So, who is this chick, anyway?

How do we know anything about this character we want to play? How do we know what she wants? What she needs? As an actor, you will probably spend a lot of time fleshing this character out.  I suggest you go through a process of determining what happens, asking the question why these things happen, answering the why, and, then, making conclusions from there.

For the what, you need to go to your first and best mine of information: the script itself.

Well, you say, it's a big script! How do I deal with it in terms of my character? Great question. When analyzing a script for character information, I suggest you make lists of points taken straight from the script that answer the following questions:

1. What does the character do?
2. What does she say about herself?
3. What do other characters say about her? How do they treat her?

What does she do?
This is a simple list of each salient plot point that includes your character.

• She gets up in the morning. 
• She talks to her fiancee about their upcoming marriage. 
• She gets to work and finds a pink slip. 
• She goes out and buys a gun. 

And so on. Once you have gone through the whole script, you should know exactly what happens to this person during the show.

What does she say about herself?
This is a simple list of statements that she makes about her own self - things she likes, dislikes, cares about. Key phrases to look for:

• I want/don't want [insert thing here]
• I hate/love [insert thing here]
• I couldn't/could 
• You do/don't think [insert thing here] about me

Many plays reveal very few of these statements. Write them down. They're important clues.

What do other characters say about her? How do they treat her?

• Do other characters describe or comment on your character? Write these statements out in full.
• Do they treat her with respect or disdain or....? Make a list of how folks treat her.

Once you're done you will have a solid amount of basic information from which to start understanding this person:

• She is a maid who is late for very the first time in five years.
• Everyone says she is usually reliable. 
• She says she loves her work.
• She often goes out of her way to make her male boss happy.
• He fires her for being late once.
• She says she is devastated by the loss of her job
• She goes out and buys a gun.
• She returns and kills her employer.

Well, well, well. This is the what. The what that happens, the what that is said. In this list, you will see that there is none of the why. Why was she late for the first time? Why does she go out of her way to make her boss happy? Why does he fire her, really? Why does she kill him?

Answering those questions can lead to unbelievably different conclusions; so, make sure your answers make sense or jibe with all of what she does or says. Further, the back story or any choices you make for this character, any fleshing out you do, must also accommodate these key character points.

Oftentimes, you might come across points that might seem hard to reconcile. In our example, we see that despite this being her first time late ever, she gets fired. The why of this could be very interesting. Clearly, the lateness is being used as an excuse.....

Happy character building!


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild, directing The Wild Life (a Kidsplay production), and prepping for the all female version of Taming of the Shrew for Jaybird Productions going up in the fall of this year. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  


Jacqui Burke
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