How Do YOU Get Into Character?- Page 2
How Do YOU Get Into Character?
#25re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 1:34pm
Heh. Moxie, I do the same written backstory thing. 
Since I'm also a writer, I find the two areas compliment each other perfectly. If I'm stuck in a rut with a story I'm working on, for instance, I might write it out script-style and have a friend or two help me work my way through it. The flip side of that is writing to "fill in the blanks" in a show I'm working on. Example: when I did "Guys and Dolls" last summer, I played Sarah Brown and I had a great time writing in the stuff between my scenes- particularly the stuff after "Marry the Man Today" and before the finale.
In the minute or so before my entrance I ALWAYS vividly imagine where I've just been, too. If I'm storming in from a bad day at work, for instance- what was the ride home like? Is there one incident that I've been re-playing in my mind that royally ticked me off? It adds a lot of energy to those first few beats in my scenes, I find.
*~* Every time you double-post, God kills a kitten. *~*
Kay, the Thread-Jacking Jedi
Quando omni flunkus moritati (When all else fails, play dead...)
"... chasin' the music. Trying to get home."
Peter Gregus: "Where are my house right ladies?!"
(love you, girls! - 6/13/06)
JustABroadwaybaby2
Broadway Star Joined: 4/6/06
#26re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 1:46pm
I also make up a backstory, but if it is a play, I look at every choice the character has made. They chose to have a fight. They chose to do what they did. Every choice they made affected something.If it is a scene, I look at the objective. Whyd oes this person need this thing? WHy does a person need something from someone else? I just look at it philisophically. I normally go through statistics of my character like, is she tall, short, fat, skinny, what shape are her eyes, what books doe sshe read, what tv shows does she watch, etc)I need to get a clear picture, and osmetimnes a voice into my head. If he or she is stuck up, I might use a differnet voice than a quiet person affected by grief. My volume might change. I just need to jump under the skin of the person, and figure out why this character needs to obtian the objective, and what tactics they use to get their way.
Sorry if I rambled, just after 7 years of training and 3 acting schools, I just gathered all I learned and stuck it out ehre.
"I'm thinking about how if you took the W in
answer, and the H in ghost, and the extra A in aardvark, and the T in listen, you could keep saying WHAT but no one would ever hear you because the whole word would be silent."
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#27re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 2:06pm
When I'm preparing for a show, I always think about a story I read about Natasha Richardson when she was appearing in Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie". In the play, when Anna makes her first appearance in the play, she is carrying a suitcase.
Natasha's mother, the glorious Vanessa Redgrave came to see the show. They go out to dinner afterwards and Natasha is dying to know what her mother thought about her performance. Vanessa doesn't say a word about it the entire. Finally, she says to her daughter, "That suitcase you carry in your first scene, you do know what's in it don't you?"
Meaning, you do know what your character considers important enough to take with her as she tries to start a new life for herself (as her character is doing in the play).
That's what I try to do when I'm creating my character. I'm trying to fill my suitcase.
Doesn't it drive you nuts when you're working with an actor who doesn't prepare as much as you do?
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
#28re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 2:10pm
Doesn't it drive you nuts when you're working with an actor who doesn't prepare as much as you do?
Different actors do different amounts of preparation before they begin work on a show or a scene. I don't care how much they prepare as long as they are willing to bring as much to the table as I am.
nydirector2
Featured Actor Joined: 10/4/05
#29re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 2:28pmI put on my costume and go on stage. What else is there to do?
#30re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 2:48pmnydirector2, different people have different methods. I've noticed that the people that put the most work into a role turn out to be the best. More beliveable. And the ones that don't aren't bad actors their's just nothing extra behind the performance. Also having a method helps you @ auditions when there are no costumes.
I have NEVER met Cheyenne Jackson. I have never hung out with him in his dressing room, he did not tweet me, he never bought me a beverage, and he mostly certainly didn't tickle me. . .that is all.
#31re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 2:55pm
soapguy--what you just said is absolutely not a statement of fact. Some techniques are anti-method. The Brits don't use Method. Most American actors don't use full out Method.
There is much truth to nydirector's comment depending on your training.
neddyfrank2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/23/05
#32re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 2:58pmI don't really know what I do. When I am in the scene I automatically get into character. Then when I am offstage I am normal. When I am in shows with people they always ask me how I do that. I really don't know...
#33re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 3:02pm
Here's one for you: many actors don't believe they create the character. The playwright creates the character. The actor analyzes the script to find out the character's wants in a scene and how they are going to go about getting what they want. The actor may adopt externals to fit the character. They put the costume on, go on stage, and use the lines and blocking given to get what the character wants.
This is a valid technique.
Updated On: 6/4/06 at 03:02 PM
#34re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 7:07pm
Interesting to read some of these.
Although I believe that there is no "right" or "wrong" way when it comes to acting technique, I personally agree with much of what David Mamet says in his book "True and False." Basically, he says that THERE IS NO CHARACTER, only lines on a page, and that character is simply an illusion created by living in the moment and actively engaging with the circumstances of the scene. Just as in real life, who you are is what you DO. Of course, how your character feels about things, his personal history, his physical attributes, etc. are important as well, but not as important as what you (as the character) are DOING.
However, depending on the material, each approach is different. For example, the technique involved in playing George in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is going to differ from how you would play, say, Fagin in "Oliver." The basics are the same, but you're working different muscles, so to speak.
I could go on and on but I won't. I'm not the "theater God" or anything, those are just my two cents. Anyone care to comment?
Thesbijean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/9/04
#35re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 7:18pmI usually just do about 30 minutes of breathing/meditating
#36re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 7:52pmi find a spot somewhere quiet, lie down on the floor and usually either take time to completely relax my mind and body or listen to music that is from the era and mood of the show...its weird, i know...but its brought me this far.
#37re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 7:56pmGetting into costume really helps me. Also, when I'm watching movies or TV or something, I think about which character is like the one I'm playing.
workmanarts
Understudy Joined: 2/28/05
#38re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 8:00pmA scotch on the rocks @7:00pm....a cigarrette at 7:30pm....gargle @ 7:45pm....ten deep breaths....and GO @ 8:00pm.
#39re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 8:03pm
Yes, there are certainly differences between acting in a musical and a play. However, I think the difference isn't as wide as some actors I know would like to believe. A couple of my friends feel that musicals are completely unrealistic due to the convention- afterall, in real life, you don't burst in to song with full musical accompaniment and flashy dance steps!
I think a well-written show with appropriate music placement, however, can be completely organic and NOT jarring at all. I don't believe I'm making too crazy a generalization to say that we have all seen the difference between a song that's just sung for singing it and one that is sung with thought behind it. A solo song is a monologue and should be analyzed in the same way you analyze a long speech in Chekov.
I say this because I had to LEARN this myself. In many ways it could be argued that a musical actor has a more challenging row to hoe- and I used to take that for granted. I used to somewhat shut my character down when I went to sing... bad, bad mistake.
*~* Every time you double-post, God kills a kitten. *~*
Kay, the Thread-Jacking Jedi
Quando omni flunkus moritati (When all else fails, play dead...)
"... chasin' the music. Trying to get home."
Peter Gregus: "Where are my house right ladies?!"
(love you, girls! - 6/13/06)
#40re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 10:33pmOf course,
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
#41re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 10:50pmyou prepare differently for each show. For "Kiss of the Spider Woman," I prepared differently than I did for "Baker's Wife" (Except for having sex with a hot Latino, a prison stay, and getting shot, I basically am Molina. I played the Priest in "Baker's Wife" after working like a dog in "Torch Song Trilogy" to almost no audiences and an insult in the only review that we got and didn't have it in me to work all that hard, though I did get very notices for "Baker's Wife") than I did for "Aspects of Love" (which I found very hard to work on because of all the music, I was busy wondering which dumb lyric came next...)
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
alwy15
Stand-by Joined: 4/26/04
#43re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/4/06 at 11:35pmI just wanted to thank Jerby, for as usual, bringing sanity and clarity wherever he goes.
"We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in it's flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung, the dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future too."
- Tom Stoppard, Shipwreck
#44re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/5/06 at 2:11am
Oh goodness--"usual" is probably an exaggeration! 
Dreamflyer, I don't think, aside from the obvious difference, that being in a musical should be treated differently from being in a play. In one you sing. In the other, you don't. The difference can be in the dramatic style of the work--is it a farce? Is it a contemporary drama? Is it tragedy? However, some beliefs are that these don't matter--the writing reveals how high the stakes are for the character--you won't be able to help being more presentational in a Moliere or more representational in an Ibsen because their stakes are different.
It's no more realistic to speak like Shakespeare, Williams, or Albee than to start singing if you think about it. It's all heightened language.
And, I'm not trying to poo poo on anyone who has found a technique that works for them. I just hope people know that there are multiple ways of going about it that are valid and many of them are not taught in most schools.
Baritone mentioned True or False by David Mamet--read it. It will probably shock you. It will probably seem blasphemous. But, it may also be revelatory for you. And I find Mamet's views on acting to be freeing--he challenges what has been thought of as the norm.
#45re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/5/06 at 8:59pm... confused... jerby, were you agreeing with me agreeing with you?
*~* Every time you double-post, God kills a kitten. *~*
Kay, the Thread-Jacking Jedi
Quando omni flunkus moritati (When all else fails, play dead...)
"... chasin' the music. Trying to get home."
Peter Gregus: "Where are my house right ladies?!"
(love you, girls! - 6/13/06)
#46re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/5/06 at 9:00pmWhen I'm on stage performing I am in character. I just let the material affect me. Whatever it may be.
#47re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/5/06 at 11:24pmI was agreeing with you, but taking it farther in that direction, which may have been a disagreement. LOL It's all good.
#48re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/5/06 at 11:39pm
Before the dress rehearsals, I like to walk around in costume and really "own" the outfit. I also observe all of my props, and give each item its own importance, no matter how small. Does that make sense?
Before a performance, I usually sit by myself, which (oddly enough) some read as being snobby. I just absorb the text, as well as the notes and the homework that I've done on the character. What is my purpose in this scene? What was I doing before I came into the room?
Link Larkin Wanabe
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/1/04
#49re: How Do YOU Get Into Character?
Posted: 6/6/06 at 12:57am
depends on the role or show. For Motel in Fiddler (we did a pretty dark version of the show) I had a very distinct walk and posture that got me into character and in the rehearsal process I would walk around like that all day, but by showtime I could slip in and out of it. For Annie Get Yor Gun I was Tommy Keeler and it was pretty much my costume that got me into character.
Akiva
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