SOLUTIONS TO PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN APPLYING METHOD PRINCIPLES # 2

While studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York, I was given a piece of paper which contained the basics with regard to the list below. I read through it at home, took note and put it in my file. Since these questions and the importance of answering them were seldom referred to in class when scenes were being criticized and discussed, I quickly forgot about the list and continued doing scene analysis in my own haphazard way – as did most of my peers. I only discovered it again years later when I started teaching others and searched for ways to solve the problems my students and I were having. If only I had stuck it to my mirror and used it all those years ago, many uncertainties and difficulties with regard to choosing and applying sense memory work in practice would have been solved then and there!

I have since added information to the list and organized it differently in terms of question placement.

So, here follows the all important analytical tool without which no actor should attempt to act a scene:

QUESTIONS A – J
Practical Scene Analysis

ALWAYS ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS WHEN REHEARSING A SCENE

a) What would I be doing if this scene never took place? (Answered in order to prevent anticipation and pick logical and correct daily activities for the character.) Do not change the location in which the scene takes place.

b) What makes this time different from any other time? (Why is this scene special and included in the text?)

c) When is this happening – the period in history, the season, the time of year/day, in the course of the relationship and the character’s development, the plot, etc.

d) Where did I just come from? Where do I want to go? Where am I now? (Immediate past, present, future.) We need to see you coming from somewhere, being in the moment during the scene, yet with the intent to move forward or go elsewhere in the near future.

e) Who am I? Including the character’s life before the play starts – logically deduced from the facts given in the script.

f) What one thing must be attended to in order that the scene may be created (Is this an information scene? Is it about relationship, situation, conflict, characterization, etc. What is the core of the scene?) Answering this question is central to picking the most effective Method work for the scene.

g) What do I want in this scene? (State the character’s Intent in writing: I must or I want to, followed by a verb indicating a specific action to be executed and followed by because – indicating the character’s motivation and a justification for chosen actions. Example: I must walk straight and steady because I feel a little drunk and I don’t want my parents to notice.) The answer to this question is also central to picking the most effective Method work for the scene. PLAY THE INTENT OF THE CHARACTER!!

h) What is in my way? (The obstacle in the way of what the character wants.) What do I do to get what I want? - which can also be stated as: What does this situation call for? (The action. Remember: Acting is doing!)

i) Why is this happening? Why am I feeling or responding in this way in this situation? (The character’s psychological make-up, motivations, aspects of history that cause this behavior or these points of view.)

j) What sensory work (object(s), place(s), relationship(s), emotional memories etc.) must be created in order to play the character truthfully and realistically? (The correct Method work to be chosen based on the analysis.)

Now, the above questions – and especially finding the correct answers to these questions – seem deceptively simple. I have found throughout the years that my students actually have to be taught how to interpret and answer these questions effectively. As their last written assignment, my first years are required to write about why it is important for these questions to be answered when working on a character – referring specifically to the roles played by motivation and justification - and illustrating that they know how to do an effective analysis by providing examples from one of the three scenes they’ve worked on during the year, explaining why they chose certain interpretations and Method work, based on Questions A - J. The results of these assignments are usually very poor (with the odd exception) and most either scrape by with bad marks or fail, having to re-write.

Why am I telling you this? Because we have to realize that the ability to analyze and comprehend and answer even these seemingly simple questions effectively is something that needs to be acquired and learned. Even senior students sometimes miss the boat completely! The ability to read subtext is an acquired skill that needs to be worked at.

Whenever I direct a scene or a production, I take the time to go through each of these questions with each actor for each scene in order to make sure that my actors fully understand what they need to do in order to create their characters truthfully and effectively, based on logical interpretation. My senior students are required to go through the same process, providing guidance to less advanced students whenever they are directing or mentoring scene work for class. Both actors and directors need to develop these skills.

Why is it so important to acquire the skill to do this correctly? If you misunderstand the questions and don’t have the ability to find meaningful, in-depth answers that reflect the intent of the author, the play, the scene and the character, your understanding of what you need to do as a director guiding actors or as an actor (to effectively portray the character within a given situation in order to reflect the required intent and meaning or message), will be faulty. If you don’t know how to find subtext and make decisions while taking it into account, your choices will be superficial and probably ineffective. As a result of the actor’s interpretation being superficial or questionable, the Method work choices may be superficial and questionable, which will result in the actor not playing the character and the character’s intent. As a result the dramatist’s intent will get lost.

Very few young actors have the insight, wisdom and knowledge required to find the necessary in-depth answers. The skill takes time to develop. We are not born with it, nor does it simply drop out of the sky. If the actor – and please don’t forget the director - doesn’t know what s/he is doing, how can we expect of the audience to “get it”?

I therefore contend that, before the actor can do anything with the practical relaxation work, sensory recall and truthful, real expression of the sense memory work experienced, the actor needs to have very strong cognitive, comprehension and analytical skills as well as awareness, perception and insight when it comes to understanding the text and character to be performed. If any actor – including the Method Actor – does not have these skills the author’s intent and the play, including the character, will be ineffectively portrayed. It doesn’t matter how beautifully the Method Actor can cry, be fearful, be angry, be in love, be happy, be surprised or express any of the scores of human emotions we experience (as a result of doing sense memory), if it is not done in the context of effective analysis of the play as a whole and each scene in particular, the performance will be weak because the character will not be seen.

In my next article I will discuss the structuring of scenes (set design, blocking, status, movement, stage craft) in order to enhance meaning visually. See you then!

Writer: Stephanie van Niekerk, Director, Method Actors' Training Centre