Skip to main content

UPGRADING ESSENTIAL ACTIONS FOR STRONGER/CLEARER CHOICES

UPGRADING THE VERBS

 

In the early rehearsals, the actor is tentative and their choice of verb may be weak, frail, thin. Their choice may be a verb, but it may not be strong enough to throw one's shoulder behind. Particularly in the first scenes of a play, in which the playwright is wrestling with the artfulness of their exposition, the actor comes up with a shrug: "I'm merely telling him about the procedures around here." What would happen if we were to upgrade that objective? 

"I'm merely telling him about the procedures around here."  VERB: TELL

TELL may not be a strong choice of verbs.

TELL - INFORM - RELAY - DOCUMENT - EXPLAIN - PROVE - CONVINCE -BOMBARD - OVERWHELM

 

Now, how would it be if, instead of telling or informing him of the procedures of the house, you were to overwhelm him with the procedures, or even bombard him with the procedures? The upgraded verb may seem outsized at first, but we remember that it is inevitably modified by the conditions or given circumstances of the scene and will therefore not appear to the audience as an exaggerated choice. 

 

Other examples of upgrading:

 

CHARM her- FASCINATE her - DAZZLE her - WIN her - MANIPULATE her - SEDUCE her - SURROUND her - OVERWHELM her - DOMINATE her - VICTIMIZE her - CONOUER her - POSSESS her - OCCUPY her

 

COMPLIMENT him - FLATTER him - PRAISE him - REINFORCE him - ENCOURAGE him - STRENGTHEN him - FORTIFY him - INVIGORATE hir - ELEVATE him - EXALT him - IMMORTALIZE him - LIONIZE him - MONARCHIZE him -DEIFY him





Ball, William. A Sense of Direction. New York : Drama Book Publishers, 1984.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE SUPEROBJECTIVE

It is easier to see your character's   beat objective , each of these beat objectives stem from your character's   scene objective , and all these scene objectives can be seen as springing from a deep, overall objective that is your character's   superobjective .  The idea of a superobjective is easier to grasp if you think of it as a life goal or a guiding principle governing your character's behavior, often on an unconscious level. They can also be "negatives," such as the avoidance of failure or ridicule. And they can be idealistic such as a passion for justice or freedom.  In real life, people often have life goals that influence their behavior, but  it is not easy to identify someone's superobjective  unless you have a lot of experience with the person and know him or her well. In a similar way, your understanding of your character's superobjective will develop gradually as you rehearse; it will be the result of your experience of the role, not a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.

  Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.   Once upon a time, everybody knew the sun revolved around the Earth -- until we realized it didn't. From celestial mechanics to the best way to avoid traffic, there are a bunch of things that everyone believes right now that are just plain wrong. And while it's hard to admit we got it wrong, Kathryn Schulz, author of  Being Wrong,  argues that it's time to embrace our errors. After all, she says, making errors is inevitable. "The kinds of things that we can make mistakes about are essentially unlimited in number," Schulz tells NPR's, Neal Conan. But being wrong can be unsettling, even scary. At the heart of why we hate being wrong, Schulz says, is that "we're terrified of feeling out of control. We're terrified of not having the answers, and we would sometimes rather assert an incorrect answer than make our peace with the fact that we really don't know." And when we finally realize we...
Post a Comment
Read more

Parts of a beat: MOMENTS

  MOMENTS A moment comprises a purposeful action toward the beat objective and your assessment of your success or failure at achieving it, based on the response received from the situation or from another character. A moment is thus a cycle of  intention-realization-reaction  that circle of energy flow and communication. As a result of your feedback in the moment, you may decide to stay in the beat or make a tactical adjustment, moving to a new objective and a new beat. As long as the intention remains unchanged, you are still in the same beat, although you may have moved through several moments.    Although each beat and moment is connected to your super objective and through-line, when you act,  it is the needs of the immediate moment that determine your course of action. The overarching concepts are there to keep your performance on course, but they are not part of your active consciousness, just as in life what you do at any given moment is usually a re...
Post a Comment
Read more