Acting Tips - Uncovering the Simple Objective Within a Script and Scene

Many of my previous articles have covered finding the super-objective, or core motivation, for your character, and while this is important you must also understand the process of determining the simple objectives of your character. The goal and purpose of acting is to mimic real life, to guide audience members into a state of disbelief and to deliver dialogue and movements that do not seem scripted or rehearsed.

One of the most important, and often overlooked, methods of character development is to secure a character's simple objective within a scene. Although the process of determining a simple objective may vary based on your individual scene analysis style and the script itself, I have developed several tips to help guide you throughout this process.

Why Are You Here?

This is one of the most important questions you as an actor must ask yourself at the beginning of a scene. Why is your character here? What purpose does he have being in this scene? How does his involvement benefit him? When determining the simple objective of a scene, you must answer this question.

For example, in the scene your character is in the library looking over his shoulder while pretending to search for a book. The simple objective within this scene might be that he is looking for someone. Thus, the simple objective is: search and find.

How Will You Achieve Your Goal?

Now that you understand your physical simple objective, which is why you are in a particular scene, you must then delve into how your character will meet his goal. Using the aforementioned example, your character is searching out for someone. He will achieve his goal of finding this person by carefully walking down each aisle, skimming the faces of those around him without looking too obvious. His eyes will go from person-to-person back to the row of books in front of him.

Like real life, your character will have a blueprint for achieving his simple objective within a scene - or an idea of how he will achieve his goal at that particular time.

Simple Objective Supporting Super-Objective

Often times, the simple objective of a scene will support the overall super-objective of a character. Because of this, there will likely be hundreds of simple objectives found throughout a script, and even numerous simple objectives within a single scene.

For example: Your character's simple objective was to search and find a particular person; however, this simple objective supports the super-objective as this person holds the answers to your character's primary question - who is my mother? The super-objective of your character may be to uncover his mother's true identity to help him move on with his life and fully understand where he came from. And it is through his simple objectives that he will meet his super-objective.