Lets Review

1. Lets Review

2. What is the process for creating character? • What is the First Responsibility of an Actor? • He must know each event down to the tiniest detail in proper sequence • Acting is a by-product of what? • Listening • What are the Given Circumstances? • visible physical characteristics he cannot change; height, weight, race, etc • What is the Second Responsibility of an Actor? • To create a Back Story • What is the Back Story? • A complete biography of the character from birth up to the time the story takes place.

3. Character Building Outside IN How do you create character from the outside in ? by exploring the character through improvisation. How does Creating character from the outside in help with creating a believable character? by helping you think of how your character would react to others in new situations.

4. What are the three ingredients of a Drama? Plot: answers the question “What happens in the story?” exposition inciting incident rising action climax falling action Theme: answers the question “what is the story about?” the theme is the moral or meaning of the story, it can be expressed in one sentence. Characters Protagonist – your character in the monologue Antagonist – the person you talk about in the monologue that stood in your way of getting what you wanted.

5. Your Freytag’s Pyramid • Before we go any further. I want you to use the paper on your table to graph your monologue using Freytag’s Pyramid. • The following slide will give you the format for the pyramid. Instead of writing the words; exposition, inciting incident, etc… I want you to write what happened in the exposition of your monologue, or the inciting incident, the incidents of the rising action, the climax, and the resolution of the falling action.

6. Freytag's Pyramid – graphs the dramatic structure of the plot Climax Rising Action Falling Action Inciting Incident Exposition

7. Going it Alone How do I create a monologue Character?

8. Script Analysis • Right now you are going to read your monologue for clues about your character. • In your character notebook I want you to label the top of a sheet of paper with your monologue title. Then I want you to make two columns. • One column needs to be labeled: ‘What my character says about himself’ • The second column needs to be labeled: ‘What others in the story say about my character’ • Now read the monologue and fill in the columns with as much detail as possible.

9. Sense Memory • Imagine this: • You’re walking down the street, minding your own business, when suddenly, out of the blue, someone throws a bucket of freezing cold water on you. “Arrrrrgh” you shriek, gasp, and sputter. “How dare you!” • All of your responses are genuine. There is not a bit of acting involved. The passersby who are witnessing your chock and surprise do not need any convincing. In fact, your responsible is so persuasive that they are shuddering and shivering in empathy. • Could you re-create this scene onstage, without the benefit of ice water? Of course you could. You have such a clear memory of the experience that you can call up all of your feelings and reactions simply by remembering the incident.

10. Sense Memory • Another day you are walking down the same street, lost in your thoughts, and you pass someone who is wearing perfume. The sweet smell wafting your way seems familiar and makes you feel happy and secure, but you cant say why. Ah ha! A few blocks later you realize it reminds you of your grandmother. Or maybe you hear a song on the radio that makes you cry, stirring up memories of a powerful, long-gone summer experience. • With a technique known as sense memory you don’t need the actual cold water, scene, or song to re-create a convincing response onstage.

11. Method Acting • Developed by the Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavsky, sense memory involves searching for a physical sensation or memory that will provide you with a real response to a situation or object that isn't really real. When you use this technique on stage, you aren't reliving the emotion as you experienced it, that would be too stressful and distracting, instead you are using it as a tool to get into the interior life of the character you are portraying.

12. Method Acting • Actors who practice this technique train themselves to allow the happiness, fear, grief, elation, and frustration that they have encountered in their own lives to come together with the whole experience of being an actor. Because actors are so tuned into the world around them, they also develop a ‘sixth sense.’ Contrary to popular opinion, there is nothing supernatural going on; no ghost or strange voices. All it really means ia keen intuitive power, an ability to understand and, ideally, to interpret behavior.

13. Method Acting • Let’s say you have to convey a sense of brotherhood with another actor you hardly know. You might even have a brother, but the close relationship the playwright has created for you and your acting brother is not exactly how it is for you and your real-life sibling. Though you and your real-life brother are very close as well, the playwright has added a twist that’s not part of your experience: your character has a very competitive streak that creates a lot of tension in the relationship with your onstage brother. • So how do you create believable behavior from this imaginary situation? One way is to recall real-life feelings. “But,” you say, “My brother and I never fight.” Okay. But certainly there are times in your life when you feel competitive. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t. How do you draw on those feelings and apply them to your characterization?

14. Method Acting • Since humans respond to life on an emotional and sensory level – you need to tap into your sense memory in real-life situations. How did you feel physically” What did you smell? What were the sounds you heard around you? What did you taste? What did you see? • By attaching your sense memory to real-life situations, you can imaginatively bring the use of your sense memory into acting and make a character’s reaction to an imaginary situation appear very very real.

15. Character Journal • In your character journal I want you to write about a situation in your life that brought up similar feelings to the feelings your character is expressing in the monologue. Write the situation out in detail and fully explore how it made you feel both emotionally and physically. • When you have finished writing, find a partner in the room who has also finished writing and share your situation with them out loud. Allow yourself to fully experience and share what you felt like at the time. • This is what a monologue performance should sound like!