Skip to main content

WANTS WANTS WANTS VERBS ACTIONS

Wants. Wants. Wants. Wants are what create drama. Wants are what give life to the character. Wants are what the waking individual is never without. Wants are perpetual. Wants cause action. Wants create conflict. Wants are the very energy man's life and the System of Wants is the aspect of character to which the actor gives his relentless and obsessive attention. The actor tracks down the wants. Everything else is classified as a condition. The golden key is the character's system of wants.

And after I have studied and structured and tested and assumed the character's system of wants, then, and only then, am I permitted to occupy their inner life and express their personality. Of all the questions I ask the character about themselves. the overwhelming majority have to do with their wants:

"What do you want?"

"What do you want now?"

"What is your ultimate want?"

"What do you want from the other person?"

"What do you want in the play?"

"What do you want in life?"

 

A character may want a motorboata wifea moment's peace and quiet. These are nouns.

In another category, your character may want to earn enough money to buy a motorboat; they may want to win Georgia's heartto eliminate the distractions to his peace of mind.

TO EARN

TO WIN

TO ELIMINATE

 

These verbs are the wants.

We narrow the focus of the actor's pursuit now by stating clearly that, for our purposes in theatre, they never wants nouns. Their wants are expressed as verbs.

When asked what a character wants, a skilled actor will never answer that they want an object, or a person, or a job, or love, or independence. A skilled actor always states the wants in the form of a verb. 

 

The behavior of an individual is caused by what he wants.  A serious actor doesn't give time or attention to any other aspect of the character until he has made a thorough study of what the character wants to do to others, or to their surroundings. The one thing that is perpetual and constant in the character's consciousness is that they are always wanting. There is never a moment when a human being is not wanting to do something. 

 

NOUNS

We have already narrowed our focus to eliminate nouns:

NOUN    I want a motorboat.   VERB  I want to EARN enough for a motorboat.

NOUN    I want a wife.              VERB  I want to WIN Georgia's heart.

NOUN    I want peace.              VERB I want to ELIMINATE distraction.

NOUN    I want attention.        VERB  I want to FASCINATE everyone.

NOUN    I want order                VERB  I want to ORGANIZE this mess.

 

ADJECTIVES

Now let us narrow further and eliminate adjectives:

ADJECTIVE I am angry with her.       VERB I want to DESTROY her.

ADJECTIVE I am nervous.                  VERB I want to FOCUS my attention.

ADJECTIVE I am frustrated.               VERB  I want to FIND a way out.

ADJECTIVE I am in love.                     VERB  I want to TAKE CARE of her forever.

ADJECTIVE I am being charming.      VERB  I want to DAZZLE the guests.

ADJECTIVE I am confused.                 VERB  I want to FIGURE OUT a solution.

ADJECTIVE I am drunk.                       VERB  I want to PRESERVE business as usual.

 ADJECTIVE I am friendly.                   VERB I want to WIN him over.

 ADJECTIVE I am arrogant.                  VERB I want to BELITTLE him.

 

 

 

 

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

Comments

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 ...

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...

Character Analysis

 The more information you gather, the better and more informed your acting choices will be.  Find below most questions you should clarify for yourself before you make you acting choices: The Story How does your character relate to the plot, mood and theme of the script? How do you (the actor) relate to the theme The information Find all your character lines. These are lines in the script that reveal something about your character. These can be :(a) what your character says about him/herself; (b) What your character says about other characters; (c) what others say about him/her; and (d) what the author says in the italics about your character or the characters in general. You can underline these lines (in a distinct color) or, preferably, write them in a separate notebook or place in your script. Describe all the previous actions for your character. This is everything that has happened to your character before the script begins, and everything that happens offstage after the sc...