Welcome, fellow collaborators!
When it comes to theatre – directing or acting -- you can’t stand in the shadow
of Mama’s apron.
Coaching the Young Actor
Cue, Triggers, & Key Words
Start Like It’s a Radio Play
The voice that tells the truth comes from deep inside, forged on the anvil of emotion.
How Does It Play as Radio?
We live in a visual world, but I always judge my plays based on the answer to this question: Would it be interesting if it was on the radio?
Listening is powerful. Radio has been popular since its inception.
In 2023, there are 5,000,000 podcasts.
The eye can behold, but its power is passive. When the visual is not there, the genius of the mind creates. This is the brilliance of radio drama.
My theory is that if you can get it to sound honest, then the show will be even stronger when you add the visual elements.
Developing a Palette for the Actor
Introduce Regular Exploration of Line Readings
The only way for your students to develop better expression is to explore the way they communicate with their voice and their facial expressions.
One thing I do with my advanced acting class students is sit them in a semi-circle with a stool in front. I have them come up one at a time and say a line from a play over and over, attempting different emotions. (I also make them look up unknown words, which increases their word-power and, as a result, gives them a more sophisticated emotional palette.)
Shades of Sad��“Maggie, we are through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.”��-- Brick Pollitt, from Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
bitter dismal heartbroken melancholy
mournful somber wistful bereaved
glum distressed forlorn pessimistic
troubled dejected lugubrious
Tints of Disgusted��“. . . there’s a universe of people outside, and you’re responsible to it.”��-- Chris, from Arthur Miller’s All My Sons
appalled outraged queasy weary
scandalized repulsed
Aspects of Anxious
“I don’t know what will happen to me without you. Only you. Only you love me.
Out of everyone in the world.”
-- Joe, from Tony Kushner’s Angels in America
apprehensive careful concerned fidgety
scared uptight choked solicitous
Tones of Exasperated
“A teacher is supposed to engage you. Even when you don’t feel like it. That’s the teacher’s job, I’ve told you that repeatedly.”
-- Nya, from Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline
annoyed bitter furious indignant offended
resentful sore chafed fierce galled
huffy vexed
�Angry: The 75-Sided Die��“You can’t eat the orange and throw away the peel. A man is not a piece of fruit.”��-- Willy Loman, from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman�
ferocious huffy inflamed
irate galled dyspeptic
Bitter seething irked
vexed irascible apoplectic
exasperated spiteful affronted
Human Noise
In real life, people make myriad human noises, yet your actors rarely will. You must correct this tendency, for it is the only way to sound real.
Line Reading Exercise
Go back to some of those early line-reading exercises and make them do it again, but with human noise included.
“Generality is the enemy of all art.”
-- Constantin Stanislavski
Generality vs. Specificity
“No,” she said, and left the room.
There’s nothing exciting about the words said and left. They are generic and uninteresting, provide an actor little with which to work.
Synonyms for said
Synonyms for left
apologized
asserted
blubbered
blurted
boasted
backled
commanded
drawled
giggled
groaned
gurgled
jabbered
minced
mumbled
murmured
shrieked
sighed
slurred
snapped
sobbed
whispered
whooped
backed
bolted
bounced
crawled
flew
hobbled
lurched
marched
plodded
pranced
sauntered
skipped
staggered
stamped
stole
strode
strutted
stumbled
siptoed
wandered
whirled
In Character: Actors Acting�by Howard Schatz
I was was perusing the local Barnes & Noble store and happened
upon this fascinating coffee table book. It’s a series of photographs
of famous actors portraying various emotions. I couldn’t stop
looking at it, and I had the idea it might be useful in teaching acting.
Emotions
In Character: Actors Acting�by Howard Schatz
What’s interesting is that the actors weren’t given an emotion, like I gave you. They were given descriptions and circumstances. That distinction is important! Your young actors will tend to play an emotion, which likely will not read as honest.
Examples given by the photographer to the actors.
Playing a State of Being vs. Reacting
State of Being
Specific Reaction
Back-to-Back (-to-Back?)
Have the two actors (or three) sit with backs touching. Run the scene. Two things happen: the first, actors can't see and so they try harder to communicate. And, second, they can feel the other actor's/actors' vibrations, which has a strong connection.
Ladders
Actors must understand that scenes are like a ladder, and rungs must be created in order for the scene to rise.
Ladders Exercises
The actors look each other in the eye and say their line. The other actor then must repeat one word they heard before then saying their own line.
Example
Actor A (as Amanda): What right have you got to jeopardize your job - jeopardize the security of us all? How do you think we'd manage if you were –
Actor B: jeopardize
Actor B (as Tom): Listen !You think I'm crazy about the warehouse?
Ladders (Elaboration I)
Example
Actor A (as Amanda): What right have you got to jeopardize your job - jeopardize the security of us all? How do you think we'd manage if you were –
Actor B: How can you accuse me of endangering your security?
Actor B (as Tom): Listen !You think I'm crazy about the warehouse?
Ladders (Elaboration II)
Example
Actor A (as Amanda): What right have you got to jeopardize your job - jeopardize the security of us all? How do you think we'd manage if you were –
Actor B: Shut up, please! I need you to hear me. I despise my crappy job.
Actor B (as Tom): Listen! You think I'm crazy about the warehouse?
This helps young actors clarify why the playwright choice specific words. (This leads to great discussions about specificity and honoring the playwright by memorizing verbatim.)
Thought-Flip
What this does is make the actor aware of how much energy we need to build a bridge across space. Also, the end result is it will lift the lines.
The Thinking Bell
This is a difficult exercise, particularly for the less experienced actors in your company. However, the students will get better at it the more you employ it. Most importantly, the exercise pays great dividends.
How to Implement This Exercise
While running the scene, the director signals the actors via hand clap or bell to begin ad-libbing the character’s thoughts. Then, the director signals again and the actors return to the script.
�Charge/Assess/Retreat�[CAR]
On any given line, a character is either charging, assessing, or retreating.
I have a very simple exercise that teaches actors to identify these impulses. It’s very simple. I take an object (water bottle, roll of tape, etc.) and place it in the center of a table. The two actors stand on either side. As they speak a line, they either move the object forward (charge), do nothing to the object (assess), or move the object backwards (retreat).
Of course, their impulse isn’t always the best choice, but this exercise gets the young actor to make one of three simple choices. Once we’ve done this a few times, it can easily be incorporated into blocking in the scene. For instance, if I notice that one actor is comfortable charging on the same line, then I might block a movement there.
Chairs
This helps everybody in the scene laser-focus on thought patterns and the bridges that take us across divides.
Super Chair
Put pairs of chairs on the floor in this manner, facing each other, with one in the middle on one end:
x (actor A) x (actor B)
x x
x x
x x
x x
x x
X (Super Chair)
Super Chair (continued)
IMPORTANT: Decide ahead of time which character needs to win. See how the actor gets there. This will clarify how the character drives the scene.
Filled Pauses
A pause can be any length of time, so long as it’s filled, which means the audience can understand the thoughts going through the character’s mind.
Exercise
SUBTEXT�
(Lights up. A father is sitting at the dining table, eating breakfast. Enter his teenage daughter.)
Sadie: Good morning, Baboo.
Baboo: (not looking at her) Take out the damn trash.
(The daughter sighs but says nothing. She exits.)
�Key Words and Phrases
What are Key Words?
Key Words are words which are emphasized by the actor because of the importance they carry for the character. They do exactly what their name says: they unseal the character, open a scene, and unlock relationships.
I often say to my actors, "Forget for a moment how to say your line. Focus, instead, on why you are saying it."
“Why is that key word most important to you right now?” I find that to be the most helpful question to ask my actors.
Is This True?
I ask this question often when I am directing a show.
It’s important because most young actors will automatically default to “yes.”
How to Mark Key Words
Cues vs. Triggers
Overlapping speech is one of the tenants of believable dialogue.
Most young actors understand cues, but few have ever thought about what triggers the response.
A cue is for the actor, who is in a play. Characters, however, are not in a play and, thus, don’t have cues. Instead, they have triggers.
Punctuation
Accurate expression -- that is, a line reading that would please the playwright -- is achieved by paying attention to the punctuation! Commas, exclamation points, periods, ellipses -- they all have meaning. Periods often have a vocal drop, whereas a question usually necessitates a vocal rise, since a reply is expected. A colon demands attention to what follows. Ellipses indicate a leaving off of thought. (This is known as an aposiopesis -- and it, more than anything else, perhaps, has helped me assist actors in creating a good performance.)
�Twenty five-dollar bills = $100 ��Twenty-five dollar bills = $25�
Gather ‘round, children.
VS.
Gather round children.
man eating chicken ��vs. ��man-eating chicken�
��I want to thank my parents, Tiffany, and God.��as opposed to��I want to thank my parents, Tiffany and God.���
Punctuation Matters!
a woman without her man is nothing
A woman without her man is nothing.
��A woman: without her, man is nothing!
Aposiopesis
Thank you for attending. ��You are all . . . phenomenal!��This has been a Class of Dillweeds production.