One of Stanislavksi’s most basic ideas about acting is that everything a character does in the course of a script is done to achieve some kind of want or need. What do I want to get or what do I need? What is in my way, what is the obstacle to achieving my goal? And what do I do to get around the obstacle or what is my strategy and how does it change as I pursue the goals?
But defining your character’s objectives is often a challenge for actors. We have trouble coming up with good transitive verbs, active verbs that inspire and move us. Part of the problem of defining objectives is that we forget that words are action. We speak to get the other character to do something so we can reach our goals. Words must be as active as a push or a caress. But when we look at that them we often see them as lifeless squiggles on the page.
Here is an exercise that should help you discover your intentions and the meaning of each line you speak. By working through the script line by line, you’ll begin to see their connections to one another and a larger objective will become clear to you. You will also begin to see how your lines are driven by what the other character says to you.
Look at a scene and before you say your first line, say “I WANT” and then define what it is you are trying to achieve by saying your line. Say the objective out loud and then say your line. Your acting partner now looks at the line you just spoke and she says “HE WANTS” and then, out loud, she says what her character thinks your goal was in saying that line. She follows that by saying “I WANT” and then defines the goal she is trying to achieve in her response to you and then she says her line.
Go back and forth with you and your partner defining the objective for each line and what the other character thinks the objective is. You’ll begin to see that the lines and characters are connected in very active ways. You’ll also begin to see that what we say is not what others hear.
Words are action. Dialogue is people engaged in a conflict, in charged interactions, speaking to accomplish something specific. By breaking the script down line by line, you begin to see that even the smallest verbal response is an action and that it comes from somewhere specific.
Eric Barr. All rights reserved
I will definitely do this exercise! I find it extremely difficult at times to determine my character’s main objective with transitive verbs, and this exercise is exactly what I need in order to help in exactly that! Thank you.
Thanks, Amanda. The other interesting thing is that you can do this exercise over and over and each time discover different objectives. It really is helpful for getting under the language and finding the character’s action.