How an Actress Gets Into Character
I'm a young theatre actress, but I've had enough years of experience to find a pretty fool proof method of finding your character.
Hi! Alright so I'm currently in rehearsal for a play called “Pullman Car Hiawatha”, I’m playing the “Insane Woman” who is one of the main characters. Now before I can get into character I have to breakdown the character! I’ll be posting a separate article on that soon as it is WAY too long to put in here! But once I know EVERYTHING about the character I can’t finally start becoming her.
For a performance, plays especially, it is important to know what each word you’re saying means. The writer chose those words for a reason and it’s your job to interpret what that reason is! Once I mostly know what I’m saying (a first draft of how I might say my lines), I start saying them out loud and even saying other phrases not in the script but with the same intent. For example an actual line of mine is “I don’t want to go to that place” but instead I practice the dialect with the phrase “but I don’t WANT to!” It helps tremendously with finding out what kind of person your character is.
Once most of the research is out of the way you can start dressing up casually as your character! I know it sounds a little bold but that’s what theatre is all about. When I played Esmeralda in “The Hunchback Of Notre Dame” I started by putting little things in my wardrobe that reminded me of her, just to get me in the right mindset. For example, ever since I got the role I started wearing hoop earring to rehearsal, they helped me to really feel like I was truly the character living her life. Then as time progressed I started adding things like character makeup, hair and rehearsal clothes that made me feel like a gypsy girl. Of course things like makeup and hair can change but it’s a really good way to feel your character throughout the rehearsal process. A perk to this strategy is that you kind of stay in character as long as you’re wearing your little reminders, to this day whenever I wear hoop earrings I feel like I’m in the city of Paris running from the archdeacon.
Outside of rehearsal I like to incorporate elements of my character into everyday life. Sometimes I find myself talking like my character, dressing like them or even eating and sleeping like them. It’s another way of staying slightly in character all the time so you never lose your edge.
One thing that really helped me get into character especially for roles that are nothing like me, is to make a “get into character playlist” I’ve made one for the past 4 shows I’ve done and they are probably the most helpful tools to get into character other than making myself look like them with hair, makeup and costume. My rule of thumb for choosing songs is if you can see your character in the music video for that song then it’s probably a good song for you to at least feel the vibe of your character.
There’s probably more tips that I’ve missed but these are the ones I’ve been using for the past year so I hope you learned something and thanks for reading!
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Sun God: A Short Story
A young boy sits under his favourite tree, it gives him apples and stands the tallest on the family farm. The boy watches the sunflower crops and wonders how such delicate beings can grow so high. He himself was only 6 years old and three foot three, for the first time the boy felt jealous. Jealous of the sunflowers and resented how in only a year they have undeservedly grown to twice his height. Life wasn’t fair, not to the boy. He shot up and dusted off his work pants before running straight through the overgrown sunflower crop. Finding the largest, strongest one, ‘it’s taunting me’ the boy thought. Without hesitation the young lad of only three foot three accessed the thick, woody stem using the branching leaves like stepping stones. His young arms began to hurt, feeling the strain of pulling their host up a giant twice his own height. But the boy was nothing if not determined, through the intense ache, he pulled and climbed up until he sat atop the giant flower. Looking out over the large expanse of stretch of crops, the small boy finally understood what it was like to be big. Power flooded his senses and all the boy wanted from that moment on, was to feel the sun close on his face. “Why should sunflowers and grownups be the only ones to touch the sun?’ the boy thought, he could only imagine how warm and bright the sun's face must feel on his fingertips. Oh how he longed to reach out and caress its face. Already closer than ever to his beloved sun, the boy wanted more. Never high enough, never close enough. He sat on that tall, prized sunflower for weeks and weeks, sleeping and eating on this pseudo vehicle to the sky. The boy's mother was skeptical, a tall woman herself, not seeing why her little son would want to sit atop a sunflower for days on end only to touch the sun. “the sun is big enough to touch you down here on the ground! Besides one day you'll be big and tall just like your father someday, be patient, my dear” her boy ignored her, insisting on remaining seated on the highest flower at all times. The woman sighed, her poor son was blinded by desire, unable to see the gifts laying right in front of him. She sulked back into her little farm house, knowing the only way she would see her son again would be above her, looking down from his hill of desires. Weeks turned into months and as the flower grew closer and closer to the sun, the boy grew more and more excited. He could feel the warmth on his face stronger than ever before and only longed to feel it hotter. The boy's spirit seemed to feed this mighty sunflower as it rose up above all the rest, turning the other flowers to tiny specks in it’s wake. The sun, as beautiful as it was, proved to be a cruel mistress. Heat penetrated the boy's flesh and burns arose on his once supple baby face. Not that he minded, all that mattered was the simple closeness of his burning mistress. Flower petals began to burn away and all the boy had to sit upon was the stiff, woody stem. A small pedestal to hold such a spirited young Icarus. Though this boy achieved what icarus could not, this boy stood on his toes and grazed the blazing star with his tiny fingertips. His wings did not melt away, though his balance had. A soft smile spread across the child’s burnt, contented face. Feeling the wind zip past his body, rapidly cooling his hot flesh as he fell towards the earth on which he belonged. He was no flighted fool, nor any angel worthy of cavorting with sun gods. And so, as only a young mortal boy, he touched the earth with a blood curdling crunch. But he did not feel a thing, everything was alright to the young Icarus, he had achieved what gods could not, he had touched the sun and the sun had given him the gift of satisfaction. Unhappy as he may be, he was satisfied. Unhappy with his bones shattered to dust, unhappy with his mother's constant preaching of “I told you so” he now could only hope for the satisfaction to last a lifetime.
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