Welcome to the Acting Blog

A Grammar of Acting

This grammar helps us to speak the same language, to develop a vocabulary for discussing the work that we do and the work of others.  A shared vocabulary allows us a solid foundation for understanding how acting works and how to develop our skills.

When you have a language, you can enter into a dialogue.  Dialogues empower us to learn and change. Without this grammar, without a shared language, we will find it difficult to engaged in this learning dialogue.

ACTOR: Someone that takes action.

ACTING: Acting is living truthfully under the imaginary circumstances of the play (Sanford Meisner)

ACTION¹: also known as a TOOL or a TACTIC

ACTION²: Behaviour, the things that you do, made up of WANT, ESSENTIAL ACTION, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY and PHYSICAL ACTION.

ANALOGOUS CIRCUMSTANCES: Parallel Circumstances that help us to understand what we must do and how we must behave in the As-IF.

ANTECEDENT EVENTS: Events that occurred before the play begins.

As-IF: Developing parallel circumstances so that you understand the context for how you will play the scene, offers stakes and tempo-rhythm elements for your ESSENTIAL ACTION.

As-IFFING: An exercise used to habitualise the TACTICS of the ESSENTIAL ACTION into your body.

BIT: An individual section of the play script/text

BIT CHANGE: When one BIT of the scene changes to another because the character’s ESSENTIAL ACTION changes.

BEAT: What it sounds like when a Russian says ‘Bit’ and so, BIT has been replaced generally by BEAT and BEAT CHANGE.

CHARACTER: The sum of a person’s characteristics, the total of what they do.  The sum of their actions².

DIRECTOR: Someone who directs the ACTION² of the play

DRAMATIC ACTION: The conflict of will as the Antagonist(s) strive to achieve their goals and what they do to try to achieve them.

ESSENTIAL ACTION: What your character wants from the other reduced down into a single powerful, actable sentence. Each Essential Action has 9 Criteria.

THE FACTS: An effective way to arrive at a summation of the GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES.

GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES: The term comes from Stanislavski and refers to all of the unchangeable facts of the scene.  These facts are not open to interpretation; they are external influences that affect the situation of the scene. The writer, director and all the actors should be able to agree on these circumstances, as they are FACTS.

HABITUALISATION: The task of making something into a habit and therefore capable of being done without thought.

IN THE MOMENT: Now, not before, not before after, but RIGHT now.

LITERAL: A basic description of the scene – given without interpretation.  A summation of what’s happening concluded into a single phrase.

MOMENT-TO-MOMENT WORK: Responding truthfully to what occurs in each moment, rather than based on what you did earlier in rehearsal.

OBSTACLE: What hinders your task IS your task.

PHYSICAL ACTION: Another name for a TOOL or TACTIC.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: Physical doing.  Making a pot of tea.  Killing Claudius, Undressing, Crossing the stage to pick up an object, or waving hello, these are all PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES.

PLAYWRIGHT: The ‘maker’/’wrighter’ of the play.  The person that puts the pieces of the DRAMATIC ACTION together.

PRACTICAL AESTHETICS: A practicable theory of art.

RELATIONSHIP: The relationship type, be it PARENT, CHILD, TEACHER, STUDENT, EMPLOYEE, EMPLOYER, FRIEND, STRANGER etc that is between the characters in the scene that helps the actor to understand HOW to behave under the Imaginary GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES.

REPETITION: An exercise created by Sanford Meisner to teach actors to listen to each other and respond to each other truthfully.  It helps to develop spontaneity of action and reaction in the moment.

REPETITION WITH ACTION: The exercise played from the perspective of the ESSENTIAL ACTION.

SCENE ANALYSIS: A way of tackling any scene by asking several essential questions:

1. 1. WHAT’S THE CHARACTER LITERALLY DOING?

1. 2. WHAT DOES THE CHARACTER WANT THE OTHER CHARACTER TO DO?

1. 3. WHAT’S THE ESSENTIAL ACTION?

1. 4. AS IF: WHAT’S THE ESSENTIAL ACTION LIKE TO ME – IT’S AS IF…..

SCRIPT ANALYSIS: The overarching analysis of the play/screenplay to align the actors with the Dramatic Action the writer has constructed.

STAGE BUSINESS: Incidental PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES performed for dramatic purposes.

STAKE: What your character has to lose in the scene, what you have to lose in your AS-IF.  Often generated in class/rehearsal by the question:

WHAT IF YOU DON’T?  – WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES

TACTICS: The things that character/actor does to get what they want.  The things the actor does to the other actor in terms of TRANSITIVE VERBS that aim to produce the result required by the ESSENTIAL ACTION.  It must immediately be capable of being done to another human being.  TACTICS should be played based on what the other ACTOR is doing and not planned in advanced.

TEMPO-RHYTHM: A way for the STAKE to create speed of motion by setting a time signature.

TRANSITIVE VERB: A verb that can be done to someone else in Practical Aesthetics these are known as TOOLS or TACTICS.

TOOL: Another word for a PSYCHOPHYSICAL ACTION or TACTIC.

VOLLEY: To automatically fire the same ‘YOU CALL’ back in REPETITION when it isn’t necessarily true.  The term is taken from tennis when the ball is hit back over the net before allowing it to bounce.

WANT: The desire, the underlying need that powers the character through the scene.  Expressed in SCENE ANALYSIS as: ‘What does the character want the other character to DO’

To You, The Best!

Mark Westbrook
Senior Acting Coach
ACTING COACH SCOTLAND


Like What You Read? Want to Read More? Mark's eBook is available here
Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2011

Tweet me