Get into Character
In acting, your body is the instrument through which you play your character. Through your body, you allow the audience to understand your character’s interior and exterior life. When you act, you should get into your character’s shoes and understand the subtext of his/her lines. Subtext is the truth beneath the lines; it is what the character is really thinking and feeling, and it affects how the actor reads the lines. In acts 3 and 4 in Romeo and Juliet, there is a lot of secrecy, double meanings, and irony which add to the characters’ conflicts. As you practice acting, pay attention to your character’s subtext.
Acting tools to show subtext:
- Stress - emphasize particular words/phrases intentionally
- Inflection - the way the voice goes up or down when a word is pronounced
- Pause - break in reading for emphasis; could be of varying lengths
- Nonverbal communication - gestures, posture, the presence or absence of eye contact, props/costumes, movement/body language
Warm-up activities:
1. walk around the room as if you are:
- in love
- angry
- confused
- betrayed
- helpless
* how did the emotions affect the way you moved?
2. Show the following character types by positioning your shoulders in different ways:
- in love
- angry
- confused
- betrayed
- helpless
* how did the emotions affect the position of your shoulders?
3. Create a scenario:
Create characters:
Act out the following lines with the scenario, characters, and subtext in mind.
1: I got you a present.
2: What is it?
1: Oh - thanks.
2: You’re welcome.
Application:
Apply this lesson to your acting of Romeo and Juliet. Reread your scenes, make sure you correctly paraphrase and block your lines, then make notations on your scripts to show how your lines should be delivered.
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