Five Hagen Exercises 

Who is Uta Hagen? 

Uta Hagen (12 June 1919 - 14 January 2004) made her professional debut in 1937 at the age 
of 18 as Ophelia in Hamlet. In 1938 she made her Broadway debut as Nina in the The 
SeaGull. She played in twenty-two Broadway productions, including the legendary Othello 
with Paul Robeson (which got her blacklisted in Hollywood). For decades Uta Hagen was one 
of the most important acting teachers in America. She has had a profound influence on the 
way acting is practiced and thought about. 
— 
A Mini Acting Workshop  
This mini-workshop is based on five of Hagen’s "Ten Objective Exercises" described in her 
books "Respect for Acting" and "A Challenge for the Actor". 
The exercises were specifically created by Hagen for solo actors, to deal with developing the 
actor's physical destination in a role, recreating physical sensations, finding occupation while 
waiting, and other exercises to help the actor recreate truthful behavior in front of the 
audience. 
These exercises focus on specific problems that the actor faces in rehearsal and 
performance. They are solo exercises based on her nine essential questions (see next page). 
— 
What 
● Through a series of solo exercises, you will develop methods to 
○ engage in the pursuit of an objective, 
○ Create and explore the given circumstances of a dramatic situation, and 
○ behave truthfully and honestly in a performance environment. 
How 
● With each exercise, you define and then re-create two seemingly routine minutes of 
life when alone at home. These two minutes are spent in the execution of a simple 
task in pursuit of a normal objective. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Uta Hagen's "Nine Questions" 
These questions must be answered for each character study in order to define your role with 
as many specifics as possible. Consider these questions as research questions and continue 
to add answers and details as you explore and rehearse your character. 
1. WHO AM I? 
a. All the details about your character including name, age, address, relatives, 
likes, dislikes, hobbies, career, description of physical traits, opinions, beliefs, 
religion, education, origins, enemies, loved ones, sociological influences, etc. 
What is my present state of being? How do I perceive myself? What am I 
wearing? 
2. WHAT TIME IS IT? 
a. Century, season, year, day, minute, significance of time. 
3. WHERE AM I? 
a. Country, city, neighborhood, home, room, area of room. 
4. WHAT SURROUNDS ME? 
a. Animate and inanimate objects — complete details of environment. The 
immediate landscape? The weather? The condition of the place and the 
nature of the objects in it? 
5. WHAT ARE THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES? 
a. Past, present, future and all of the events. What has just happened, is 
happening? What do I expect or plan to happen next and later on? 
6. WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP? 
a. Relation to total events, other characters, and to things. How do I stand in 
relationship to the circumstances, the place, the objects, and the other people 
related to my circumstances? 
7. WHAT DO I WANT? 
a. My character's need. The immediate and main objective. 
8. WHAT IS IN MY WAY? 
a. The obstacles which prevent my character from getting her need. 
9. WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT? 
a. The action: physical and verbal. How can I achieve my objective? What's my 
behavior? What are my actions? How far am I willing to go? 
 
General Information 
● With each exercise, you define and then re-create two seemingly routine minutes of 
life when alone at home. These two minutes are spent in the execution of a simple 
task in pursuit of a normal objective. 
 ● Your exercise is based on a thorough examination of the nine essential questions 
found on the previous page. 
● Remember to define the physical and psychological sensations inherent in the 
circumstances. 
● The exercises will all take place in your re-created room — where you live now. Do not 
set them in any other environment. 
● When rehearsing in the privacy of your own home, you should already be making 
considerations for your selected actions, avoiding those that cannot be transferred to 
the DramaLabs workspace. 
● Use real objects, endowing them with the physical and psychological properties that 
will make them your own. Avoid anything that will force you into pantomimed 
actions. Be sure to use these objects as tools to further your actions, not as "props." 
● As in all art, you will need to be highly selective about what you incorporate into your 
exercise. Choose only what you need to communicate your intention. Learn how to 
select pertinent behavior, finding meaningful actions. 
● The exercises are not intended to be mute. If you discover that you sigh, grunt, or 
grown, use expletives or otherwise verbalize your wishes, don't hesitate to include 
such responses in your exercise. However, keep it true to your own behavior under 
the given circumstances. Do not use language to explain what you are doing. 
● Keep it simple by avoiding melodramatic situations. 
● You should rehearse the exercise at home for at least one hour. This means doing it, 
not just thinking about it! 
● Time the exercise. They should be two to three minutes in length, no more, no less. If 
it is too long, reevaluate the need for the actions, sharpen the selections, pare down 
everything you don't need to fulfill your objectives. 
● The most important criteria used in evaluating the exercise will be the question of 
belief: Was the execution believable? 
 
The First Exercise: Physical Destination 
Purpose 
● The purpose of this exercise is to​ test those things that send us from one place to 
another, that determine the logic of physical life. 
Presentation 
● Explore two to three minutes of your behavior in the pursuit of a simple task, taking 
into careful consideration the criteria set out on the previous page. Choose 
circumstances that necessitate an entrance from the into the playing area and 
eventually an exit. 
Keep in mind 
● While occupied with the task in the playing area, you may also choose to leave 
momentarily to get or leave something in another room before reentering the playing 
area. 
As in all of the exercises, your story should have a clear beginning, middle and end. 
● In the examination of your selected actions, put your destinations under a microscope 
to discover how many are consciously motivated, how many occur by reflex, and 
which of them are subconsciously instigated. 
 
The Second Exercise: The Fourth Wall 
Purpose 
● The purpose of this exercise is to discover and test ways of creating the imagined 
fourth wall of the playing space occupied by the audience, one that is logical to it 
even as it embraces that separation. 
Presentation 
● Use a telephone call as the premise for your two-minute exercise. After settling on 
the nature of the phone call, be sure to include all aspects of a basic exercise: time, 
place, circumstances, objectives and obstacles. Whether you are discovered at the 
phone in the beginning of the exercise, or decide to make a call after entering, or 
receive a call while otherwise occupied is unimportant. Make certain that the balance 
of the exercise concerns itself with a phone call. During the phone call, engage in the 
fourth wall. 
Keep in mind 
● Rehearse the call; don't improvise it. While you shouldn't write out the dialogue, you 
must know exactly to whom and about what you are speaking, as well as the content 
of what is being said to you. 
 
The Third Exercise: Changes in Self 
Purpose 
● The purpose of this exercise is to expand your sense of self. 
Presentation 
● Find circumstances under which you will make a phone call or calls during which you 
speak to at least three people. Make sure that your relationship to each of them is 
 markedly different from the others. The change in your sense of self and how 
differently you present yourself to each person will manifest itself while you are 
dealing with the content of what you are saying to each other, in your tone of voice, 
verbal idiom, even in bodily adjustments. 
Keep in mind 
● It is unimportant whether you talk to three people in the course of the same call, 
make three separate short calls, or are interrupted by incoming calls. 
 
The Fourth Exercise: Moment to Moment 
Purpose 
● The purpose of this exercise is to help the actor address one of the most difficult 
technical problems: how to repeat selected actions at each take from moment to 
moment, as if for the first time. It is achieved by a suspension of knowledge of what is 
to come, by "forgetting" everything except what is needed at the moment with the 
profound innocence that is part of an actor's soul. 
Presentation 
● Select specific circumstances for a two-to-three-minute event, during which you will 
search for -- and eventually find -- and object that you have mislaid or believe to be 
lost. 
Keep in mind 
● The final presentation of this exercise should truly test your ability to direct your full 
attention to one need at a time. Make yourself believe in the existence of each new 
moment. 
● Be sure that the missing object has meaning to you, so that your stakes remain high 
while looking for it. 
 
The Fifth Exercise: Re-creating Physical Sensations 
Purpose 
● The purpose of this exercise is to help the actor understand that by endowing the 
objects and the conditions prescribed by the playwright with imagined realities, she 
can produce sensations at will. In part two, you will learn to imaginatively stimulate 
sense memories by the conditions that are part of the playwright's given 
circumstances. 
Presentation 
 ● Select an event during which you must deal with three or more conditions. Start by 
determining an event the same as you would for any exercise. You will rehearse, as 
always, making sure that everything has been particularized. When it is real to you 
and can be repeated with spontaneity, rework it by adding one condition. When such 
a condition truly affects you and has become truthfully incorporated, add another 
condition to the exercise. When this condition is real to you, add the third condition. 
Keep in mind 
● Keep in mind that these are conditions of the event and not the primary function of a 
scene.