Character Development

Uta Hagen held a lot of influence in 20th century American Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in 1938 in Anton Chekov’s The Seagull. She also acted against Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named...

One approach to character development is to identify the difference between what characters want and what they need. Sometimes students get the two mixed up. Which is more important? Do plays...

Characters come to life in the small details, the little things like personal preference, food, or music choices. These two exercises can help student actors discover those details and really get...

Student actors are frequently cast into a role that is totally outside their comfort zone. They might have to portray someone completely different than themselves, with radically different beliefs...

As an actor, character research is part of your job. Doing research gives you the foundation and background to help make your character believable to an audience. Research helps you understand a...

Figuring out what your character wants will help you add depth and interest for your character, making them more realistic and believable. A character that doesn’t want anything is a boring...

If you want your characters to be three dimensional, you have to consider their voice. What words do they choose? What’s the structure of their language? How do they communicate? A character...

Commedia dell’arte is an improvised comedic theatre form that flourished in Italy in the 1500s. The exact origins of commedia are fuzzy and hard to pin down; there is not much documented previous...

Here’s one of my favourite acting exercises.You start with a list of descriptive characters. Here are some examples: • A firefighter looking for occupants. • A jealous significant other. • A spy on...

Character analysis can be done in many forms: • You can analyze a character in a play you’re studying. • You can analyze a character you’re playing in a production. • You can analyze a character in...

Drama Teachers! Do you want to teach musical theatre in your program, but you’re getting feedback from students like I can’t sing. I could never be in a musical. If you can’t sing you can’t be in a...

Characters come alive in the smallest details: a favourite food, a favourite type of music, a fear of spiders, an allergy to plums, a scar from a fall at two years of age, a love of reality...

Looking for other script analysis articles? Click here! When you’re incorporating script analysis into your program, what do you do with a script that gives little to no character information? How...

The first place to get insight into your character is by reading the play. Before making any decisions or judgments about your character, read the whole play three times. The first readThe first...