Actor Character Commitment Exercise - Discovering Your Actions

Discovering the actions of your character is important to help shape the emotional goals and desires of this person. While uncovering the physical actions of your character can be done by simply reading the script, in order to sharpen your skills you may perform a fun and creative acting exercise.

It is best to pull selected scenes from a play to perform this exercise; however, you may allow actors to create their own scenario and act it out. Either way, make sure the actors follow the rules outlined below.

The Beginning

The beginning of a physical action is used to help acquaint views to the actual problem. For example, your character sees that his dog has had an accident on his favorite rug. During the beginning, the actor should use this time to "approach" the problem.

The Middle

After the actor has showcased, or approached, the problem within the scene, he should use this next structural element to develop the problem. Using the example above, after the actor has discovered his dog has had an accident on his favorite rug, he then looks over to see his beloved dog having another accident in the corner of the room. Thus, developing the "accident" problem into a more complicated one. The goal of this structural element is create a more elaborate problem, and make physical choices that clearly and precisely showcase the development of the scenario.

The End

The conclusion of the scenario, which is also known as "resolving the problem," the actor then fixes all of the problems he recently encountered. For example, he pretends to usher the dog outside, while picking up cleaning supplies and washing the rug and carpet.

Instruct the actor to become as creative as he desires when cultivating The Beginning, The Middle and The End. Or, if you are using excerpts from a script, make sure that his actions go along with the overall goal or objective for the scene.