The Acting Blog

The Secret of Text Analysis

What is the Secret of Text Analysis?

Regarding text analysis, there aren’t any ‘correct’ answers, there are just answers that can acted upon and answers that can’t.

The results of the text analysis should lead you the actor towards action. Anything that leads you back into inexpressive reaches of the inside of your head is not useful to actors, actors are active, not waiters or thinkers.

But where do these answers come from? The script. You’d think that was obvious but many actors look for magical answers and there aren’t any, just those evidenced by the script, discovered and revealed by asking the right questions.

Unfortunately many actors think this is the time to engage creatively and they are wrong. This no time for creative work, this is time to understand the work of another creative artist, the writer.

And without a robust technique to apply, the actor is not armed to tackle the text, and yet so many actors leave college, conservatory or drama school without rudimentary technique, sometimes because it isn’t taught, sometimes through laziness. Sometimes both.

And yet discovering the actable part of the script comes directly from your understanding of that script.  That is the secret, and of course, it’s not a secret, it’s quite rudimentary, but you must learn it, and if you do not know the right questions to ask, well, you can always look for an acting coach.

So if you there’s a skill you need to work on this autumn, it’s text analysis.

To You, The Best!

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 2010

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Tags: Script Analysis, script work, text analysis

Audio Blog on Text Analysis

Hey Everyone, thanks for reading the blog today, but you may be disappointed.  I’ve decided not to write anything today, but to talk about acting and text analysis through the medium of an audio blog.  So here’s the address of the audio blog, please come back tomorrow to read my next acting blog.

http://audioboo.fm/boos/70513-text-analysis

I hope you enjoy it!

To You, The Best!

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 2010

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Tags: audioboo for actors, david mamet on text analysis., Script Analysis, script work, text analysis

They Call it Text Analysis…

They call it Text Analysis, but I always think that sounds rather academic.  In Practical Aesthetics, we have some clear concise questions that we ask to help us understand the scene of a play or film.  The question that really helps the actor to begin unlocking the scene is this:

What does your character want the other character to do as a RESULT of their actions?

We call this THE WANT. (and you won’t find it in the Practical Handbook for the Actor because it was added after that book was published)

Sometimes it’s known as a:

• Objective
• Desire
• Need
• Goal
• Target

Characters want things for themselves, but they usually want them from other people.  David Mamet says ‘The character’s got to want something specific’. No matter what they say, they’re after something, they’re seeking a goal, they’ve got an objective.  As Mamet says:
‘People may or may not say what they mean, but they always say something designed to get what they want.’

The essential part of the WANT question is what does the character WANT the other character to ‘DO’. Your character wants the other character to do something. Your actions on stage must aim to glean a response from the other actor to parallel the drive the character feels to achieve something from one of the other characters, occasionally themselves.  This can range from my character wants the other character  ‘pay them attention’ to ‘lend them money’ to ‘do their dirty work’.  It’s important to keep it very simple and write (in order to identify it, to articulate it) it in physically achievable terms.  See how I was able to write the WANT in THREE words each time.  Try to keep it minimal.  I sometimes change the tense to first person so ‘pay me attention’, ‘lend me money’ or ‘do my dirty work’ – thinking from the perspective of the character, but as a recent anonymous commenter pointed out it’s probably better to have the WANT in the 3rd Person.

The WANT compels the character to action. Having a strong WANT will give you a very big clue as to how to construct an effective ESSENTIAL ACTION.  Using a strong want to create a strong ESSENTIAL ACTION will compel YOU to action.

By answering this question with the ‘DO’, it makes the WANT something tangible.  However, remember that the WANT is something that the fictional character desires, something that drives them, their motivating force.

The reason that other actors look silly asking ‘What’s my motivation for this scene’ is that the motivation is provided by the playwright for the character alone.  You will never have the same desire as the character in the play.  The WANT is not yours, it is a target for the character and although the audience may be aware of it through the writing of the script, your job is to find a strong and fun ESSENTIAL ACTION that aims to capture it.  In the pursuit of that action, you will create become compelling and come to life, you will begin to live truthfully.

Your character’s desire is the reason that they are in the scene in the first place. All character’s have a WANT.  Your job is to discover the most practical WANT for the scene and find the strongest universal ESSENTIAL ACTION for the scene.

WANT offers a way to help you to bring the character to life by bringing yourself to life with something concrete to do, but it is not your want and so the essential action is what converts it into something simple and truthful for you to do.  Others can’t understand how simply this works.  Life is goal and action, so it is in the scene, without goal and action there is pretense and entropy.

To You, the Best

Mark

Mark Westbrook is an acting coach based in Glasgow, Scotland.

Tags: Character's Objective, scene analysis, Script Analysis, text analysis for actors

Tips on Script Reading

Some thoughts on Script Reading:

It is not necessary for the actor to have an academic or literary interest or analysis of the script.  Scripts are not to examined by scientists or philosophers, they are to be acted by actors, that’s their only real point and purpose.  Academia and schooling have often killed a person’s natural interest in reading plays.  The questions that one should ask when reading a play ‘known as Script Analysis’ can be found after this section, but they are not academic, they are vital in providing the actor with an understanding of what is happening dramatically through the action of the play. Reading a script for the first time is an important time as you will never have that experience again.  You should set time aside to read it when you will not be disturbed.  You cannot undervalue or disrespect a play more than failing to give it the due attention on its first reading.  Stanislavski is his third book on acting ‘Creating a Role’ gives us a note on this important first reading:

“How many of us make serious preparation for the first reading of a play? We read it hurriedly, wherever we may be, in a railroad train, a cab, during intermissions, and we do it not so much because we want to come to know the play but because we want to imagine ourselves in some fat part.  Under such circumstances we lose an important creative occasion- an irreparable loss, because later readings are deprived of the element of surprise”
How many times should you read the script? Countless times is the best answer, most actors won’t, even if they should and this is significantly flaw in their own character and later their acting. If you are rushed or stretched for time before rehearsals commence, it’s best to read it as follows:

The First Read Through – Undisturbed, reading it all the way through in a quiet environment.  Not so cosy that the senses are dulled. It needs to be read with the acting brain switched firmly on.
Technical Read Through - This time, as you read it through, make little notes in the script indicating words  phrases, references etc. that you do not understand.  Don’t be vain and foolish and ignore them, they will come back to haunt and embarrass you if you don’t comprehend their meaning fully.

Learning Read Through -This time you should read the play through with a dictionary and the Internet to hand.  As you reach each of the words, phrases

My Part Read Through – Only read your parts of the play through, use this to grasp the part your character plays in the story of the script

Other POV Read Through – Reading through noting all the things that are said by other characters, your own character or the playwright about the role you are playing.

Circumstantial Read Through - The final stage, used for gleaning the External Imaginary Circumstances and listing them for helpful use during rehearsals.  The actor that does their preparation in advance of rehearsals has a head start.

Mark Westbrook is a professional acting coach based in Glasgow, Scotland.

Tags: Acting Coaching, Creating a Role, Play Read Through, Reading a Script, Script Analysis, Script Reading, Stanislavski