Character Analysis

CHARACTERIZATION PROCESS

  1. Observations

•Physical appearances

•Expression of feelings (facially, verbally, bodily)

•Mannerisms

  1. Experiences (Emotional Memory)

•Personal

•Others

  1. Sense Memory

•What can your character see, hear, taste, smell, and touch in the situation they are in?

•How should your character react to what they sense (pleasant or unpleasant; familiar or unfamiliar)?


CHARACTER ANALYSIS WORKSHEET QUESTIONS

  1. What does the play say about this character (age, personality type, physical characteristics, etc.)?

  2. What does this character say about himself or herself?

  3. What do other characters say about this character in the play?

  4. What motivates (i.e. the reason we do things) this character’s words or actions?

  5. What is his or her subtext (i.e. information that is implied but not stated by a character; thoughts or actions of a character that do not express the same meaning as the character’s spoken words)?

  6. What is the emotional makeup of this character (i.e. stable, unstable, happy, depressed, angry, joyful, etc.)?

  7. How does this character change or develop throughout the course of the play?

  8. How does this character use language?

  9. Does this character have a regional dialect?

  10. Where does this character live?

  11. What is the setting of the story?

  12. Is there any film or television character that reminds you of the character in the play?


ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

  1. Have I ever witnessed a person acting as if he or she were experiencing the same emotions my character is experiencing?

  2. What was that person’s circumstance (what happened to this person)?

  3. How did this person react emotionally to their circumstance?

  4. How can I incorporate the emotional experiences of others into my character?

  5. How will the acting techniques of observation and emotional memory recall help me to create a believable performance in a scene or play?

PLOT ANALYSIS

For the most part, stories in books, plays, musicals, television shows, and movies follow the same basic plot story flow. The word plot means what a story is about. Below are each part of a story plot in the order you will read about it in a play or see it in a movie.

Story Plot: Structure of a Play, Television Show, or Movie

  1. Exposition: Background Information. This usually happens at the beginning of a movie where you learn background information about the hero, villain, supporting characters, and the situation these characters find themselves in.

  2. Conflict (Inciting Incident): The catalyst for the plays’ action. Stories have conflict. It can be an argument, a battle between good and evil, etc. The Conflict or Inciting Incident is what starts the story for the movie going forward between the hero and the villain or a person versus their situation.

  • In Avengers: Infinity War, the conflict begins when Thanos arrives with the Infinity Gauntlet and takes the second infinity stone before sending his people to Earth to take the other two stones from the Avengers and Doctor Strange.

  • In the original Star Wars, the conflict begins when Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer takes Princess Leia’s ship and we learn about the stolen Death Star plans (as well as the conflict between a heroic Rebel Alliance and the tyrannical Empire).

  1. Rising Action: Complications and discoveries which add to conflict becoming more serious…the middle of the story). This is where the conflict becomes more intense and is leading to the final battle between good and evil, or a confrontation between the main character and his/her difficult situation.

  2. Climax: The turning point in the plot when everything comes to an emotional crest. This the final battle or final confrontation in a story/movie.

  3. Falling Action: Series of events following the Climax. This is what happens immediately after the final battle or confrontation.

  4. Denouement: Resolution. This is what happens at the end of the story.