Chapter 7

Actors and Characters

I.    What Actors Work With (Raw Materials)

        A.    Text

                1.    Four Sources of Character information

                        a.    What playwright says about characters in stage directions

                                I.    Some playwrights provide lengthy and detailed descriptions (Shaw, Williams)

                                II.    Actors can trust directions in most cases

                                III.    Haven't always been around (only in last 150 years)

                        b.    What characters say about themselves

                                I.    Describe themselves through dialogue

                                II.    Caution: characters can lie

                        c.     What characters say about other characters

                                I.    "Here comes Mary: she looks angry."

                                II.    Actors must note what others say about them

                                III.    Iago in Othello

                                        1.    Oily villian, but early in play characters like him

                        d.    What characters do

                                I.    Characters are delineated more by what they do than what they say

                                II.    A modern day "murderer"

                    2.    For first 3 sources of info about a character, actors write down all pertinent info and sort out what is true.  End up wil list of physical descriptions, vocal qualities and personality traits that help them create the character.  For the fourth source acteors have to work harder.  They are helped by a system of character analysis developed a century ago by russian actor, director and teacher Constantine Stanislavsky.  The dominant system used today

       objective: what do I want?

        obstacle: what's in my way?

        action: what do I do to get what I want?

The word role roll of paper

in Stanisl. a character has one overriding desire: super objective

what do i want?

broken down into large number of units

each unit begins when the character wants something new and continues until they reach objective

Units are building blocks of a character's role

BEAT describes segment of role that is even briefer than unit

        B.    Self

Actor' only instrument

    body

    voice

    imagination (emotional recall-Stanislavski)

    discipline

        C.    Context