The Power of the Actor

by Ivana Chubbuck

Now that you understand why your character takes that particular drug, find a way to use your own circumstances in life to personalize why you would use this substance.

find your trigger.

Fear is our body’s way of protecting ourselves when we suspect that we might be or truly are in danger.

Because fear motivates the parts of your body that control action—blood and adrenaline flowing faster and in greater amounts through your system—it creates faster movement, a quicker thought process, and physical prowess that we wouldn’t ordinarily have.

To establish your specific personal issue in creating fear, make a list of all the regret possibilities.

List at least ten to fifteen ideas.

The issues that emerge after number five are often the most affecting because they stem from your subconscious—

Before you can do the fear formula for performance, you have to first determine which regret issue from your fear list would affect you the most. You must pinpoint precisely the regret issue from your fear list before your actual performance. This will enable you, during your performance, to realize organic fear within a minute of using the fear formula.

Remember: Always do the fear list as part of the homework you do before you arrive on set or stage, so you’ll know in advance which regret issue will be the most effective—

For every new script you analyze in which a need for fear comes into play, do an entirely new list and rework it as if you’re doing it for the first time.

Theatrical material can be broken down into two categories: • Stories with power as the driving force. • Stories with love as the primary motivation.

Ask yourself, “Is it power or is it love that is motivating the goals of my character?”

As with every script you will ever work with, you must first read the entire script.

denouement /ˌdāno͞oˈmäN/ noun 1. the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

Because acting is an art form, everything is subjective. There are no absolutes. As you read and work with the twelve tools, use your imagination, your history, your needs and incorporate your point of view.

Write directly on your script.

putting the tools precisely by the words or activities that the tool relates to. This way, as you memorize the script and glance down to prompt yourself, you’ll see the attached thoughts and choices right away. As a result, you will be memorizing the words and thoughts together, creating associations and relating the analysis accurately to the story.

Memorize your lines only after you’ve done your work.

if you apply the twelve acting tools first and then memorize your lines, the words will have associated information that means something personal to you, allowing organic impulses to emerge.

Tool #1: OVERALL OBJECTIVE The character’s life goal that is pursued throughout the entire script.

As you look over the elements of your character’s life circumstances and goals, always be attentive to how they can be emotionally translated into those of your own.

Tool #2: SCENE OBJECTIVE. The goal that your character would like to achieve over the course of an individual scene. It must support the goal of the OVERALL OBJECTIVE.

The SCENE OBJECTIVE must always support the OVERALL OBJECTIVE and be worded in a way to get a response.

Tool #3: OBSTACLES The physical, emotional and mental hurdles and conflicts that prevent the SCENE OBJECTIVE from being accomplished, thereby making the quest more exciting and fulfilling.

Now we must read the scene again and pinpoint some of the more specific OBSTACLES from Yelena’s P.O.V.

NOTE: Sex is always a natural OBSTACLE. A woman loses power once she goes all the way. A man loses power if he can’t get a woman to go there. And sexual feelings are naturally very hard to control.]

being in love has inherent OBSTACLES.)

When personalizing your OBSTACLES, make vivid and in-depth choices—be specific and detailed when infusing personal information into your OBSTACLES.

SUBSTITUTION infuses all the other acting tools with personal history and need.

Tool #5: INNER OBJECTS These are the visuals attached to the people, places, things or events from your own life that you think about when you or the other character(s) are talking about the script’s people, places, things or events.

dialogue that need INNER OBJECTS will be underlined,

in practice, you will handwrite only one choice directly under the word that needs an INNER OBJECT.

If you change your INNER OBJECT during the rehearsal process, erase and replace the original choice with the new choice.

this must be written directly beneath the scripted word that n...

INNER OBJECTS provide more detail, texturing and truth to the inner story you’ve established.

Tool #6: BEATS and ACTIONS Consider each BEAT and ACTION pair as a mini-OBJECTIVE.

BEATS and ACTIONS are phrased the same way you word your SCENE OBJECTIVE: to get a reaction.

Never stop going after your BEAT and ACTION when you stop talking and the other person speaks.

BEATS bracketed and the ACTION for each BEAT handwritten (in pencil) out to the right side (DOINGS are written on the left) of the bracketed area in the analyzed scene that follows.

Tool #7: MOMENT BEFORE This is the event that takes place before the scene begins.

Remember: The MOMENT BEFORE is a visceral reliving of the event just before you launch into the scene, and should take no more than thirty to sixty seconds.

As always, write in pencil, putting your MOMENT BEFORE choice on the top of the first page of the scene.

Considering the script’s MOMENT BEFORE, you have to emotionally correlate them to real events from your own life that make the SCENE OBJECTIVE more honest and important to you.

MOMENT BEFORE gives you the urgency to accomplish your SCENE OBJECTIVE immediately. A strong MOMENT BEFORE choice catapults you into real time and real need.

Tool #8: PLACE and FOURTH WALL Endowing the PLACE/FOURTH WALL that you’re acting in with a PLACE/FOURTH WALL from your own life.

Applying information from the inner story you have created from your OVERALL OBJECTIVE, SCENE OBJECTIVE, OBSTACLES, SUBSTITUTION, INNER OBJECTS and MOMENT BEFORE, ask yourself the question: “What PLACE from my life would best inform and add conflict to the choices I’ve already made?”

Once you make the choice of what PLACE you’re using, endow the FOURTH WALL with what would be there when you look in that direction.

Write, in pencil, your choice for PLACE/FOURTH WALL at the top of the scene’s script page.

In script analysis, PLACE and FOURTH WALL are easy elements to overlook. But don’t skip using them. They truly augment and reinforce your character’s emotional life and goals.

Tool #9: DOINGS DOINGS are the handling of props to produce behavior.