By Sami DeSocio
When you’re given a part, one of the first things an actor will do is break the character down. This will help them to portray the character realistically onstage. However, if you’re a theater nut there are times you’ll deconstruct a character for nothing more than fun!
What goes into a character study? Where do you start and how do you know when you’ve dug everything you can out of the character?
My first piece of advice is to read the entire play and listen to the entire score (if it’s a musical). Get to know the character through their words, actions, and even music. Really pay attention and listen to how they speak, and imagine yourself in the role.
Next, there are a few important questions you need to answer about the character: Where are they in life? Where are they geographically? What’s the time period? What happened in the character’s life to lead them to the moment of the show? How are they related to everything and everyone around them? Now, a lot of these won’t be answered by the actual play or score-they are questions you, as the actor, need to come up with. That’s part of the fun! In order for the character to feel real to the audience, it needs to feel real to you. A character study is how you get that feeling.
This is also the time where the actor should be doing research on the time period. For example, I played a character whose father was in World War II, but I had no frame of reference for it besides what I had learned in history classes. On my own, I went to work researching the time period. I looked up what women would’ve worn, what music was popular, what other events were going on in the world at the time besides the war- things that would’ve been part of my character’s every day world and life. I completely immersed myself in the world of the 1940s, to the point where I purchased CDs of artists of the time period and would listen to them before rehearsals to get myself in the moment. I also kept all of my research close to me at the start of rehearsals in case I needed a reminder of what I was working with.
A good director will do all of this characterization with the cast, devoting a full rehearsal to sitting with the cast and weaving everything together with them. They will ask them about relationships to fellow characters, and how they view the world around them. A good director won’t tell you if you’re right or wrong unless you’re so out in left field you can’t tell the story correctly anymore. Directors often do not want to interfere with too much of a persons character ideals, but often want to be let in on. The more the actor can share with the director, either through words or actions, the better the performance will be and the more appreciative the director will be to not have to do that part of the work for the actor.
Once you’ve made your decisions about who the character is and what they stand for, you need to stick with it. It’s the only way to really get to know who you’re portraying, to not let the character change too much once you’re settled in their skin.
What characters have you enjoyed analyzing? Was it just for yourself, or for a role? Leave a comment below the article!