Kindle Notes & Highlights
There are two kinds of circumstances to work with. The objective and (surprise!) the subjective. Objective circumstances are the text’s facts based in situation (Jimmy and Bobbie are married), character (Jimmy has a temper, we see it in three scenes) and exterior facts (it’s raining). Subjective circumstances will usually be characters’ conversation about emotions, as in “I love you.”
The super objective is what the character wants above all.
When you feel the beginning and end are clearly differentiated, try to find the fulcrum moment where the real change begins. That allows you to clarify other stations along the route.
theme was the director’s super objective.
Its absence when its presence is necessary implies a misunderstanding of the circumstances. The root of the conflict may exist outside the scene or inside it, in the other character or in the self.
In a practical sense, conflict often is synonymous with the obstacle to the action. Drama is like chess in that we know from the beginning the role conflict will play, but it’s the tactics used in its service that fascinates us.
Compare the function and destiny of the character to the play’s theme. What happens in the last ten minutes usually makes the central character obvious.
You need to build the play toward that character’s big moments and climax. You need to identify how other characters function to deliver the main character’s story.
Some plays are about central characters (Arturo Ui, A Man for All Seasons), some are about central relationships (A Doll’s House, Jack and Jill). In the former, you are usually dealing with a rise or fall, or a rise and fall. In the latter, you are dealing with a coming together or a falling apart. The first is about a central character’s reaction to events. The second about the character’s reaction to each other.
Remember, the subtext allows the actor a direct portal to the necessary interior process. Often if it isn’t discussed at the table, it never will be.
Anytime you can point out to the actor how something said or done early in the script leads to a key or defining moment later in the text, do it.
Sometimes the counter is someone consciously moving out of the way, and sometimes it needs an entirely different reason.
For some reason when the two actors are on an angle the stage looks dynamic and when they are flat it seems boring.
Too many single moves and the viewers suffer terminal boredom. The eye needs a certain complexity. How about two people going opposite directions at the same time.
The lag means that the person who has finished speaking continues a move during the next person’s line.
Too often this natural vacillation is left out of the blocking process. Remember, in life there are few straight lines in our physical behavior.
Letting it land means allowing us to see the impact on one actor of what the other actor says or does. Sometimes it’s one actor becoming aware of their own thoughts and actions. Letting it land creates a space where things can be reviewed, chewed, and understood.
In contemporary plays you can act off the line and in verse or pre-Freudian plays you do the vast majority of the acting on the line. In other words, off the line means acting in the pauses, after the periods, any silence you can find. On the line means just what it says, you do the thinking and self-reacting while you talk.
Try articulating the obstacle for the actor. Once you increase the problems the obstacle causes, you help the actor find different tactics to solve his problem and thus increase the variety. Understanding the function of the obstacle is your secret weapon. Sometimes you pep up the obstacle by fiddling with the back story.
Crossing on someone else’s key line ruins focus, yes, but it also breaks the ancient rules of physical punctuation. So does wandering around. Gesture punctuates. Changing position punctuates.
The later in the play you do something for the first time (we’re talking blocking here), the more focus it has.
Remember that some conversations are so interesting, so dangerous, so loaded with possibilities that the addition of movement only vitiates. It’s also true that more and then less and then more provides an attention-grabbing variety in tempo and use of space that can be extremely effective.
