Choose only a few questions to answer.
CHARACTER and ROLE ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
The following resources supply
approaches used singularly or in combination to analyze the character you are playing. None of them are academic exercises, but
rather important tools
to unlock the character process for the
actor. Included are the following five
character development tools:
- Character Analysis Questions
Although
the questions are many and very involved, in order to create the full life of
the character, the actor should know the answers to all these questions
regarding:
Physical
Social
Psychological
Moral
The Play
- Uta Hagen’s NINE Questions
The famous acting teacher, who died in March of 2004
is noted for her work as
an actress and teacher/coach of some
of the most respected actors of today.
Her book
Respect
for Acting is must reading for all
serious actors and students of the theatre. Knowing the answers to her “NINE
QUESTIONS” is an important tool to use for scene and monologue work. Many
actors used these questions only.
- Seven Steps to Heaven
Jerry Crawford’s approach to scene work for actors and
directors. This is possibly
the best way to organically approach
a process for working on your material.
- Character Biography
Taken
from the video “Building a Character” this form is useful to help create the
full given circumstances of the character and his full life. Although the document may change during the
rehearsal processes, actor’s are encouraged to do this work early and then
reflect/change are the process work grows.
- Short Form Role Analysis
Used
with the character biography, this is the best
pre-rehearsal work for the actor to complete to prepare for working on a
scene/monologue/play.
Character Analysis Questions
The
actor must know the answer to every question, though the character in
performance may be
(probably
is), ignorant of many.
Physical Qualities
1. Who
am I?
2. Who
am I named after? Do I like my name?
3. What
is my gender? What do I think about sex?
4. How
old am I? What do I think of my age?
5. How
does my posture express my age, health, inner feeling?
6. How
is my complexion? What do I think of it?
7. What
is my height? What do I think of I?
8. What
is my weight? What do I think of it?
9. What
is the pitch, volume, tempo, resonance or quality of my voice? What do I think of it?
10. Is my
articulation careless or precise? Is my
articulation standard or colloquial? Do
I have a dialect or accent?
11. What
is my hair color and style? Do I like
it?
12. Do I
have any deformities? What do I think of
them?
13. Do I
have any mannerisms? What do I think of
them?
14. Do I
have any handicaps? What do I think of
them?
15. How
energetic or vital am I? Do I like it?
16. Do I
suffer from any diseases past or present?
17. Are
my gestures complete or incomplete, vigorous or weak, compulsive or controlled?
18. Do I
like my walk?
19. How
do I usually sit?
20. How
do I usually stand?
21. Do I
have any objects, hand props or accessories with me? Why? How do I handle them?
22. Are
my basic rhythms smooth or jerky, even-tempered or volatile, impulsive or
deliberate, ponderous or light, broken or continuous?
23. What
do I like to wear? What do I have to
wear? How do I wear my clothes? How do I handle them?
Social Qualities
- What
do I do when I wake up each morning?
- What
is my relationship to my environment? Do I like it?
- What
is my educational background? How
much discipline was I subjected to?
How intelligent am I?
- What
was my childhood like? What are my
strongest memories?
- How
much money do I have? How much do I
want?
- What
is my nationality? What do I think
of it?
- What
is my occupation? Do I like
it? What other jobs have I
had? When and why did I choose this
one?
- What
are my political attitudes?
- Am I
religious?
- Whom
would I choose to be if I could be anyone else?
- Did I
have childhood heroes? What did I
like about them?
- Do I
like members of the opposite sex?
What do I like about them?
- Who
were my parents? What do I like
and/or dislike about them?
- Do I
like my family? What do I
like? What do I dislike?
- How
has my mother influenced me? How
has my father influenced me?
- Do I
have brothers and sisters? What do
I think about them?
- What
was my favorite fairy tale? Why?
- Who
are my friends? Who are my
enemies? How can I tell if someone
is a friend or an enemy?
- What
ideas do I like? What ideas do I
dislike?
- What
hobbies or interests do I have?
- Do I
have children? Do I like them? Why?
Do they like me?
- What
advice do I have for my children?
- Am I
married? Why did I marry the person
I did?
- What
do I think about my spouse? What do
I dislike?
- How do
my physical traits affect each of the social traits?
- How do
the social traits affect the script and my objective?
- How do
the social traits affect my life needs and wants?
Psychological Qualities
- What
choices do I face?
- What
choices do I make?
- What
makes me angry? What relaxes me?
- What are
my driving ambitions, my goals?
- Do I
have ny instincts?
- Do I
do things impulsively?
- What
do I worry about?
- What
do I want? What do others think I
want?
- What
do I like about myself? Dislike about myself?
- What
do I need?
- What
do I fear?
- Why
can’t I get what I want?
- Do
other people like me? Why?
- Are
any of my psychological traits manifested physically?
- Are
any of my psychological traits manifested vocally?
Moral Qualities
- Are
the choices I will make based upon expediency of some ethical standard?
- Who do
I admire?
- Will
the pursuit of my needs lead to a moral choice?
- What
is my attitude toward the choice I make?
- How do
I express this attitude vocally and physically?
Play Qualities
- Why am
I included in the play? How do I
contribute to the overall idea the playwright wises to express?
- What
similes, metaphors, or personifications are used to describe me?
- How
and why are these figures of speech related to my physical, social,
psychological, and moral traits.
- Why do
I make each of my stage entrances?
What do I want each time?
What
am I thinking about at each stage
entrance?
- Where
have I been prior to each of my stage entrances? How does this affect my actions verbally
and physically? What would I like
to see or do when I enter?
- How does the locale of the play make me
feel?
- How
does the time of the play make me feel?
- How
does the period of the play affect my actions?
UTA HAGEN’S “NINE QUESTIONS”
Uta Hagen: Respect for Acting
1. Who am
I? (character-search
for character’s life prior to play’s/scene’s beginning)
2. Where
am I? (environment: location, conditions)
3. What
surrounds me? (persons, objects, color and texture)
4. What
time is it? (hour, minute, date, year, century, era)
5. What are the given circumstances? (those
events, facts, and conditions
occurring
before or during the play/scene that affect the character and /or action)
6. What is my relationship? (to all of the above and to
other characters-solid or
shifting?)
7. What do I want? (Objectives or Intention –includes
the overall character
objectives as well as more immediate beat-to-beat
intentions).
8. What’s in my way? (Obstacle)
9.
What do I do to get what I want? (ACTION – VERBS; physical, verbal,
psychological)
SEVEN STEPS TO HEAVEN
“How
to Prepare or Coach a Short Scene for Lab/Studio/Class/Audition Performance” Jerry Crawford
- DO EACH STEP A MINIMUM
OF 60 MINUTES
- KEEP A LOG OF ALL REHEARSALS/PERFORMANCES
- COMPLETE A SHORT-FORM ROLE ANALYSIS DOCUMENT
- DO NOT FORCE LINE MEMORIZATION. LET THE LINES BE ASSIMILATED INTO MEMORY
OVER THE REHEARSAL PERIOD.
- USE NO EARLY, SET BLOCKING.
- USE COSTUME AND PROP ITEMS FROM THE BEGINNING (AT
LEAST USE
FACSIMILES—NO
PANOMIMIC WORK.)
THE SEVEN STEPS
1.
Information
read-through (no effort of any kind; do not work for characterization or
emotion; just gather textual facts.)
2.
Communion
read-through (maximum eye contact, touching when comfortable and natural;
pauses and paraphrasing used as necessary)
3.
Improvisation
(talk and walk-through; focus on covering the information learned via your own
words; focus on covering all “subject” or “issue” beats in the scene.
4.
Exploration
(script in hand; “organic combing and search”).
weather/climate
work
eating/drinking
work
opposite value
work
entrance/exit
work
opposite style
work
role reversal
work
single intention
work
correlative art
forms work
music work
special problem
work (dialects, limps & handicaps, love scenes, fights, nudity, violence,
etc.)
metaphor work
special
object/hand prop work, etc.
5.
Set the movement
patterns and set all “scoring of business”.
Make final character and emotion decisions (choices and discarding).
6.
Rhythm
run-through with all performance “tech” items involved. (Full character and
emotion work.)
7.
Polish
run-throughs (ideally with someone observing, taking and giving notes).
“Preview” in front of a few persons, if
possible.
Performance. (Followed by self-evaluation in writing via
the completion of your log. Complete any
revisions of the short-form role analysis document.)
ACTORS,
DIRECTORS, COACHES CAN APPLY THE SEVEN STEPS TO FULL SCENE REHEARSALS AS WELL
AS TO ENTIRE PLAY REHEARSALS.
Character Biography
(if additional space is needed
use a separate sheet) taken
from the video “Building a Character”
Play Title: Character
Name:
PHYSICAL
Age: Center
of Gravity:
Posture: Cleanliness:
Dialect: Hearing:
Eyesight: I.Q.:
Tempo/Gestures/Movement/Speech
PERSONALITY
Secret:
Religion:
Prejudices:
Curiosity:
Imagination:
Ambition:
Education:
Ability to Reason:
Alertness/Daydreamer:
Self-Image/Ego:
Giving:
Reliability:
Jealousy/Fear/Pride/Inferiority:
Thoughts About Other Characters:
Other Characters’ Thoughts About
Him/Her:
ENVIRONMENT
Parents/Status: Siblings/Status:
Other Relatives/Status: Husband/Wife
Status:
Residence/Status: Job/Salary/Social
Class
Previous Action/Off-Stage Action: Childhood:
_________________________________________________________________________________
Superobjective:
Secondary Objectives:
Obstacles:
Passion(s):
Short-Form Role Analysis
This form
was developed by Jerry Crawford, University of Nevada-Las Vegas and was
distributed at a regional American College Theatre Festival workshop.
Each actor/actress is asked to complete this form and
return it. Whenever possible, all
answers or comments are to be based strictly on information about your
character supplied in the actual text!
When this is not possible, you may create answers or comments provided
they are logically related to information in the text. Note:
This is an opportunity for fresh, original actor creativity, provided in
an organic framework for directing and acting which permits and encourages
artistic individuality as well as artistic collaboration.
Name of actor/actress
_______________________________
Name of character ___________________________________________
Age of character Precise
birthdate of character ________________
Astrological sign ____________________What
significance, if any, to this sign?
Generally, how
"physically active" is your character?
Name
an animal (not a bird) which in appearance, movement, or manner seems analogous
to your role.
What is it about this animal
that most specifically relates to your role?
Can you name a person close
to you, family or friend, who seems to be a good deal like your character? If so, name him or her. (relationship)
Can
you name a famous person who seems to be a good deal like your character? If so, name him or her.
Vocally, is your character
generally quiet and demure or loud and flamboyant?
If neither, how would you
describe your character's vocal nature?
Basically, how would you
describe the way your character likes to dress (casual, tailored, sloppy, neat,
colorful, etc.)?
How would you describe the
way your character likes to wear or comb his/her hair?
Select the three or four major
emotions your character seems to encounter the most (fear, love, hate, anger,
etc.).
Give an example from the
text in which each of the examples you listed are revealed (use back of
page if necessary).
What is the MF or
motivational force (spine) of your character? (e.g., in Death of a Salesman,
"Willy wants Biff to love him again.") State the MF of your character by beginning
with the name of your character and the word, "wants. . ." If possible, the spine or "want"
should relate to another character or characters in the play.
What is the major beat or
action (or key moment of activity and/or decision/choice) in the play for your
character (the most important moment in the play for your character)?
Describe in short phrases the
major activities your character engaged in during the day of action of
the play (from rising, up to the first entrance on stage).
Describe in short phrases the
major activity your character engages in during all offstage time after
every exit made during the action of the play.
Create a list of 5-8 major
character "idiosyncrasies, likes and dislikes" for your
character. (e.g. likes cheeseburgers and
french fries, suffers from insomnia, reads mystery novels, likes Dustin Hoffman
movies, hates John Wayne movies, etc.)
Add any other pertinent notes
or comments about your character.
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