Once you’ve decided on your goal in the scene - your objective - pour yourself into going after it.

 

This doesn’t mean talking loudly or acting wild. It means intensity. It means focused energy.          

 

Sometimes actors hold back. Perhaps they’re afraid to seem too forceful. This is a mistake.

 

The audience longs to see passion, to see characters who care mightily about what they’re trying to do.

 

Know what you want, and fight for it!

 

A good director can always ask you to underplay. Use your talents. Show what intensity can do.  

 

In real life, you always have a purpose, a reason, for doing what you’re doing. It may be simple, like going to the mailbox to get the mail. Or it may be complicated, like getting your childhood sweetheart to love you again.  

Having a goal, a purpose, an objective is so much a part of life that we usually don’t even think about it.

So it is odd that actors will often try to play a scene without thinking about what they are trying to do in the scene.

Imagine you’re an actor, playing a scene in which you, as a teenage boy, are arguing with your father. He refuses to let you use the car. Tempers heat up.

Your goal is to get him to let you use the car.

What if, earlier, he had promised you that you could use the car? Then, during the scene, your goal might change. Will you sweet-talk him, coax him into giving you the car? (That’s essentially the same goal as at the start, “to get the car”, but the tactics have changed.)

Or are you going to get him back for disappointing you, even hurting you?  What does your character do? Yell? Threaten violence?

And what about the father? Why is he refusing something he promised earlier? Is he just trying to hurt you? Or is something going on that you don’t know about?

You can see that acting isn’t just about saying lines from a particular place on stage. The play’s director will usually help you find a goal, an objective, in a scene, if you’re not sure of it.

Extra tip: Often, an actor can find his goal, his objective, by looking at what happens at the end of the scene. Perhaps your character doesn’t get his goal, but you may get a clearer idea of what it is, by what happens at the end of that scene.

It isn’t enough to know where a scene is taking place: a living room, a bus, an amusement park. It’s vital to feel it, smell it, hear the sounds that surround one. It’s essential to imagine the carpeted surface one’s standing on, the painted walls, the TV in the corner of the living room, or the vinyl seats, narrow aisle, grimy windows of the bus, or the gigantic Ferris wheel, the corny colored lights, the smelly, crowded walkways of the amusement park. Not only to imagine them, but imagine them specifically.

Creating “where” helps scene work from beginning to end. It’s a useful tool in dealing with st_ge fr_ght. Focusing on where one is, as a character, grounds the actor and brings him back to the reality of the scene.

It’s also helpful for auditions. Imagining specifically where one is, as a character existing in the scene (or monologue), gives one needed security. It also brings the stage to life. An actress auditioned for a role and was asked to read a character in a scene that took place in a garden. She imagined her own garden in rich detail and with great love. She got cast in the role. Later, she failed to recreate her garden in her imagination thoroughly and specifically. The director couldn’t figure out why her performance was suffering. Finally, the actress solved her own problem by asking herself, “What did I do in that audition that I’m not doing now?”

“Where” may not be the most important ingredient in acting. But it’s one of the basic ingredients.

Breathe. Well, obviously, but many actors hold their breath when under pressure, or have the habit of shallow breathing.

When a director pointed it out to me, I was stunned to discover I was holding my breath onstage. Then I noticed I often took half- breaths, or held my breath completely, even when I was doing everyday actions like driving. I made a small sign, "BREATHE", and taped it on the dashboard of my car. That helped. Monitoring myself to change the habit has helped.

Still, I have to pay attention. Always a good idea anyway.