This week, we are working on defining our objectives and the appropriate actions that allow us to achieve them in a scene. Hagen states "If I know what I want and can achieve my wishes readily without a problem, there is no drama" (180). When you begin to prepare your new scenes, ask yourself, "What is in the way of what I want?" "What stops me from getting to my objective?" Start to ask yourself these questions in relationship to your objective. What tactics do you use to overcome these barriers?
Elaborating on how we identify the actions of our character, Hagen argues "The sum toal of the actions reveals your character..."(185). What does this mean to you? use Hagen's questions and see if you can honestly answer them without descriptive adjectives. "What do I do to get what I want?" (187) How do I get what I want ( by doing what?)(187). Acting is doing...so what you do in a scene tells the audience who you are.
As you begin to rehearse and prepare your scenes for midterm, think about the given circumstances of the play and really ask yourself when you are ready to rehearse. What type of work do you think you would need to prepare in order to answer the above questions about your role honestly?
During many encounters with obstacles and barriers, I personally most commonly use comedy to get out to solve the problem or to avoid “uncontrolled” awkward moments. As my character in my new scene, I believe that I want to succeed and to include. I want to succeed with my new job and be a new person with that. I want to include and understand my sister with taking this new job because she has now become a barrier just with in herself. She is taking something that we both thought we had a common bond aka sisterhood and turning it into the only thing we should ever be involved with in life. As this character a lot of times I change to fix things, making my sister feel better. In this scene I am a newly strong-headed person with life ambitions that I want to achieve and have the support of my twin there with me as I take on life obstacles. As a person like I said before I use comedy to achieve what I want and I utilizes the other person in the scene to get what I want. I go off what they do to jump-start my search and completion of my objectives. This is a good and bad thing. This makes me a great listener but not a good instigator. (side note: with every blog I have done I have come up with at least one new things I can do to help myself become more successful at this fabulous job….acting!)
ReplyDeleteI think Hagen’s statement “The sum total of the actions (what you do from moment to moment) reveals your character,” means that your actions should reveal who this character is and what his or her objectives are. I started to ask myself these questions about what I want, and how do I get what I want, but before I can do this, I think I must follow Hagen’s advise and work through the given circumstances, think about my character’s past, present, and possible future, what her relationships are, especially with her twin sister Hillary, and her objectives. Just from looking at the script you gave me, it appears that this scene is actually a 10-minute play, and is not excerpted from a larger piece of work? So I have little information to go off of, and only what is given in the script. Therefore I must create a history for my character first. Only when I have done this can I decide for sure what I want and how to get it. Then I can begin to rehearse.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been thinking a lot about my improv work that I did on Tuesday. My objective was to impress. I think I managed ok, but I let the waiter interrupt too much. I think I could have taken my objective even further by also trying to impress the waiter, and not just my blind date. However, I felt that I really had my objective in mind and did not forget it. I think it is so much fun and really great exercise doing this improv work! I wish I could have done this a long time ago!
I find it funny how many actors, including myself, put this mystic haze around "building" a character and "finding" the character. What I have come to learn is that the character is already "built" for me and easy to "find" because the author has written the character in the script. When preparing Sergius i went through the script and made a list of what he did throughout the play. From this list i was able to find out what "type" or archetype of character he was. Once i knew this i started to look at the objectives. Since i knew what type of character he was I now had to go through and find his "mannerisms" in a way, or how he went about doing what he did. I think it is the how that hangs me up when working on objectives. Like we have discussed most people understand what a play is about and what the characters want after a couple of readings. The hard part is finding the most direct way of how they go about obtaining what they want. I feel that if i can learn how to strengthen the how that my acting will become substantially deeper.
ReplyDeleteSo I don’t think I realized before I took this class that figuring out my objective was something I was having trouble with, but it is. I feel as those I have reach a plateau in my acting, but I was not sure what was wrong. The last few exercised in class have been a real challenge for me. I feel part of it has to do with over complicating the issue. I have been making my objectives so complicate an impossible to “do.” “Make it simple stupid.” I think I have been stuck in the “I’m going to act sad,” or “I’m going to act scared.” Even though I know that is wrong I was struggling with getting passed the acting an adjective rather than doing a verb. I know it is so straight forward, but I have been having trouble rapping my head around this issue. It’s really nice to realize what one of my stumbling blocks happens to be so I can work on it.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I am presented with a new scene I try and really get to know all of the characters before I try and start acting. It can be hard for me sometimes to get out of my own head and into the character's head and to respond to situations how the character would. The obstacles which are presented to me in the scene are times when I truly have to be focused in on the character in order to get through the obstacles honestly to that person. Once I am able to feel comfortable in their skin I try and pick up different mannerisms that will help me connect on a deeper level. These things combined help me to understand the struggles of the character and also help me to portray the character in an honest light.
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes my problem in acting is I'll realize my objective, but then I feel like I need to concentrate on what is going on in the scene and the text and where it is going rather than seemingly constantly pursuing my objective every time I am on stage. However, what I'm begining to realize is I can look at little clues and things I can pick up to keep my objective alive while I am on stage. It does not always have to be completely obvious in every entrance and every exit, but as long as it is alive it will work.
ReplyDeleteActions and tactics reveal a great deal about the character's attitude, nature, beliefs and personality. What the character does to achieve an objective and how he does it are the interesting parts for the actor to find out as well for the audience to watch. The main character in a play is in most cases at least somewhat likable observer can identify with the character, maybe think about what he would do in an alike situation and that's what usually makes the actions of the character worth watching. The obstacles and the struggles of the character to overcome them contribute to this effect and make the play really interesting. Because of the importance of these “building blocks” a play is made from the actor should pay special attention to all of them, think carefully about what the character wants, understand his problems and desires, identify with the character and think about how to portray the image you have most accurately.
ReplyDeleteI had to think of Forrest Gump when I read Hagen's paragraph about action revealing your character. “Stupid is who stupid does.” This simple and wise phrase can be applied to every other adjective such as brave, intelligent, lazy, desperate, etc. Every movie should be considered as an Action movie because action is what it's all about in film as well in theater.
The part about rehearsals ore probes was interesting and logical but also somehow obvious. T is of course essential to respect your scene partner(s) and form a good team. No matter how far I am in the process of the play, a cold read is always helpful and gives you a clue about the ideas of your partner.
Finding the Depth
ReplyDeleteFeb. 11.2010
I think that I have a lot of work to do with asking the right questions. I say that because I feel that when I am presented with a character or a portrayal I don’t really ask the right questions about my character, I think that I make really hasty decisions about my character instead of going with my natural senses. Because I think that there are so many times that I jump into a character based on a couple of phrases that I think are accurate about the character. When really, I see that I need to take the time and “simmer” into the character and be open up to the real answers that are in the lines and bring them to life, just by asking the right questions. I think that after I participated in the exercised today and realized that I really don’t have that good of a connection with my character, is when I realized that I need to ask questions and find out more about them so that I can really become apart of what they represent, so that when I do portray them I can attempt to do it as accurately as possible instead of grabbing a couple lines and drawing my own half-baked conclusions.
Collin Stephens
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest obstacle that would prevent me or anyone else in the class from achieving their objective is not clearly knowing what your objective is. This rarely happens because all of us in the class have the chance to find out what each of our objectives is before we have to perform our scenes in a serious manner. The cold reads are very helpful to me because it gives me a chance to hear my scene out loud. When I get a chance to hear my scene out loud in class I am able to get an understanding of what my objective or objectives would be and any obstacles I might face. In a previous improv scene I had, instead of acting in the scene to achieve my goal I stated my goal up front which caused problems and ultimately made me contradict myself. I realize now that there were better ways for me to achieve my goal in that scene. One thing that really stands out for me in the goal achievement is when people in the scene ask me a question. Most of the time I want to answer “No” because that’s most likely how it would fit with my objective, but I know that I have to answer “Yes”. This causes problems for me because sometimes it makes me stumble, softly though, in a scene. I also resort to a lot of comedy, which I’m working on.
I think that before you start rehearsing a play or a scene for presentation and someone else you need to have the play all ready for yourself. You can’t go out and present a scene of a character if you have no sense of what he or she is and how he or she acts. Before I tackle a scene I always try and read the play and attack the given circumstances with an open mind. I try to think about why the character does what they need to do and why they do it in a certain way. I think that actors have a very hard job sometimes although what we need to do is a very small thing. In scenes, often the location and conflict is given for you. The character is described, “male 20, white,” and what they’re suppose to do “he likes her, he wants this, he wants that”. The basics are given for us and so our character is built. But sadly, humans aren’t that simple and no one is ever going to believe such a raw performance. The actor has to add the little things that make us human’s tick. Sometimes these little ticks and tocks are the smallest behavioral thing, and sometimes they’re a complete attitude adjustment. We have to put the very small things into the characters to make them real, which is a very big job. I am wrestling with new ways to tackle my scripts to give me a better understanding of the character or a different road to where I can discover who the character is. When I read a scene I read it the first time just open minded, then I go through and put myself in the characters shoes and try and live the scene that time around. Then I take a closer look at the actions of the character and his responses in the scene and decide how far off from myself it is. I try and discover just how much I need to adjust for this new character. Whether this a good tactic I haven’t quite figured out but I like it because it give me an anchor from which to start. Any suggestions or way that others prepare would be really neat to see and talk.
ReplyDeleteMegan Kane
ReplyDeleteFebruary 21, 2010
Becoming an actor has always been my dream. I thought, “I am a natural, I do not need training.” When I came to this school I decided to take classes. I realized how little I knew. Yes, I am a very outgoing person, however, sometimes I become nervous when acting in front of people. That is when I run to my comfort zone, comedy. I am finally opening my eyes and seeing everything in a new way. Last semester, when I would first receive script, I would not look at it with an open mind. I would jump right into putting myself into that character. This semester, I would never do that. I bring that character into me. When I first read a script, I read it with an open mind. Then I try to see all the given circumstances and go from there. As I am preparing for my scene, I am trying to dig as deep as I can to get to my objective. I am concentrating on every aspect of the scene. As we know, acting is doing, and I am doing what I need to do to perform my scene to my very best ability.
"Acting is Doing" That should be our slogan for the class. I really have enjoyed reading Hagen and using her advice to establish my scene and character. With the new scenes I'm working on for Mid Term with David and Joe, I have many obstacles in both of the scenes. With David, it is difficult for me to reach out as his sister, when I cannot relate to the bipolar disorder that he has. Not being able to connect with a character or person is something that frustrates me in my own personal life, so I can really bring that to the scene. "If I know what I want and can achieve my wishes readily without a problem, there is no drama"(180) I can really learn from this quote because if I can just establish my goal as the character, and not worry about "fixing" the other character in the play it will really help my part and my scene partner's part if I focus on getting my objectives out to the scene. I feel that I have really grown since last semester in my process as an actor, reading about the rehearsal really helped me to understand that if I want to perform my role honestly, I have to really dig deep into the character’s personality, and relate to things she has done as much as possible. I’m really excited about getting to work on these scenes; they are difficult, but very relatable. Another thing I have to work on that I’ve been told by one of the peers in class is my movements on stage. My actions used to be performed mindlessly; I never realized I had the same stand points in a lot of my scene work because that was comfortable to me. I now have to not only consider my character and her voice, but also consider her movements in the scene.
ReplyDeleteCold reading always helps me prepare for a scene. I feel that one learns the most from making mistakes, and through cold reading there are always plenty to go around. It sort of forcefully makes you aware of a lot of the scene’s dynamics and the characters’ relationships. After a cold reading, I spend a lot of time just reading the script and thinking deeply about it. I treat every line with equal importance because it was written for a reason. However, I always try not to overcomplicate the scene. Acting is doing, and therefore, all actions must be simple and direct. Leave it to the dialogue for sophistication and complexity. In Movement class, we do a lot of abstract things to implicate an action. Obviously in a real scene we would not be moving all over the place, but I think it is very useful to engage your whole body with your objective/action.
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