. But real people are moulded by a lifetime of experience, so in order to make a character truly believable, the actor has to think about that person’s life outside the confines of the play.
There are a lot of questions about character in the following questionnaire. Some of them are very straightforward and the answers can be gleaned from the text, but others will need an imaginative response. Like a poet, an actor must allow their imagination to flow. They should smile at incongruities. They should try out wild ideas and see if they’ll fit. After all, acting is fun, and there is no reason why actors shouldn’t delight in imaginative answers to these questions.
The Character Questionnaire
Each actor, in character, writes answers to the following questions, letting their instincts, imagination and creativity come into play.
If this is done as part of the rehearsal process, then the actors should have at least two hours in order to be able to consider all the questions properly. If it is done outside of rehearsals, then the answers can be as long as the actors like.
It can be even more interesting to add ‘and why?’ to the end of some of the questions, as in ‘What is your biggest fear… and why?’ Of course, this will take a lot longer.
For the sake of clarity it’s advisable to write each question out and then follow it with the answer.
1. What is your full name?
2. Do you have a nickname?
3. If you have a nickname, how did you get it?
4. How old are you?
5. How does your age affect your feelings about yourself?
6. Who are your closest relatives?
7. How do they affect or influence you?
8. What kind of education did you have?
9. How did your education affect or influence you?
10. How did you enjoy your childhood?
11. What is the worst thing you have ever done?
12. What is the best thing you have ever done?
13. Have you travelled much?
Your Present Circumstances
14. Are you married, single, divorced or separated?
15. How do you feel about your marital state?
16. Do you live with someone or do you live alone?
17. Do you have any children?
18. How do you feel about this?
19. Where do you live and what is it like?
20. How do you feel about where you live?
21. Who is your best friend?
22. What is your social life like?
23. How do you feel about your social life?
24. What sort of people are you most comfortable with?
25. What sort of people annoy you?
26. What sort of work do you do?
27. How does your work affect your social status?
28. Are you lazy or are you a workaholic?
29. What frustrates you?
30. What is your greatest responsibility?
31. What qualities do you admire in others?
32. Are you independent/self-sufficient?
33. Are you an honest person?
34. What are your most and least attractive qualities?
The Future
35. What are your ambitions – short-, medium-, long-term?
36. Are you confident about future success?
37. Are you confident about future happiness?
38. How would a large inheritance or a big win in the lottery affect you?
39. What would you do if you became heavily in debt?
40. What would you change about your life if you could?
41. What would you change about the world if you could?
42. How would you like to be remembered after your death?
Your Physical and Vocal Qualities
43. What are your physical abilities?
44. What is your voice like?
45. What physical impression do you give to other people?
46. What is your laugh like?
47. What is your energy level?
48. How does your work affect you physically?
49. What is your state of health?
50. How sexual/sensual are you?
51. Do you take care of your personal appearance?
52. What are your most and least attractive features?
53. How would you describe your temperament?
54. How does your work affect your mental health?
55. How sensitive are you?
56. How confident are you?
57. What is your biggest fear?
58. What do you worry about?
59. Are you vain?
60. What makes you envious?
61. What makes you embarrassed?
62. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
63. Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
64. What makes you angry?
65. What makes you laugh?
66. What makes you cry?
Your Intellectual Qualities
67. How would you describe your intellectual process?
68. Are you logical or illogical?
69. What are your spiritual or religious beliefs?
70. Are you outspoken about your beliefs?
71. What are you secret about?
72. Are you a good liar?
73. What do you daydream about?
Your Likes and Dislikes
74. What is your favourite food and drink?
75. What is your favourite time of day?
76. Which is your favourite season?
77. What is your favourite topic of conversation?
78. What is your least favourite topic of conversation?
80. What stimulates you most?
81. What do you worry about?
82. What is your sexual orientation?
83. How do you feel about sex?
84. Are you most at ease with members of your own sex or members of the opposite sex?
85. Do you like adventure?
Questionnaire Analysis
The day after the questionnaire has been completed, the actor reads through the answers to get an overview of the way their creative ideas have developed.
If possible, each actor should read some of their answers out to the other members of the cast so it can form the stimulus for an open discussion. Other actors may have useful ideas, and, as the group works together, character relationships will start to evolve.
Physical Explorations
Finding a physicality that suits a character is a potent method of becoming someone else. The body is a fantastic tool for exploration and a physical change can make an actor feel quite different. Physicality and personality often walk hand in hand. Each affects the other. Each is dependent on the other.
Observation
The actors should ask themselves if their character is like anyone they know.
A person’s physicality is often governed by psychological characteristics. For instance, a defensive nature may give a person hunched-up shoulders and a shuffle in the way they walk. So if a person’s physicality is closely connected to their inner life, then it’s possible for an actor to get an understanding of that inner life by adopting a particular physicality. Hunched shoulders and a shuffling walk could make an actor begin to understand a defensive personality.
During the course of rehearsals an actor may realise that their character has a similar disposition to a person that they know. Maybe it’s a passion for life. Maybe it’s an obsession with making money or an interest in sport. If the actor does find someone like their character, they should observe them and see if they can copy that person’s physical rhythms, movements and shapes. As they do this, they may start to get a feeling of that person’s psychological and emotional view of the world.
Having found the essential physicality of that person, the actor can try exploring different activities. For instance, they can imagine that they are strolling in the sunshine, going shopping or running for a bus. They can explore how this new physicalisation affects the way they sit on a chair or enter a crowded room. If they are working with other actors, they can see what it is like to greet a stranger or meet an old friend, all the time monitoring what their body language is telling them about their character, and analysing their instinctive behaviour to see what they can learn from it.
Animals
The actors should ask themselves what animal their character is most like.
Anyone who has a pet knows that animals seem to possess human characteristics. A dog behaves as if it’s man’s best friend. Cats are seen as independent creatures who can be rather disdainful of human beings. Parrots behave as if they are talking to you. Actually, they do talk to you. But do they know what they are saying? Of course not. It’s all very misleading. Although we know it’s not true, we often treat animals as if they are like slightly dumb human beings.
Conversely, we often think that humans have animal characteristics. We say that a person is ‘feline’, or someone is ‘mousey’, or ‘birdlike’. We describe children as ‘naughty monkeys’, and we say things like ‘His bark is worse than his bite’ and ‘She’s getting ready to pounce.’ We associate human beings with animals all the time.
So when an actor is trying to get to grips with the creation of a character, it can be quite helpful to see if they can find an animal that appears to have some of the qualities of their character. Professional actors often use this technique. Antony Sher famously studied a spider when he was working on Richard III (I heartily recommend the journal he wrote about that process – a book called Year of the King). Sher used both the physicality of a spider, making his Richard scuttle about on crutches, which gave him an extra pair of legs – and the inner life of a spider as he mentally wove an intricate web to capture his prey. Laurence Olivier, who was suffering from arthritis when he was rehearsing Othello, studied a panther to help him create the lithe physicality of the Moor. Anthony Hopkins used both a tarantula and a crocodile when he created Hannibal Lecter on-screen in The Silence of the Lambs. A crocodile keeps totally motionless as it lies in wait for a victim, and then it strikes to kill swiftly and violently. I remember the chilling moment when Jodie Foster goes to visit him in prison for the first time, and he is motionless in his cell waiting for her to arrive. Just watching. Like a crocodile. And that evil sipping sound that Hopkins made was how he imagined a tarantula would sound when it was sucking the blood out of its prey.
When actors first start observing animals, they should try to see if they can understand how their chosen animal views the world. Get inside the head of the animal. See if they can figure out its thinking process. There’s a lot to be discovered in the eyes of an animal. The way it looks at you, the way it looks at other animals. The way it tilts its head or moves its neck. The way it fixes its stare on a point in the distance and then flicks its eyes to examine something close by. It’s also useful to examine the physical rhythm of the animal. How fast does its heart beat? Are its reactions swift or lethargic? Is it calm or alert? Is it the hunter or the prey?
But most importantly, what is it thinking? What is the ‘inner life’ of the animal you are studying? Of course, it’s impossible to know what an animal really thinks, but by closely examining the minute details of an animal’s behaviour, an actor can create their own version of the animal’s ‘inner life’.
Once an actor has found the physicality and inner life of their chosen animal, they can apply it to their character. The best way to do this is to see if they can transform themselves into their animal as accurately as possible, moving around, sitting still, thinking, observing the world, and so on. Then, when they feel as if they have become their animal, they can slowly allow themselves to transform into a more human shape without losing the essence of the animal. Having done that, this new-found physicality can be applied to their character to see what happens. As before, different physical activities can be tried, such as running, walking, sitting in a chair, etc. All the time, the actor should think about what the animal’s body language is telling them about their character. They should analyse their instinctive behaviour and see what they can learn from it.
Mannerisms
What mannerisms or idiosyncratic physical habits does a character have?
In order to get by in life, we have all developed strategies to help us deal with the outside world. Sometimes we want to give a physical expression to an aspect of our personality, so that people will understand who we are. Sometimes we have developed mannerisms to protect ourselves from the scrutiny of other people. Sometimes our mannerisms have developed as a result of external influences.
These mannerisms or physical habits can be explored to help an actor find a physical focus for their character.
Expressive Mannerisms
Expressive mannerisms are habits that people have developed to indicate who they are, or who they want other people to think they are. For instance, someone who wants other people to know that they are really listening may be in the habit of nodding their head up and down when people talk to them. This is a physical expression of their desire to let the other person think that they are an intelligent listener. Another person may smile excessively when they are talking, which may scream out, ‘Like me! Like me!’ When someone holds their hands palm up it can express a generosity of spirit, and someone who continually wags a pointed finger as they talk is often trying to make themselves seem positive.
Expressive mannerisms can be entirely involuntary; people don’t even know they are doing them. You often see a nervous or hyperactive person tapping their heel rapidly up and down as they are sitting, or drumming their fingers on a surface. Sometimes these very same mannerisms express other inner emotions. Happiness, for instance, or excitement.
As the actor begins to discover the inner life of their character, these mannerisms can help them create a physical expression of the character’s underlying personality.
Protective Mannerisms
Playing with a strand of hair and perhaps holding it in front of your face as you do it is an obvious protective mannerism, as is holding your hand in front of your mouth or stroking your lips.
Biting your nails is a very effective way of shielding yourself from others, in that it covers up your face and at the same time gives you something to do. Defensive people often put their fingers in their mouths. It’s similar to sucking your thumb, which, of course, refers right back to breastfeeding, when you were protected by your mother.
As I mentioned before, hunched shoulders are an obvious protective habit, but not making direct eye contact is also protective. There are many variations on the way people protect themselves through various physical mannerisms.
Symptomatic Mannerisms
Sometimes people have mannerisms that are the direct result of things that have happened to them in the past. A person who has hurt their knee at some time in their life may continually rub it whenever they are sitting down. Some people blink a lot, maybe because their eyes are tired or they got into the habit because they needed glasses. Some people suck their teeth, maybe as the direct result of previous dental problems. Rolling one’s neck around could be the result of a headache or stiffness or a previous neck injury.
Some symptomatic mannerisms are the result of previous emotional experiences. Holding a palm of a hand out to stop another person talking could be the result of feeling that no one will listen. Continually glancing around could be symptomatic of a person who has reason not to trust the outside world.
As an actor builds up a picture of their character, it is possible to express some aspects of the character’s personality through a physical mannerism of some sort. This will give the actor a physical point of concentration that will go hand in hand with the character’s psychological life.
Centres
Where is a character’s quintessential centre?
A person’s body mass generally has its central point of physical balance somewhere inside the lower torso behind the belly button. This varies, of course, depending on the physical shape of a person, but in the weightlessness of zero gravity the physical centre is the point around which the whole body rotates – its point of equilibrium.
But the quintessential centre of a person isn’t a true point of balance; it is the point around which a person’s essential being is balanced, and it is created by life’s experiences.
The quintessential centre has an effect on the way their body moves through the world. For instance, the confident swagger of shoulders which navigate the body through imagined crowds; overexpressive hands drawing patterns in the air to communicate unarticulated thoughts; the sexual provocation of a fluid pelvis; a body rooted too firmly to the ground by the imagined weight of the lower legs and feet; thoughts floating in aesthetic dreams as the quintessential centre orbits the head; a centre firmly placed deep within the brain to analyse and clarify the complications of the world.
If actors use their imagination to place a quintessential centre somewhere in their bodies other than their own quintessential centre, everything changes. They feel different, their movements are different and their view of the world is different. And they can use this shift of centre to explore their character. Malvolio’s centre could be at the tip of his nose; Macbeth’s in his murderous hands; Titania’s in her heart. These are reasonably obvious choices, but if an actor were to make a more experimental choice of centre, it may capture a more interesting physical aspect of their character. Maybe an actor playing Malvolio will discover that they feel comfortable with a centre in his knees or his elbows. No one else can tell an actor where their character’s centre is; it’s something they have to feel for themselves.
As with all these explorations, once an actor has found a centre to work with, they can try the physical explorations like running, strolling or sitting.
Energy States
What is a character’s energy state?
We all move to a different rhythm, or ‘energy state’. Some people are so speedy they get a million things done by multitasking, while other people are so relaxed they are almost horizontal. The lucky ones have their lives in control and have just the right amount of energy for any given task. Maybe each of us is born with an internal clock beating to a certain rhythm, or maybe we develop a rhythm as we are growing up to help us get through life.
I think it is an interesting idea for an actor to see if they can alter their internal rhythm to suit the character they are trying to create. In order to explore this idea, actors should explore where their character fits within a scale of energy that goes from catatonic, where a person has no energy at all and is physically immovable, to rigid, where their internal energy is so hyper that their body short-circuits and goes into deadlock. It is important to realise that these energy states refer to habitual internal rhythms that people have, and not their emotional reactions to particular events.
Before applying these to a character it is worth exploring each of these energy states separately:
Catatonic
The actor should imagine, really imagine, that they have no energy at all and then see what happens. First of all they will find themselves standing still. They won’t even be able to talk, because that takes energy. Then they will realise that they are expending a certain amount of energy holding their body up, so they will slip to the floor and lie down. As they lie there trying to relax, any tensions in the body will drop away, and they will find that the only energy they are expending is the energy that keeps their heart beating and their lungs working. This is not a very useful state for an actor. Unless they are playing a corpse!
Lethargic
This is the energy that people have when they do as little as possible in order to get by. A person with a lethargic energy state would very rarely find the need to run for a bus. They would sit whenever possible and speak in a low voice using as little lung power as they need to get the words out. When they walk, they would almost drag their feet as they take the shortest route on only absolutely necessary journeys. This would be their natural pace. Their favoured energy state. Slumped. Heart beating slowly. Apparently half-asleep. On the other hand, it would be wrong to think that a lethargic person couldn’t get excited about something. Or fall in love. Or hurry to an important meeting. What is interesting in exploring these energy states is to discover the internal tempo that affects both the physicality of a character as well as their mental energy, and then experiment with how this might operate in a crisis. Find out how a lethargic person jumps for joy!
Laid-back
This expression was apparently coined in the 1960s to describe a relaxed, effortless way of being which was part of the social revolution happening in America. It was in direct contrast to the work ethic of the previous decade. ‘Turn on, tune in, and drop out,’ said the American psychologist Timothy Leary, and that’s when the expression ‘laid-back’ became the mantra of his generation. It’s an easy-come, easy-go rhythm. Everything is possible if you relax, breathe deeply and let your mind do the thinking for you. No hassle. The great thing about having a laid-back energy state is that you can work with it and achieve things. It’s notoriously popular in Los Angeles, where you can meet someone at a party one day, and the next you are planning to make a film together as you sit by the pool. It all appears to be so easy. Nothing is desperate for a person with a laid-back energy state. They are wide awake and totally relaxed.
An efficient person gets things done. It may not be exciting, but it will be carefully considered. Like an energy-efficient car, it will get you where you want to go, but it doesn’t turn heads as you drive by. It’s just the right amount of energy for the job. No more, no less. It’s economic. A person with an efficient energy state will weigh up the options and make a well-balanced decision about the most effective way to proceed. It’s pedantic and precise. Intelligent but rather lacking in emotion.
Neutral
Ahh! Neutral. The balance of the yin and the yang. The perfect harmony in all things. This energy state is not bland and unexciting; it is neutral because it contains everything. A person with a neutral energy state can be all things to all men. The archetypal hero. The perfect heroine. Violent and brave one minute, sensitive and caring the next. This person will always want to help you solve your problems, even if that means exposing their own weaknesses as they do so. Neutral is the way we would all like to be. It’s the way a lot of us erroneously think we are. It’s balanced, harmonious and ideal.
Alert
A person who is alert is totally aware of their surroundings. They are the first to hear the phone ring and the last to get bored. There is always something new to consider. A tiny movement seen on the edge of sight. A new idea on the tip of a tongue. An alert person doesn’t just make a journey, they live every moment of the journey and take in all the details. Not only that, but they remember it all. They are wise to every nuance in a conversation and they never miss a trick. They are sharp. Bright. Intelligent. Ready for action and totally in control.
Passionate
This is a person who feasts greedily on the banquet of life. Every course is a delicious excitement that makes them overindulge without thinking about the consequences. Living for the moment because life is to be lived. The Beat poet Jack Kerouac hot-diggedy-dog zigging down endless empty highways in search of… what? Who cares? He just wants to be free. No responsibilities. Lapping up life and loving every unfamiliar mystery. The passion and excitement of every encounter and any occurrence.
Ecstatic
When the excitement gets out of control a person can be described as having an ecstatic energy state. This is when their experience of life is metaphysical. It has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with the inexplicable, and they want to tell everyone about it. Ecstatic people believe in things. They sometimes gesture wildly with their hands because words are not enough. They grasp fistfuls of air as if they are scooping up the meaning of life and presenting it like a piece of raw, bloody flesh. Letting it ooze between their fingers. Making an unholy mess, and revelling in the chaos, their energy barely in control. A ecstatic person indulges in the vast enigma of the universe. Mystical, mystified and full of ecstasy!
Hysterical
When the energy is out of control, a person can be described as hysterical. Nothing makes sense. Thoughts and ideas tumble on top of each other, spilling out like overripe fruit from a jam-packed cornucopia, splattering onto the floor and walls, destroyed and undigested. Each unformed thought is supplanted by the next before it has time to mature and solidify. Millions of ideas but no wisdom. The brain is a cauldron of bubbling nonsense trying desperately to keep the world in focus.
Rigid
Short circuit! No control over anything. The energy is so intense that the body and the mind blow a fuse. Nothing works. Total tension as the energy fights itself, doubles and then trebles its intensity and solidifies the physical and mental processes like a piece of amber. This is a state of inaction. Of rigidity. Of total lack of movement and total inability to move.
As I said, when using these energy states it is important to realise that they refer to a character’s habitual internal rhythms and not their emotional reaction to particular events. A person who could be described as having a neutral energy state can sometimes feel passionate about something and on other occasions they can feel lethargic. Whatever their habitual energy state may be, it’s interesting to see how people deal with the emotional ups and downs of life. The thought process of an hysterical person may be a jumble of unformed ideas, or the world view of a laid-back person could be described as relaxed and easy-going, but at some time in their lives they will get angry, or fall in love, or plan a complicated holiday. Or any of a million different life experiences. And it’s the way that people handle these different experiences that makes them into complex and interesting human beings.
These energy states can be explored using the rather poetic hints I have given in the descriptions. Then it will be interesting to see how a character with a particular energy state deals with various everyday experiences. How does a lethargic person run for the bus when they are determined not to be late? How does an ecstatic person relax in the sun? What does an alert person do when they are distracted by romantic thoughts? These ideas can be explored through improvisation when an actor is working on a specific character.
Frankenstein’s Monster
The story of Frankenstein is about a man who wanted to create life. Let’s face it, that is what actors do when they are in the process of creating a character. Unfortunately, Dr Frankenstein’s experiment went wrong. His idea was to gather up different body parts from dead people and join them all together to make a perfect human being. He had no intention of creating a monster. In fact, in the way the story is told in various film adaptations, he was trying to get the best organs and limbs he could find. The legs of a champion runner, the shoulders of a weightlifter, the heart of a lover. Unfortunately, when he sent his assistant Fritz to get the brain of an intellectual, Fritz dropped it on the way back to the laboratory and it got spoiled. As a replacement, Fritz could only find the brain of a murderer who was hanging on a gallows. He cut it out, took it back and gave it to his master without telling him. Frankenstein sewed it carefully into the skull. And that’s how the monster was created.
After exploring the various aspects of character using some or all of the techniques I’ve described, it is worth spending some time drawing all the discoveries together into the creation of a complete human being. Rather like Dr Frankenstein, but without the incompetent Fritz.
Actors should lie on their backs for this exercise, letting their arms and legs rest comfortably on the floor. They should give themselves a few minutes to empty their minds of any day-to-day concerns and then start thinking about all the character discoveries they have made so far. The physical explorations. The character questions. Anything they have gleaned from the text.
They shouldn’t do anything physical. They should just think. Let their minds roam in the creative ether of their imagination.
And as they do that, each actor should allow various aspects of their character to seep into their body. I think it’s best to start with the feet so they can feel their character flow up through their body a bit at a time, like a liquid. They should imagine that their feet are becoming the feet of someone else by letting the ‘character liquid’ flow into them. They should allow their ankles and then their lower legs to have a different feel as the liquid enters their body. There’s no hurry. They should keep thinking about the things they have learned so far as they let their character flow up through their knees. Their thighs. Their crutch and their stomach. They should allow their imagination to do the work as they feel their character flow into their chest and shoulders, and down their arms to the very tips of their fingers. They should take time to feel the liquid flow into their major organs. Their heart, lungs and liver. Allowing their heart to beat to a different rhythm and their lungs to expand and contract in a different way. This is all about the power of mind over matter. Imagination. And finally their character liquid flows into their skull, and seeps into their brain and face and their senses. Sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell all respond differently to the surrounding environment.
Then they can open their eyes and see the world the way their character would see it. Listen to the sounds in the room and hear them the way their character would hear them. Think the way their character would think.
They can start to move their body, a bit at a time. First, their fingers and hands. Feeling how different they are. Examining them. Moving them around. Seeing how they flex and grip. How they make a fist and how they drum on the floor. They can try wiggling their toes. Rotating their ankles. Gradually coming alive and examining their new body. Seeing how it works. Sitting up. Rolling their neck. Examining the details of the room the way their character would see them. Standing up the way their character would stand. Letting themselves be someone else. It no longer matters about all the exercises and discoveries they have made so far; this creative moment is all that matters. They shouldn’t force preconceived ideas into the exercise any more; they should just behave as their character wants to behave. Observe the world and react to it the way their character would.
Creativity is what is happening in the moment, not something that is planned or devised.
At this point, an actor can keep exploring in any way they want. They can do simple explorations in the room, like running or walking or sitting in a chair. They can talk to people if they are working with other actors. Or they can go outside and experience the world as their character would experience it. Walking in the park. Talking to strangers. Reading a newspaper. Lying in the sun. Anything they like, as long as they continue to imagine that it is their character that is doing all these things.
Written Explorations
So far the written explorations of character have been about answering questions that probably only need single-sentence answers, but longer written explorations will get further inside the head of a character. In a way they are like solo improvisations, because when an actor writes something down it is as if they are trying to communicate their thoughts to someone else. Their best friend, a bunch of strangers, or even their own future self.
The Character Profile
Each actor should find a song or a piece of music that suits their character and play it in the background while they write the following profiles in character, as if they were part of a diary.
• A brief history of my (i.e. my character’s) life.
• How I spend the average day.
• What has happened to me before the play starts
• What I imagine might happen to me after the play ends.
• What I am doing during the parts of the play when I am not onstage.
• My main fears, obsessions and desires.
• My attitude to love/sex/relationships.
• What I feel about the other people in the play.
• My state of health.
• My most and least attractive qualities.
• What I feel about my appearance.
Motivations and Objectives
As the actor discovers more and more about their character, they should also start to think seriously about what motivates their character. (This is the essence of Stanislavsky: the exploration of objectives, obstacles and actions.)
Each actor writes at least a paragraph in answer to the following questions:
• What does my character want:
These are the character’s objectives. They are the driving forces in a character’s life.
• What is the reason my character wants each of these things?
This is the justification for action for a character. The reasons or motivations behind the wants.
• What degree of urgency does my character feel about achieving their objectives?
This is the immediacy of action for a character. Richard III wants everything to happen now. It’s the first word he says in the play. Hamlet, on the other hand, is continually stalled by inaction: ‘Yet I, / A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak / Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, / and can say nothing’ (2.2).
• What will happen if my character doesn’t achieve their objectives soon?
This is the consequences of inaction for a character. The stakes should be high in order to create drama.
• What does my character need to overcome?
These are the obstacles to action for a character. The things that get in the way, whether they are external obstacles like a powerful opponent or the lack of money, or personal obstacles, like a character’s own fears, uncertainties or lack of physical strength.
• What must my character do to get what they want?
This is the action a character takes to get what they want. Although the script often outlines the major actions that a character takes to achieve their desires, the actor will realise their character’s needs by the way they vocalise each line of dialogue and by the physical activities that their character undertakes.
All these different exercises and reflections to create well-rounded characters can either be used in rehearsals or they can be things that the individual actor does as part of their own personal exploration. Some directors will feel that it is the actor’s responsibility to work these things out on their own, while others will want to incorporate them into the rehearsal process. Sometimes they may be a prelude to rehearsing the actual scenes, and at other times they may be used in tandem with more conventional rehearsal techniques. But however they are used, the actors will find them extremely productive.
These initial explorations into the creation of a character will provide solid foundations for confident performances.