Character A wants something from Character B who doesn’t want to give it. If he did, the scene would be over. Why does A want it? In order to...what? Why does B refuse? Usually, when someone chases someone else they move toward their object, and the object, feeling the pressure, moves away. Blocking, that obscure mystery, is simply that. Lenin said, “Who? Whom?” That is, who is doing what to whom, and with what further aim? When the Ghost is hectoring Hamlet it is easy to see who is chasing whom, but look at the opening of The Cherry Orchard or King Lear and the answer is more problematic. Nevertheless, the chase underpins all dramatic structure. When you have learnt to see it, blocking becomes much more obvious and (still more important) a false move more glaringly apparent.
If A just “kind of” wants twenty dollars from B, the action will be tepid. If B would just “kind of rather” doesn’t want to give it, torpor sets in. If A is supposed to be strong, we can only realize his strength by the strength that B shows in opposition. By overcoming a powerful resistance, we measure A’s toughness. Pounding your chest and flexing your muscles and then picking up a pillow impresses nobody. So if A delivers a long speech and B stands there nodding, knitting his brow, and being a good listener, the scene is on the floor. B must want to abolish A’s speech almost as soon as it starts. He disagrees, he agrees but wants to put it another way, he feels A is trying to railroad him... there are dozens of reasons for him to want to interrupt. And in rehearsal it is a good idea to let B do just that, interrupt, so that A has to keep topping him. If there is no competition, the audience gets bored, because they can’t see why A bothers to go on talking when his opponent has apparently conceded the game. (And incidentally, watch for the actor who signals, “This Is a Long Speech” by doubling his speed at the beginning.)
You are only as strong as the resistance you overcome.
If my line is “What a pretty sister you have,” do you, as an actor, take that as nice or nasty? If it’s nice, you tend to move toward me, however slightly. If it’s nasty, you move away. If you don’t move at all, you’re dead. How nice? How nasty? Big or little? The sum of all your reactions is your character. Discussions about this elusive critter we call character are, of course, necessary — particularly regarding practical matters. It is essential that all the actors agree on ages, relationships, and material situations, not to mention the plot of the play. (It is literally incredible how perfectly intelligent actors can be wildly awry in their grasp of the plot, mistaking mothers for sisters, getting the date of action a century out, and so on.)
A tell is what an actor does when he doesn’t know what to do. It is a habitual behaviour that is completely irrelevant to the task at hand and reveals itself at times of insecurity, fear, or lack of focus or imagination. Look for stock postures, reliance on melodious or heightened vocal inflections, repetitious movements, or clichéd gestures. If it strikes you as false, you’re probably witnessing a tell.
Other common tells include knee slapping, “tsk” sounds repeatedly inserted just before an actual line, rising up on one’s toes and dropping down again (ridiculously common among Americans playing British), and unnecessary facial scratching (absolutely epidemic).
David Mamet has taught that one of the weakest and most common tells is a pleading gesture of open hands facing upward and outward toward the other actor(s). It is almost always an indication of misplaced focus on the actor’s own emotions rather than on accomplishing a worthy objective. “Pleading is highly undignified,” he says, “akin to asking, ‘Can’t you just give me what I want?’ rather than doing what’s necessary to get it or earn it.” (See 67 . Never express actions in terms of feelings.)
While it may not be possible to know everything about the actors with whom you are working, discovering their individual behavioural hints can be a valuable diagnostic indicator of when your intervention is needed to clarify the character’s situation. (See 66 . Keep actors on their task.)