My theatre lesson for today involves one of my favourite pasttimes and an essential part of everything I've learned about acting. OBSERVATION. (The O of ROCTT - I'll fill out the rest of the word and explain it's meaning later on)
Characters are people. To convincingly act like a believable character, you have to act like a believable person. Therefore, you have to act like a person to be a character. (Insert major DUH) The key to being another person besides yourself is details. I was taught to begin shaping new characters by experimenting with different walks and voices. The character you play won't walk like you or talk like you, so don't let them. That character isn't you (unless, by some twist of fate you are Chita Rivera in her self-titled show... but I digress), so don't let them even remotely appear to be you. You don't to be seen as playing a character, you want to be that character.
Nothing is more enjoyable to me than sitting in a public place, humming to my iPod, s
ipping some sort of delightful beverage and watching people stroll by. Casinos are a wonderful place to people-watch, as are airports and big cities. If you don't have any of those handy, then just people-watch wherever there are people. Notice the little things - do they swing their arms funny? Do they carry themselves differently than the person next to them? Is their walk because of their attitude or their shape? Find something unique about every person that you see, even if you see them every day of your life. Take note of something you never noticed about them before.
ipping some sort of delightful beverage and watching people stroll by. Casinos are a wonderful place to people-watch, as are airports and big cities. If you don't have any of those handy, then just people-watch wherever there are people. Notice the little things - do they swing their arms funny? Do they carry themselves differently than the person next to them? Is their walk because of their attitude or their shape? Find something unique about every person that you see, even if you see them every day of your life. Take note of something you never noticed about them before.On campus, I find ways to amuse myself in the morning on my way to class while people watching. I pick a helpless victim in front of me and try to become them simply by imitating their walk. What does it take for me to manipulate my frame to walk like a 6'6" jock, or that professor dragging their rolling briefcase across the bridge? For my last show, I found myself secretly seeking out the pregnant girls on campus (I'm going to hell, I know it) to learn how they walked, since I played a pregnant woman.
Besides walks, v
oices are the next big thing. Young actors tend to either ignore this one entirely, simply not know how to do it, or overdo it to a point where the audience would like to remove their larynx and not give it back. Picking a voice doesn't mean you have to shoot up five octaves, drop three, or lay on an accent. Picking a voice is simply making it not your own. Does the character pronounce a few words slightly differently than you? Do they have a different way of emphasizing questions than you would? The dialogue given can be a big indicator of the type of voice a character would use as well. The language can often times dictate speech patterns and help an actor discover the voice of their character. You're onstage, not voicing a cartoon, so don't sound like one. Sound like a person. A person who isn't you.
oices are the next big thing. Young actors tend to either ignore this one entirely, simply not know how to do it, or overdo it to a point where the audience would like to remove their larynx and not give it back. Picking a voice doesn't mean you have to shoot up five octaves, drop three, or lay on an accent. Picking a voice is simply making it not your own. Does the character pronounce a few words slightly differently than you? Do they have a different way of emphasizing questions than you would? The dialogue given can be a big indicator of the type of voice a character would use as well. The language can often times dictate speech patterns and help an actor discover the voice of their character. You're onstage, not voicing a cartoon, so don't sound like one. Sound like a person. A person who isn't you.Always be watching the people around you - the most mundane idiosyncracy could become a characters more subtle tic and make your performance that much more believable. Comment below or email me!
NOTE: Paul Cuneo, the wonderful writer of the Back Stage article, has his own online blog and has offered to do a Q&A session with my readers, if any of you are ever interested. (He commented my last entry about it) Go check out his blog and show some love- he has incredible articles that are much more helpful than my petty attempts! :)
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