The character description is a springboard

Your character is a springboard... 
 

...to propel you into your own creativity.  

It is not the end result but the place to start.

A character description is only a blueprint, a guide for the actor… You can stay within the confines of your character description, or blast further. 

British actor, Hammed Aminashaun played the role of Bottom (photo below) in a recent production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, live-streamed by the Bridge Theatre in London.

In his portrayal, it was as though the character had imbibed some psychedelic potion. He was transformed not only into a donkey (in the script), but far beyond, performing an erotic dance to Beyoncé’s Love on Top. Such were the dimensions of his portrayal. 

Use the character description to seed your imagination and inspire. Then free yourself into myriad other facets of you.

Marlon Brando electrified the character Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, burning past the character described on the page. The character went beyond the dimensions of his own personality. 

In an interview on his portrayal he commented that people seemed to think that “I [in real life] am like an animal and that I eat off the floor.” 

The character is your sendoff… it gives you the green light to go…

Elia Kazan (director) sent Brando to audition for Tennessee Williams who recounts his experience: 

“The plumbing wasn’t working and the electric lights had gone out and we were stranded in this little cottage between Provincetown and Truro. And he [Brando] comes in four or five days after I was told to expect him. He repaired the plumbing; he repaired the electric lights and then he sat down and he read… I had never heard such a reading in my life!”

Brando likely dropped into his character intuitively. Fixing the broken cottage may have been a profound warm-up to the reading and into the portrayal of Stanley Kowalski. 

When you are living in the moment you are thinking as your character. You are seeing through your character’s eyes, hearing what your character hears.

First discover where the character lives in you.

If you begin to make creative choices before you’ve found your character’s plumb line—their central being, you’ll be stuck thrashing around on the surface. You’ll be left trying to act out an idea of who you think the character should be.

When you have done the work to discover the character in you first—where they come from, key behaviors, their reason for being—you will start thinking as your character. You will see through your character’s eyes, hear what your character hears.

How far can you go? 

Every word in the script is a cue you can build on, a clue for who your character can become. 

Brando, inspired by the script, dropped in and ignited a character of such magnitude that he “changed the game of acting.” He broke what may have been thought of as the parameters of acting by becoming rather than playing the character.

Do you dare go beyond the character description?

Find the bravery to explore your own dimensions...

Acting Mastery Program is an immersive acting journey.

Acting for Stage & Screen begins March 12. 

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