Creating Character

What does it take to create a character? For the Actor, Director and Playwright?

Taking the lead of several posts found both from the thread What is this thing called acting? and the recent poll, Why do we do it?, let us look into what are the different techniques that we all use when creating a character.

Method Acting, Stanislavsky, Grotowski, organic, Shakespearian, what-ever. Maybe it's a process that you have developed yourself. Have you ever been challenged by a part so much that it left a mark you have never been able to shake? Or are you able to create a character and dispose of them like yesterdays old suit?

Tell us your tales and let us all learn form your experience.

Jeff Watkins
Labrug
http://au.geocities.com/labrug

Well a tale from the not so distant past of the last few weeks. If you've been following my blogs you'll know about a: my original solo production & b: An Arty Affair Original Solo Production I have just spent the last 8wks developing, writing, creating, directing and performing my own 10min play. So I can give a shortened reposnse to the roles of Director, Actor and Playwright. (this was also a question in my interview during my exam last wk! lol) I try to avoid method acting I prefer to find my own way into a character's head. Being able to write, direct and perform the piece myself I didn't need to rely on interpretation of something that wasn't my own. Tarsha - my protag - has been floating around my head for a good 12months and I've been lucky enough to bring her to life - even if it isnt in her full glory. We did alot of workshopping for our characters. I drew inspiration from various areas of my life, people, books, strangers in coffee shops etc then combined with class workshops and impro activities Tarsha emerged slowly and surely. Directing yourself is an intersting process as I think I;m the only one of my class that had no actual staging help from our teacher so I can claim it as my own. lol. My staging etc was based on character relationships, story's being told and the world the audience is viewing onstage. My lighting choices for "An Arty Affair" were based purely on the worlds of the two characters I was portraying more to help the audience then anything. I think that being open to peoples ideas and opinions is vital in portraying any character. Sure draw primarily from your script but dont close yourself to ideas and others responses. Also be open to life in general - inspiration comes from the most odd places sometimes and sometimes they are so simple you cannot believe how obvious it was. I believe as an artist - peroformer, writer whatever - you need to be aware of the world around you. Simple really. ~ Tari The Writer is a child forever listening at the keyhole of the adult world.

A Tale of not so old. . .

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