What’s in Your Bag?

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

These details make a character three dimensional and human. They make a character specific. The details may seem mundane, but think about what defines you as a person. Is it the grand events in your life, or the day to day?

When your students write characters for their next one-act (Psst! This is important for students working as actors too!), small details add a layered richness beyond the world of the story. The more your students know about their characters, the more specifically they can write for them. 

If you're working on a playwriting unit with your students, use this character development exercise to explore the concept of developing the small details of a character outside the world of the play.  

Personal Exploration

Tell students that for the next class they have to bring a bag that they use regularly to class. It can be a backpack, a gym bag, a purse, a cross-body satchel. The point is that this bag carries things in it that students use. 

Ask students to first analyze their bag and write a short paragraph about it: 

• Why did you choose it? Did you have a choice? 
• How long have you had it? 
• Do you need a new one? 

Next, ask students to empty out their bags. They are to write down every item in their bag and reflect on the items as a group:

• What’s your opinion on the amount of things you carry every day?
• Is everything in your bag functional?
• Is there anything in your bag that shouldn’t be there?
• Do you carry anything that comes with a memory or an emotional attachment?

Lastly, have students pick three items to analyze:

• Why do you carry this item?
• What purpose does it have in your life?
• Is there any emotion or memory attached to this item? Why or why not?
• Once you’ve answered all the questions, look back at what you’ve written. What does your bag say about you? Are you surprised by any of your answers? Why or why not?

Once students have done the activity for themselves, apply it to a character they are writing. Have them give the character a bag, decide on the why for the bag, choose three items, and analyze them. Finally, have students decide what this bag says about their character.