Philosophy

Philosophy On Approaching Dramatic Material As An Actor Or Director

By Riley Faison

When I am working on a play or musical as an actor or director, I have a fundamental approach to any piece of dramatic material. In order to get a firm grasp of the text, I will start by reading the script over several times, before making any concrete choices on where I feel like the text is going. At around the fourth or fifth read-through of the script, I will start to mark out the shifts in the text, or beats. These beats will help me to determine the general structure of the text. After I have established the beats of the text, I will then start to take a look for the peaks, or climaxes. Once I have determined where the climaxes are in the text, I can start determining the beginning, middle, and end of the piece. This will give me an idea of where the story starts and where the story ends. It is crucial for me to establish a journey for the characters that builds and keeps the audience engaged in the storyline.

Once I understand the total structure of the piece, then I can start to construct a seed and a theme. What is the piece trying to say? What is the theme? What is the seed? How does the piece address the theme and the seed? For example, when I was working on the musical “Into the Woods”, I took the following approach. The seed for “Into the Woods” is ‘honesty’. The theme is ‘honesty can be disregarded in order to get what you want’. The theme is the point of view that the piece of dramatic material takes towards the seed. Throughout the story of “Into the Woods” we see the characters doing whatever they have to do, in order to get want they want. The characters lie, cheat, steal, and disregard all forms of honesty, to achieve an end result.

After I have determined the seed and theme of the piece, then I can start to look for the central character and the opposing central character. In my opinion, the central character in “Into the Woods” is The Baker. The audience follows his journey throughout the course of the musical. His journey in the story is to have a child, and this is his through-action. Since he is the central character of the piece, his through-action is the entire through-action of the piece. In order to determine the opposing through-action of the piece, or what creates the conflict, I need to first locate the opposing central character. In my opinion, the opposing central character is The Witch. Her journey in the story is to stop The Baker from having a child because his father stole from her garden. She will stop at nothing to keep him from having a child. Her through-action, or the counter through-action is in direct conflict to the through-action of The Baker. Conflict is at the center of any piece, and it is created by the intersection of the through-action and the counter through-action.

Once the foundation for the piece is laid, I will then weave the rest of the characters into the main conflict. This will invariably depend on whether I am focusing on the central character, the opposing central character, or one of the ancillary characters. How does each and every character, apart from the central character and the opposing central character, factor into the main conflict of the piece? Do they support the through-action, the counter through-action, or neither? I have rarely found it the case where a character does not support either the through-action, or the counter through-action. Therefore, this gives each and every character in the piece a purpose. This is my fundamental approach to any piece of dramatic material as an actor or director.