The Key Questions unlock the information necessary to engage the Acting Basics.

Relationship: Who am I acting with?

You are always acting with someone: who is it? You have three choices: another character or characters, a projected image of yourself, or the audience. If you are acting with “yourself”, you are pulling away from the audience. If you are acting with “the world”, you are bypassing the audience.

Clearly defined Relationships include, not just who the other Characters are, but how you feel about them, what you intend towards them, and what you will not risk in terms of your relationship with them.

Relationships do not have to remain consistent throughout the play, they can and should shift. Change the relationship and you change the acting.

The more your Relationships change, the richer your Acting is.

The Key Questions unlock the information necessary to engage each of the Acting Basics.

Language: What am I saying?

Unlike Life, in the play your words have been chosen and structured by the playwright to achieve specific purposes: you must know what you are saying or you should not say it.

Rhythm and inflection are key elements that can shade your Language by providing the nuances of emphasis and de-emphasis, of volume, rate, and pitch, and of overall vocal quality.

We certainly need to know what the words mean and we need to communicate it clearly to the audience, but we also need to know what it is that the character is trying to communicate by way of those words. For the most part, if you’re speaking clearly, the words take care of themselves; what becomes interesting is what, at the most fundamental level, you are saying below, above, and beyond those words.

The more that you are saying, the richer your Acting is.

The Key Questions identify the information necessary to unlock each of the Acting Basics.

The Problem: What is happening? What must I do?

The most fundamental of the Acting Basics, the Problem defines what is happening in the scene and what you, as the character, need to do in response to it.

Problems range from what is actually happening in the scene (Literal) to what is happening in the larger context of the play (Contextual) to what is happening in terms of your character (Personal) to what is happening in terms of the production’s overall intent and point of view (Thematic) to what is happening symbolically as a reflection of Life (Archetypal.)

The more Problems you are responding to, the richer your Acting is.

These are the context of what we do.

If we are not working them all, we are not doing as much as we should.

If we are not doing as much as we should, why are cheating our Audience of our Genius?

Acting

The Problem

• Question—Response

Language

• Define—Paraphrase—Highlight—Clarify

Relationship

• Identity—Feeling

• Intention

• Risk

Emotion

• Heighten & Explore

• Switch

• Arc

Motivation

• Need—Stakes

• Obstacle—Action

• Attitude

Character

• Anchor Line

• Emotion Core

• Body Center

• Spine

• Effort Matrix

• Imagery

• Attitude Line

Purpose of Scene

• Conflict

• Agreement

• Story Point

• Character Revelation

Performance

Mission

• To be worthy

Requirements

• A passionate, open willingness to Play

• Be present—prepared—focused