Last time in Everyday Dramaturgy we explored some basic questions about time and place that can help actors make great choices for their characters. Today we’ll look at two fun, creative activities that casts or individual actors can use to explore their characters’ emotions, motives, and behavior. These activities are meant to be hands-on, or rather “all senses on”.

Explore your character’s emotions via music:

Make a playlist for your character which reveals their feelings and shifting moods. We’ve all felt the power of how music can change the mood in a room, give us a physical reaction of elation or sadness, or even clarify and focus how we’re feeling when we don’t understand ourselves. Music is an excellent way to understand your character and clarify what they may be feeling.

You can tackle this in several ways to help you dig into your character. First, you can select the songs based on either the sound and general mood of the song, or you can choose the songs based on the lyrics and content. Either way, the songs intersect with things that happen to your character, how they react, and what they say in the script that reveals their feelings. The songs don’t need to be in any unified genre or era, unless you want, because the point of the activity is to identify the driving emotions that your character experiences and then emotionally connect with them through a song.

Next, you can structure the list as an “emotional plot” that matches up chronologically with all the scenes your character appears in. Find a song that connects to your central emotion in each scene, or if the scene is long and your character experiences a major shift, choose one song for each. The shifting moods of your character may be subtle, or may be extreme, but each character’s moods are based on their motives and how the plot frustrates them or clears a path for them.

This activity is useful even after you make the playlist. If you can connect to the emotion of a song or can feel it in your body, it becomes a quick touch-point to help enter the emotion of that scene before your entrance or during a transition. If your cast does this activity together formally, or even just for fun, you can share playlists with one another as a way to understand the characters you interact with in a deeper way. Most important, naming and identifying specific emotions is a skill that each actor needs. Finding a song that expresses “outrage” instead of just “anger” strengthens the way we develop our character. Finding the difference in tone between a generalized “happy” and “relieved” definitely makes a difference in our choices onstage. Music helps us to find the right hue, shade, and tone of each emotion our character needs.

Explore character dynamics through a “social mixer”:

Trying out and selecting gestures, postures, and body language that really work for your character can be hard in the throes of blocking or running scenes with others. And even though actors are expected to rehearse and research on their own, there’s something to be gained by in-the- moment “play” with others all while in character. Mingling with other actors in an improvisational mixer can take the pressure off and free you all up to experiment and “find” your character without messing up lines or the scene. Of course, never arrange this sort of activity with other cast mates on your own without your director’s permission or initiation, but some cast processes involve a rehearsal or social activity of this type, so you may have occasion.

An “in-character” mixer activity starts with a common social situation which naturally creates social expectations, basic plot, and tension all on its own. Try to pick something “normal” or at least plausible for both the topic and era of your show—a time and place where characters might actually meet for an activity. Some general ideas for mixers are a tea party, a family meal, a “village” picnic, a sporting competition, playing poker, park improvement project, or even a formal debate. For example, Death of a Salesman casts may have a family dinner that they prepare and eat together in a home. My Fair Lady musical casts might attempt a somewhat formal tea party.

If you aren’t able to do this as a cast or group, an individual actor can always have a little fun and pick an activity or outing to attempt while in character. Perhaps take a trip to the mall to shop for a specific item, or go out to eat, or attend a special event like a fair, walkathon, farmer’s market, or fundraiser. Let’s be honest: you might be very limited or have to forego this activity if your character is someone whose actions or behaviors would alarm others who weren’t in the know—see recent articles in the news of actors rehearsing intense scenes in parks and being confronted by concerned citizens and police! But if it’s acceptable in public and you’ve got a willing friend who’s game for living in the moment, you might be able to rope them into the fun by explaining the premise and purpose of improvising somewhere in real life.

Whatever mixer is chosen, it will set into motion social conventions like different generations reacting or participating differently, or gender roles that are assumed by the activity. But each cast member shows up in character and attempts to navigate the entire situation from beginning to end with the emotions, gestures, word choices and physical bearing that ring true for their character. It gives you a chance to explore– and even make mistakes– as you walk in your character’s shoes. It also reminds us as actors that for our character, each moment in the show is fresh, unpredictable, and “live,” so that we don’t become stuck in a rut of reactions or assumptions about our character.

When the mixer is over, have a short debrief session where cast mates can talk as themselves about what they discovered and how. Explain what you learned about your own character and others, and take the time to assess how the activity went. You’ll be surprised that even the awkward and indecisive moments helped you to access your character in a new and exciting way. And you’ll probably have a few laughs as well as revelations from “playing” in character.

The post Let’s Get Dramaturgical Baby! How To Be Hands-On With Your Character appeared first on Theatre Nerds.

This activity is pretty common in educational and community theaters, and is meant to help actors sleuth out details about their character by closely reading the text. Whenever those details aren’t exactly clear in the text, the questions help the actor to imagine or infer what they can about their character, so that each actor can make realistic choices for their characterization.

In a nutshell, this is one form of “Everyday Dramaturgy.”

What is Dramaturgy?

Dramaturgy can be summarized as “the craft or the techniques of dramatic composition.” Most directors and technical directors “do” dramaturgy either deliberately or as an innate part of their process. Good dramaturgy helps a production to “ring true” with the audience because it unifies “the world” of the play–things like a show’s specific era, setting, and the production’s intention. Professional dramaturgs with MFA or PhD degrees are often hired by professional productions as consultants to help clarify and inform some of the choices available in the staging of each show.

But I don’t have a PhD!

You don’t have to have a PhD in Dramaturgy to apply it to your art! Every actor and member of a production’s team can benefit from the basic kinds of questions dramaturgy asks us about the world of your production.

Today, let’s consider how Everyday Dramaturgy can help actors explore the world of their play. This will help every actor craft believable characters and give them more choices when they’re onstage.

What is “the world” of a play?

Actors can explore the in-depth setting of their show, whether it’s Shakespearian or 1980s Hair Bands, the 1930s Dustbowl or the 1700s Early Baroque period in France period. Dramaturgy asks actors to think about the literal setting, but also to the social and cultural settings their characters operate in.

Here are 3 Big Questions you can ask yourself to “dig into” your character. And each big question has a list of smaller questions that you can refer to each time you have a new show and new character to develop.

1. Ask yourself: What is the specific location and time of this show?

Yes, the physical location, but also, what are the sub-sets or other locations referenced in the text? What is the exact date in time, and what other significant events were happening here or in the world? What season is it, what time of day it is, and do these affect my character or the plot in any way? What designs, colors, objects, inventions, philosophies, trends, and fads were happening in this place and time?

You could discuss these items with your director or acting coach, or with other actors; maybe your director has already done this with you. It’s easy to research this online if needed, and even to see historical images of the place and time.

These questions about time and place will help you to imagine where your character is coming and going from, and will really help you get into the “mindset” of your character. Knowing your era in detail helps you to make choices consistent with the time and place. Perhaps your character has never travelled anywhere beyond their little bubble. Perhaps they are a “person of the world,” or maybe they take a staunch local’s perspective. Maybe a season or holiday or the ticking of time is influencing their decisions or motives.  Maybe a certain historical objector invention is a good metaphor for your character, or maybe a certain philosophy from the era explains your character’s motives.

2. Ask yourself: What is the personal and social environment of this time?

What did people look and behave like in this time and place? What did they wear, and how did they carry themselves in public vs. in private? Does my character operate freely in public? Why or why not? What’s the difference, in this era or world, between the generations? What is the concept of privacy there and then? What’s personal space and how does it operate? How are gender roles, orientation, race, nationality and ethnicity perceived in this place and time? How do people greet each other in this time and place?

These questions about the social environment will help you navigate how and when your character can interact with others in a historically appropriate way. Perhaps it’s not appropriate for your character to do or say certain things freely or in front of others for a social reason in this time and place. Perhaps your role is someone who doesn’t care at all about conventions or “rules” of the social setting, so they defy them all! Perhaps your character may curtsy, or shake hands, or hug & kiss upon meeting, but probably only certain options are actually historical.

3. Ask: What determines status and power in this place and time?

Which relationships in people’s lives at this time have the most power over them? Which positions in society have the most influence and status in this time and place? In the play, who has the most “power,” and why? Where does “power” come from in the world of this text: is it money, education, religion, experience, physical strength? Is there a difference of power between old and young, or different generations? What is the difference of power among genders or races, if any? Which names or titles do characters use for one another, why, and when are titles optional?

These questions about power will help you figure out if and why your character has any innate power or status over others in this text. This will explain many of their actions and reactions to the plot and to others. Perhaps your character is struggling for some kind of agency or personal power they are lacking. Perhaps they have control of that, or maybe they don’t, and that’s frustrating to them. Perhaps a discrepancy of power or status is behind that conflict driving your character or others.

Choices, Choices!

It’s true; these Everyday Dramaturgy questions about the world of your play will limit some of your choices as an actor, and will close some doors so that you can be historically appropriate. But remember that the answers will also open up choices and a deeper understanding of your character on many more levels–doors and windows and trap doors and attics will open up for alternate actions and reactions onstage!

In closing, dramaturgy asks all theater artists to carefully consider every choice they make in a production. And with “Everyday Dramaturgy” questions in your actor’s toolbox, you can make powerful choices that present both the text and your director’s vision faithfully to your audiences.

Next time at “Everyday Dramaturgy,” Part 2: Team Questions and Creative Activities

Have a dramaturgical question? Leave a reply below…

The post Everyday Dramaturgy: Craft Your Character With 3 Critical Questions appeared first on Theatre Nerds.

Rebecca
Hi, my name is Rebecca, and I’m a dramaturg.
(beat)
A dramaturg….
(beat)
I’m this theatre’s Hufflepuff.

Dramaturgs are the intellectual catch-all of the theatre world. A dramaturg often works on a project-by-project basis with playwrights, theatre and opera companies, festivals, and new work development.

3 Ways Dramaturgs Work With Theatres and Operas:

1. Dramaturg As Researcher

Have you ever watched a production and thought to yourself, I wonder how the playwright/director/actor knew so much about turtles on the Galapagos Islands?

There’s a significant chance the production and creative team worked with a dramaturg. A dramaturg often  researches various topics in a production, taking copious notes and collecting various source materials. This collection of information is then shared, starting with the production team, which then applies it to various parts of a production.

If the paint crew has questions about the coloring of a Galapagos turtle’s eyes, the dramaturg would find proper photo and art documentation to assist. When a director wants their actors to walk like a turtle in a scene, the dramaturg would find video clips and turtle stats to share with the director before rehearsals.

The dramaturg, as researcher, is a finder.

2. Dramaturgs As Editors

When working with playwrights on new play development, dramaturgs work as continuity editors. Where a dramaturg may do research for a playwright and assist with the flow of a play, they are NOT a co-playwright. In new play development, a dramaturg’s job is to work as an editor for the new work.

For example, in the first draft of a play, the playwright writes that the main character always wears a white shirt when on stage. After multiple drafts, rewrites, and trial and error, the play now contains a scene where the main character’s favorite shirt is bleached by accident in the wash by a visiting relative. The dramaturg would make a note to the writer that the color of the shirt shouldn’t be white since bleach wouldn’t harm it. While this does assist with the progression of the play and a critical visual moment in the production, the dramaturg does not change the shirt color in the text. The playwright must make the conscious choice to take this note and choose to apply it or not.

3. Dramaturgs as Mechanics

Maintaining a similar vision can be very tricky in a production, especially large scaled productions. One person’s idea of a particular setting can be dramatically different than another person’s. A strong dramaturg can help eradicate the chaos that occurs when many people work on a project together.

In this example, let’s think of a dramaturg as a mechanic. If we view a play or opera as a really impressive locomotive, the dramaturg is person who walks through each wagon unnoticed and fully aware. The dramaturg helps create a line of communication and continuity between the conductor which carries all the way back to the baggage handler working in the caboose and back again, connecting with the ticket puncher, coal shovelers, and passengers along the way. The dramaturg never tells any of these individuals how to handle their job or what to do but instead keeps communication and new developments shared while everyone is busy focusing on their direct task. This communication allows each department of a production  to work near full capacity without stopping to continuously check-in.

A Dramaturg’s Insight:

Modern-day dramaturgy origins are credited to German philosopher, playwright, and critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. More on him at a later date.

Questions about Dramaturgy? We’d love to hear from you! Leave a reply below…

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