A Roadmap of Intentions in Acting

The scene so far: Ratso first dismissed his friend Joe’S generous gift of medicine and clothing, earned with the money of Joe’S first score as gigolo, because Joe bought them instead of stole them. Joe, with his usual naiveté, reassures his friend that they will soon be rolling in money. Ratso apologizes and confesses to his friend that he is worried to death about what will happen to him if he goes the hospital. Joe, troubled by his friend’s trembling, is about to set out to find a doctor when Ratso stops him. Ratso tells Joe that he wants to go to Florida. Joe, who has promised to accompany him there someday, refuses to go with him now.

The scene ends with the following dialogue and action:

If we were to make a quick Roadmap of Joe’s major intentions moment-to-moment, they might be:

The important thing about these verbs is that they are what the actor can act. They can be realized verbally and physically in any way the actor chooses.

Now let’s look at what Ratso can play if he follows his Roadmap of Intentions:

Stanislavski taught us that an actor cannot summon up emotions on call; s/he can only trick or lure them to the surface by physical activity, or as Nicholson says:

Feeling for the actor is an organic by-product of doing, it should never be a thing by itself.

One of the classic criticisms of Actors Studio training in the Strasberg Method era was that Strasberg’s pupils were so focused on being emotional that they often completely ignored their partners and the script. Therefore, when an actor sets out to learn a role rather than the emotions of the role, one of the most useful bits of homework s/he can do is to draw a Roadmap of intentions from the beginning of the scene to end.

For Joe it might be:

LIGHTEN-ASSUAGE-BOAST-AGREE-DISCOVER-CLARIFY-BE CERTAIN-REASSURE-INFORM-REMIND-REFUTE-REMIND-DISPLAY-HURT are strung together like beads on a string from the beginning of the scene to then end. They are active verbs which when played result in clear and vivid action.

I always recommend that the actor set this string to memory before attempting to learn the words of the text. (Prof Palmer addendum: doing this requires a lot of script study. You cannot shirk on this.) Doing so is the most dependable guide to where s/he is going in the scene, and in a larger sense, in the play. Realisations of these intentions, of course, vary from actor to actor, night-to-night, take-to-take, because they are always dependent on what the actor receives in the way of reponse (BAU 3) from his/her partner(s).

Every character in a well-written play begins with a prescribed destination The Super Objective. A desire to be or do. That journey is often interrupted by roadblocks and obstacles to be overcome by the constant shifting of Specific Intentions and Specific Realisations.

Each shift may require a change in colour: the use of voice and body in response to what is happening in the moment. These shifts, as we have seen, sometimes change drastically line-to-line. The actor who has studied these steps, set them to memory, has a distinct advantage: s/he is in relaxed and in a state of readiness where anything can happen.

By entering into the inner life and intentions of the character, the actor has tricked him/herself into the subjective state that the character is experiencing. The audience responds. What the spectator sees appears to be totally spontaneous and real.