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We are delighted to republish Prof. John Palmer’s ‘Theatre Briefs’ series, Actor Hub hope you find them as useful as we have.
This series of short essays about acting is reprinted with the kind permission of Professor John P Palmer of London, Ontario, Canada. He wrote these ‘Theatre Briefs’ for use by students and fellow actors during classes and rehearsals. Where he has relied on material from others, they are cited.
This series of short essays about acting is reprinted with the kind permission of Professor John P Palmer of London, Ontario, Canada. He wrote these ‘Theatre Briefs’ for use by students and fellow actors during classes and rehearsals. Where he has relied on material from others, they are cited.
Before each event in the script ask, “What does my character expect will be the outcome of this event?”
Then ask “What is the outcome?”
and finally, “How does my character respond to this outcome?”
Do this for every speech and every action by every other character who is on stage. I realise it takes time to do this, but at least try to think about it.
Here are some examples.
When people walk into a room or open a door or answer a phone, they usually have certain expectations of what they will see and experience on the other side. They anticipate what will be there and mentally (even if subconsciously) prepare themselves to deal with it. Then they will face one of two possible outcomes:
Either (a) the outcome confirms their expectations — everything is as they anticipated and they (think they) are prepared to meet the situation,
Or (b) the realisation that their expectations have been thwarted in some way — reality is much different from their expectations, and they are unprepared. Of course there are variations, too, but this approach may be helpful.
Reaction to the first situation will usually be a moderate one – it may be satisfaction, apprehension or dismay (if what s/he expected was unpleasant and s/he finds it so), pleasure (if it was pleasant) and so on.
Reaction to the second will usually include some measure of surprise, followed by (usually) a more intense emotion – joy, despair, horror, etc. – or at least startled realization (of whatever).
It becomes an interesting exercise to see what happens in a scene when the actor changes his expectations, and thus his reaction to the outcome.
It becomes an interesting exercise to see what happens in a scene when the actor changes his expectations, and thus his reaction to the outcome. For example, there is a big difference between walking into an empty room in a house that is for sale (with the expectation of seeing an empty room and the outcome that it is a room in which you can imagine your own furniture), and walking into an empty room in your own house (with the expectation of seeing your own furniture and the realization that someone has come and stolen everything).
Both scenes have empty rooms, but there are different circumstances, different expectations, different outcomes, and different reactions by the actor.
Now consider the same situation, but with different expectations. In the room are your spouse and your lover. One set of expectations, formed immediately from the way they look at your perhaps, might be they have never met, and you have no reason to believe they know anything about each other. A second set of expectations might be (from the way they look at you or at each other) that you know that they have been comparing notes and you are in real trouble. The outcome in the first expectation might be – a moment of relief, followed by realisation, followed by panic and thoughts of, “Oh damn! What do I do now?” In the second case, same entrance, one possible outcome might be a resigned, prepared calm, accompanied by thoughts of: “Well, I suppose I have some explaining/lying/begging/pleading to do”.
This approach can be very helpful in understanding how to keep a your performance fresh, after weeks of rehearsals.
This approach can be very helpful in understanding how to keep a your performance fresh, after weeks and months of rehearsals. You can experience the same discoveries every night if you understand how to discover/choose expectations for yourself that are realised or thwarted, whichever is appropriate.
For example, even though the actor knows that the keys are not in the top drawer, the actor must expect for them to be there in order for the discovery to be “as if” for the first time.
Another example: an actor playing Petrucchio may know that he’s going to get slapped, but he’ll be much more surprised if he expects a kiss.
From work by Arlene Schulman and Mark Paladini
These essays may be reproduced at no charge for non-commercial purposes. Just please acknowledge the original source (John Palmer) and his blog Eclectecon.
Also please retain the attributions included in the briefs.
You may not use these resources for commercial purposes.
Professor John P Palmer’s Theatre Essays
