BLUEPRINT

PREPARATION for first read: 2 hours of no interruption - phones off!!!

Exhale - pre-conceived ideas

- judgements - censorship

- the distractions of the day

Inhale - all possibilities

- all images

Tone for 5 or 10 minutes to engage your right brain.

1) Read - for understanding - what is the story - what happens? what is this about? Is there a

message in the play that the playwright wants to convey?

- Jot down everything that comes to you - images, colors, thoughts, feelings.

2) Read - for your character - What happens to you in this story? How are you different at

the end of the play. What changes occur for you in your life and in yourself? What role does your

character play in telling the story?

The Treasure Hunt - search for the clues about your character

MAKE A LIST Starting with the character description written at the beginning - write

down everything said about you - the details and facts - what other characters say about you -what

you reveal about yourself in your words and behaviour and actions -what the stage directions reveal

about your behaviour.

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 3) DEVELOPING THE PERSONALITY OF THE CHARACTER THE SPINE -

(largely based on your super objective) Look at and study your list.

Look for patterns of behaviour. What do these patterns tell you about your personality? What

super objective is revealed - what drives your actions and behaviour? What is it that you are trying

to overcome? Overcoming a negative is more active than just wanting a positive. Lack of Love?

Lack of Power? Lack of Money? Etc. Or a combination of?

Find a powerful phrase to describe your super-objective. Words that will fire you into action

because they cause motion (emotion) in your body. Sometimes you’ll find this phrase right in the

play.

Find one phrase or line from the play that most reveals who you are.

4) IDENTIFICATION/BACKGROUND - Using the details from the play , your own life

experiences and your imagination/invention, build a background for yourself that will support your

super- objective and your subsequent actions. The purpose of the background is to help you believe

that this story is yours - these actions are yours and are being done and experienced by your body

and mind and spirit - to lend authenticity and specificity to your words and actions - to help you

identify with the super-objective of your character - to enable you to experience the character in

your own body not just as an idea in your mind - to experience and reveal rather than to describe and

present.

Upbringing - parents, siblings, friends etc.- find faces - be specific

Defining Events - live out the events in your imagination or in improvisation

Education

Vocation

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 Time and Culture - study pictures - wear the costumes

World View and Political Conviction - read about and study the times

Religious Beliefs or Philosophy of Life

Friendships and Relationships - be specific - find faces

Love life and Sexual Experience

Now, “As If” YOU had this background and were confronted with the conditions of this

story, this scene, how would you feel? What would you think and do?

5) Physicality - All your study and ideas must be translated into your body - into your

physicality and actions. Make your body wise. Given your Personality and your Background - How

do you walk, talk, sing, breathe, sit, dress, whistle etc? - What habitual gestures, tensions or ways of

holding your body express you and what you want and what you are trying to overcome? Is there a

single psychological gesture you can find that reveals your secret, innermost motivation and

personality? What habits/addictions do you have and why? - drinking, drugs, smoking etc. If a

dialect is required - study it outside of the script at first. Live with it in your daily life. When it feels

natural and in your body apply it to the script. Learn to live in your costume and shoes.

6) Emotion is Life - the agitation/motion/feeling of Life in our body. Life is the result of

breathing - breathing the possibility of getting what you want, pursuing what you want, and being

confronted by obstacles and overcoming obstacles and winning objectives and losing objectives etc.

We hold our breath to stop Life - to stop feeling, to stop listening and receiving, to stop being

affected. Breathe and you will feel - then live out the events of the scene and your feelings will

change as a result of how you are affected by the events and by the people you encounter. Feeling is

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provoked indirectly by our actions. Action with qualities is the easiest way to living feelings.

Actions express “what” happens - Quality (feeling) shows “how” it happens. (Example: reaching to

pick up a glass with great caution will evoke a different feeling than grabbing at it with urgency)

7) RELATIONSHIPS - Read the play again and this time explore the relationships. We do

not exist outside of relationship, so if we cut off we are not alive - we are just presenting some pre-

planned idea. We must be in relationship with ourselves, each other, and our environment.

Who are the other characters in the play and how are you related to them and how do you

feel about them? Get a hook into the other character. If it’s love you feel - find something to love -

something to evoke the love.What’s going on between the characters? What do you want from each

one and what do they seem to want from you? How does each character enable you, or stand in the

way of you gaining your objective. How do your feelings change about each character as the play

progresses and why?

You must stay open to the other characters, receiving their words, their body language, their

needs and their intonations and be affected by them.

You must constantly TRACK how your actions are affecting the other character or

characters. Are you changing them in any way? Are you affecting them? If not - you might have to

change your tactics, your attitude etc.

8) ACTIONS AND OBSTACLES: All preparation is to inform the WHAT, HOW, WHY

and WHEN of your ACTIONS. In each scene explore your objectives and the actions you take to get

what you want. How do your objectives in each scene lead you to winning your super-objective?

How do you attempt to overcome the obstacles in your way - the people, the events, the weather,

your own personality etc. What tactics do you use? Do you win or lose? How does the win or loss

affect you?

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 9) COVER-UP OR MASK: Given your background, your personality, your relationship -

What mask do you wear in order to get what you want? What feelings do you hide and how do you

hide them and why do you hide them?

10) EVENTS: Where are the events in the scene? You are pursuing your objective, your

relationships, and something happens - That’s an event . You can’t just ignore it. It’s a signpost that

something new has to be dealt with. - a piece of new information, a change in someones tone of

voice, a surprise visit, a weather change, a loud noise, etc. etc. You have to stay awake to the

changes of event so that you don’t just pursue your objectives with blinders on. Each event affects

you and your pursuits.

11) CONDITIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES -for each scene

Where does it take place - a church, a hockey arena, your own apartment, a posh gathering

etc. BE AFFECTED by your surroundings.

What is the weather and/or temperature? Hot, cold, wet, BE AFFECTED.

What other senses are stimulated? -Is there a smell? What textures do you come in contact

with when your body touches things and people? What do you taste? What do you hear? BE

AFFECTED.

*The action you take to alleviate the unpleasant sensation or to enhance the pleasant

sensation allows you to experience and express the sensation.

Time - how does time affect this scene? Are you in a hurry? Have you got all the time in the

world? Is there urgency? LET TIME AFFECT YOU.

What circumstances have brought you to this place at this time. If there’s a war raging

outside that is a very powerful circumstance. BE AFFECTED.

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 What person or persons are involved and what do they have to do with the events in the

scene? BE AFFECTED

Why is this scene taking place? Why have you come here? What is the expectation? What is

the result you’re hoping for? What do you dread, if anything? BE AFFECTED.

12) IMAGES and INNER LIFE - As you are pursuing your objectives, there is an inner

dialogue, a constant experience of images going on inside. In fact, what we say and do rarely reveals

what’s really going on inside of us. To create this subtext, find images that evoke the real thoughts

and feelings of your character.

Throughout your life, your subconscious has stored images associated with your experiences.

When you are preparing a character and you ask yourself what images would express what you are

feeling, your subconscious will spit out something that you may not understand - DO NOT

CENSOR this information - It’s powerful -and the more you trust these strange images the richer

your inner life will be.

13) THE FIRST MOMENT - All preparation is for this first moment - after that, you must

live moment to moment as if ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. What happens before your entrance or

the curtain rises or the director shouts action? What does ACTION MEAN FOR YOU? You must

be in the Breath and in the Life of the Character before Action is called. Invent an obstacle to

overcome just before your entrance - a run in your nylon, a piece of hair in your eye, an umbrella

that won’t unfurl.etc. etc. Take in all stimuli as part of the circumstance of the moment - noise,

chaos, silence, someone powdering your nose. Feel all the stimuli as being there for you and to be

included in your energy. BREATHE IT ALL IN!!!!

14) IMPULSES - learn to trust and follow your impulses.

Once you embody the character you must allow him/her to inform you.

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