Service Description

Character development is the process of making a character complete and real. The audience can watch a character drive off a cliff, but without knowing the character’s personality, triggers, and backstory, they may not believe or relate to the character or their story. The audience must believe in the character, which requires that actors get to know their characters first. There are many ways to develop a character. Some actors use the “method” which is not readily understood by the public many of whom see it as a process whereby the actor delves into their past. This is a small aspect of the “method”. We teach the method as it relates to sensations, observations and the imagination. Other character techniques involve accessing the character through animal work – a very joyful experience that involves acting out the kind of animal that you imagine most closely relates to your character. Other examples include going through the past of your character, detailing how you imagine they live, where they live, what kind of habits they have and so forth.at Movement plays a big part in developing a character. Your character will probably move very differently from you, as they have had a different life experience. Depending on the type of character you choose to create, they may also be a different age, have differing movement capacities and so forth. We will then connect your characters with the beginnings of script work. This will begin with a given set of lives that could be attributable to any circumstance which you will then create as lines for your character. You will experience your character in the “given circumstances” of the scene – what is going on, who they are with, what they want, how they feel, how they were prior to the scene – there are many ways from here to create a believable character. From here, you will develop more detailed scripts that are specific to your character. The teacher may give you this script or encourage you to write it yourself. (this depends on the dynamic and wishes of the group). Finally, you will be given scripts where you will create a character from the text itself. This is the reverse order of what you did before – the lines in the script will give you the character and you will begin to perform these scripts in class.