Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mr. Burt, and welcome to your drama lesson.

This is the first of three drama lessons looking at a unit of learning called approaching a text, bringing it to life.

And in all three lessons we're going to be looking at different ways in which we as actors can bring to life a script ready for performance.

And in this first lesson, we're going to be looking at the process of characterization.

But before we make a start, let's have a quick look at what equipment we're going to need for this lesson.

For this lesson, you're going to need a worksheet or a piece of paper, a pen, and a highlighter.

So make sure that you've got those pieces of equipment and let's get started once you've got them.

Now we're going to start today's lesson with a quick warm up activity.

We're going to play a quick game of still images.

Now this is really easy.

You don't need anything around you to do this with.

What you are going to do is create a quick still image.

If you're not sure what a still image is, it basically involves you making a freeze with your body, using your body language and face and expressions to communicate a feeling or an idea or a thought to your audience.

So for example, if I say the word promise, I might think about someone who's got a promise to keep and will really try their best to keep that promise.

And I might then go three, two, one, and into position for that.

So, I'm going to say a word.

I'm going to give you 30 seconds to get into that still image.

And the first word, since you've said it already, is going to be promise.

So you have 30 seconds.

Your 30 seconds starts now, go.

You've got 20 seconds left.

10 seconds left.

Five, four, three, two, one, and freeze.

Freeze in whatever position you are that communicates to your audience.

Some sort of promise.

Promise that you want to keep, the promise you are desperate not to break.

Excellent.

And relax.

Okay, let's try another word.

This word is guilt or guilty.

Being guilty or being wracked and filled with guilt.

Think about how you can express that using your facial expressions, your body language, the space around you, the distance between you and the screen perhaps.

Perhaps the screen could be another character.

You've got 25 seconds this time.

Your 25 seconds starts now, go.

That's 10 seconds gone.

I've got to think about it.

15 seconds left.

Five, four, three, two, one, and freeze.

Show us what you've got.

And I'm going to ask you to exaggerate it.

So over the next five seconds I want you to exaggerate everything you possibly can.

Make all your muscles really tense.

Exaggerate everything part of your face.

You got five seconds.

Five, four, three, two, one, freeze.

And relax.

That's hard.

This time we're going to do one more.

And I'm going to give you three, 30 seconds this time to create a still image based on the word worried, right? Worried, to be full of worry, worrying about something.

Someone who is constantly worried.

Now to your interpretation.

Have a think about it.

You've got 30 seconds.

You're 30 seconds starts now, go.

That's 10 seconds gone.

You've got 20 seconds left.

That's 10 seconds gone.

You got 10 seconds left.

Five, four, three, two, one and freeze.

Excellent.

Keep that freeze, keep it really frozen.

And I'm going to say five and I'm going to count from five to one.

And in that time I want you to really, really intensify it.

So really make sure that all your muscles are really tense.

That all the emotions you're sensing are really intense and really communicate across to the audience what you're feeling through your facial expressions.

You got five seconds, five, four, three, two, one, and freeze.

Excellent.

And relax.

Let's just think for a moment what those three words were.

They were promise, guilty, and worried.

Now we're definitely going to come across those three words later on when we look at the monologue.

So think and remember what we did for each of those still images because you might want to use those again when we come across them later.

Let's have a quick rundown of what we're going to do in this lesson.

We're going to start with some key words.

There's quite a lot of key words that we need to use in this lesson.

So we're going to look through them very carefully.

Then we're going to look at one in particular called the given circumstances.

Then we're going to move on and use those to look in the next key term, motivation.

All these words will be explained later in the lesson.

Then we're going to do some acting.

We're going to perform a monologue and we're going to finish with a quiz.

Before we go on there are some key words we need to know and understand before we can succeed in our lesson.

Characterization itself is a process that we go through as actors where we create a character, where we go from absolutely nothing to maybe a bit of text to a full on performance to an audience.

And that process starts with three key terms. The first of those key terms are the given circumstances.

Now the given circumstances are all the basic information about a character.

Usually, it is written by the author and we have to go and find it by reading through the text and reading through any information that the author has given us about that character.

The next key word is interpretation.

Now interpretation is when you use all the given circumstances you've been given to create your own ideas for the character.

So this is the point where we start to take all the information from the author and then start to have our own ideas about how we can perform the character.

And then finally, motivation.

Motivation is the term we use to describe why a character does something on stage.

And we use our interpretation to form that motivation.

So we can see that it's a process.

Characterization starts with the given circumstances which we then use to create our interpretation, which we then use to think about our character's motivation.

Before we go any further let's just check your understanding of those key words and their definitions.

So just very quickly match up the keywords with their definitions.

Let's go through them again.

Given circumstances is the basic information about a character usually given to us by the author of the play.

Interpretation is using information to create your own ideas for the character.

And motivation is why a character does something on stage.

For this lesson we're going to be working with a monologue.

So let's just read the monologue.

It's from character A, character A is 14 years old and character is talking to their neighbour.

I'm going to read it and you can read along with me.

I was going to tell you, I promise.

I was going to tell you, I just, time just went by and it wasn't long before I'd forgotten about it.

So I just, I let it slip.

I didn't think it was important.

If I had known then what I know now of course, I would have said something immediately.

Do you think I'll get into trouble? That day when you caught me in your garden I was only there because I saw someone lurking in the back garden.

I wanted to ask them if they knew you.

How was I supposed to know that they were going to come back and do what they did? So before we go on and work with the monologue let's just have a quick check.

What are the keywords given circumstances and interpretation mean? Tell me now.

The given circumstances are all the basic information about a character.

Usually we get this from the author.

So in the case of this monologue, we need to read the monologue and find out the basic facts from it.

Then we begin to use our interpretation.

And that is when you use the given circumstances to create your own ideas for the character.

So this brings us to our first task.

And for our first task we're going to think about the given circumstances and the interpretation.

And we're going to write a list of all the things we know about the character, in this monologue based on what we've read, and we're going to write a list of questions of things we'd like to know about the character in the monologue.

So in order to help us complete this task, I'd like us to first draw out this table on a piece of paper.

So on the left-hand side you've got a column called facts about the character.

And on the right-hand side you've got a column about questions about the character.

So pause the video here, draw up the table, and press play when you've done that.

Before I ask you to do any more work I'm going to go through some examples that I've found.

I'm going to start with the given circumstances which are facts about the character.

So in the monologue, I have identified these three facts.

The character is 14 years old.

They've seen something happen in their neighbor's house and they didn't tell anyone about it.

Now there's lots of more facts.

And I want you to populate that column with as many factors you can find.

I've also found some questions that I'd like to find out.

Now I frame the questions in two ways.

The first way is through emotional questions, questions which are relevant to how the character is feeling at that moment in time.

And I've got more factual questions, questions that I'd like to know about what happens in the monologue that perhaps weren't described or detailed enough.

So my emotional question examples are, how do they feel about what has happened? Are they worried about getting found out? And what is their relationship like with their neighbour? Questions which are very much based on emotions and how the character is feeling.

But then I've got some questions which are more factual about the events.

What were they doing in the garden when they saw the suspicious people in the first place? What have the suspicious people actually done? So I've got some emotional questions and some factual questions.

So over to you now.

I'd like you in the moment to pause the video and read through the monologue which is on the screen or on the worksheet, and I'd like you to first of all identify as many key facts as you can about the character and write those in that first column, facts about your character.

And then I'd like you to read through the monologue again.

And I'd like you to write down as many questions as you can about how the character is feeling at this moment.

And any other details and facts that you think you need to know about what has happened in the monologue.

As a guide you will have far more questions than you will have facts.

So pause the video now and press play when you finish that activity.

Now that you've completed that table and we've got our list of given circumstances, the facts about the character, we need to start thinking about how we would interpret that character for our performance.

And the way we go about that is by answering the questions.

So for example, on my first question, how do they feel about what has happened? I'm going to say that actually they feel quite guilty and perhaps a little bit sad about what has happened.

Then that they are worried about getting found out.

You know perhaps they feel guilty about not telling anyone and keeping it a secret.

Or perhaps actually more guilty that they didn't think of it as being something important at the time where clearly now it is.

Now I'm going to be able to use that information when I start thinking about acting the character out because I've got key words of feeling sad and feeling guilty.

So what I would like you to do to complete this task is to work through your questions and answer them.

You can either answer them by annotating your work or you can answer them by saying the answers out loud.

So pause the video now and press play when you've done that task.

So let us take a moment to reflect on some of the key words that we've learned so far in this lesson.

So, so far we've been looking at the process of characterization.

So characterization is the process that we go through as actors to create a character.

And it starts with identifying the given circumstances which are the key facts and information which the author gives us.

Then we use that information to create our own interpretation of the character, to start filling in some of the gaps about how the character feels and thinks about the situation.

And so that brings us to the final key word for today's lesson, motivation.

So you tell me now, what does the word motivation mean? That's right.

Motivation is the term we use to describe why a character does something on stage.

So this brings us up onto our next task which is to consider what the character's motivation in the monologue we're going to perform today is.

And I want us to start by reflecting on all the answers that we've given to the questions in the previous exercise.

That this will help us understand what our interpretation of the character is.

And from that, we can begin to think, what is this character wanting from saying this monologue? What is it they want to achieve by saying this monologue? So on a piece of paper or on your worksheet complete the sentence in the monologue, my character's motivation is what? Pause the video to do this task and resume once you've finished.

This is my interpretation of the character's motivation in the monologue.

Now yours might be different because it is down to individual interpretation.

So what I think is that the character here is doing whatever they can not to get into trouble.

That they do feel quite guilty about what has happened but rather than owning up to the guilt and have being punished for it, what they really want to do is to not get in any trouble.

And the higher, the line for me that stands out the most is that last line, how was I supposed to know that they were going to come back and do what they did? Before we go on, what line from the monologue highlights your character's motivation the most? Now, before I ask you to act anything out I ain't going to demonstrate my own interpretation of the monologue.

Now I said before that my feel, my character here is really feeling quite guilty and quite sad, but also really doesn't want to be found out and get into any trouble.

And there's some key lines in here that I feel portray that motivation.

So I'm going to highlight them using my voice.

You can use the same.

So when you've gone through your interpretation, find out what emotional words you've used the most and try to find lines that you can say in that way.

It's a bit like trying to find some set of instructions for you to be able to say it in the way that you feel is most appropriate to your interpretation.

So I'm going to sit down because my character is quite upset.

And I think my character has been sat down by the neighbour who's also talking to me, opposite me.

So I'm going to talk to the camera like they're my neighbour.

And it goes something like this.

I was going to tell you.

I promise, I was going to tell you I just, time just went by and it wasn't long before you'd forgotten about it.

So I just.

I just let it slip.

I didn't think it was important.

You know, if I had known then what I know now of course I would have told something immediately.

Do you think I'll get into trouble? That day that you caught me in your garden, I was only there because I saw someone lurking in the back garden.

I was going to ask them if they knew you.

How was I supposed to know they were going to come back and do what they did? So this brings us up to our final task which is to perform the monologue.

And I want you to act out the whole monologue really thinking about how you've interpreted the character and your character's motivation and how you can communicate those to your audience through your use of voice.

So, pause the video now, either read off the screen or use the monologue on your worksheet and act out of the monologue now.

How was that task for you? How did the performance go? What was your interpretation of the character? Did you manage to find a line that summed up your characters motivation? And were you able to use your voice and perhaps some movement to be able to communicate that to an audience? Do you feel that you communicated your character to the audience? Those are tough set of questions and sometimes we don't get that always right.

But one thing we can think about when we go into our next performance is using those adjectives and adverbs that we use to describe our character, words like guilty, scared, worried, as a set of instructions for thinking about how we can act that out.

So maybe that might be a tip for the next time we do some performance.

Let's just finish up by checking our understanding of some of the key words we've used in this lesson.

Now characterization is a process of developing a character and it starts with these three key words, given circumstances, interpretation, and motivation.

Take a moment now to match up those key words with the definitions on the right.

So let's go through the answers.

Given circumstances are the basic information about a character which the author gives us and writes down either inside the monologue or in the stage directions or the descriptions of the character.

We use that information then to create our own interpretation of the character which is using information to create your own ideas for the character.

And from that, we develop a character's motivation which is why a character does something on stage.

Before we finish I just want to say, well done.

It can be really hard to perform and you've performed today and you've built on the other performances that we've done in the other lessons to create a really strong performance.

Well done.