5 Steps to Preparing an Amazing Scene

  If you get overwhelmed when becoming acquainted with a play, or you're curious as to how actors go about taking a script and bringing it to life, keep scrolling down.

1. Look at the entire play from which the scene is taken. 

     When does the play take place (time period, time of year). In the world of the play, where is the play taking place?

2. Now look closer at the actual scene. 

     Who's onstage, and why are they there? What happens right before, during, and right after the scene?

3. Get to know your character through inferencing the text.

     What kind of person are they? Confident or shy? Their age? Even take time to consider smaller facts like the kind of breakfast that they enjoy. What is their occupation? What kind of parents do they have? List any important relationships to them. 

  

     If you can't find some of this information in the text, you can make it up yourself using reasonable judgement as to what makes sense for that character or what would add more depth to them. How do other characters describe/act toward your  character?

4. Determine the character's objectives/motives in the scene. 

     Where did they just come from? What mood are they in? What do they want from the other characters? Do they want something physical, like money? Do they want the other character to leave? Once you figure this out, you must act out the scene with every sentence, every movement with this motive in mind.

5. Use your knowledge about who your character is and their motive, and work on the physicality (eg. how they walk, how they speak). 

     I often use Laban's movement analysis. He determined that movements use space, and that space can either be direct, or indirect. Movement also has different weights to it, which are either light, or strong. Movement uses time as well; either movements are sudden, or they're long and sustained.

He has given names to each combination of movements:

1. Direct, strong, sudden--------punch

2. Indirect, strong, sudden------slash

3. Direct, strong, sustained-----push

4. Indirect, strong, sustained---wring

5. Direct, light, sudden----------dab

6. Indirect, light, sudden--------flick

7. Direct, light, sustained-------glide

8. Indirect, light, sustained-----float

    Next you can try to match these movements to your character, also keeping in mind their mood.

If your character is uptight and unhappy, you might choose to use slash or punch. If you choose slash, you will incorporate direct, heavy, and sudden movements into the way you talk, the way you step your feet, how you walk, and into every part of your body.

    And there you have it. The basics for any actor to prepare any scene.

In my next post, I'll be taking a look at some of the differences between stage acting and film acting.

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