The third step on the empathetic journey is forming a link with your character. You will work to link with characters who are quite different from them.
Empathy is the act of understanding and experiencing the thoughts and feelings of another person. With empathy, you take the focus off of yourself and put it on someone else. You can never fully understand what it’s like to be someone else. But by making an attempt to take the focus off of yourself and put it on someone else, you allow yourself to link or connect with them. You build compassion and understanding.
REFLECT: When it comes to linking with others, what does it mean to connect rather than reject?
<--------- Click Here for Audio Version by Mrs. A
Everyone who is alive must have a purpose, a why – why they do what they do, why they wake up each morning determined to make the most out of a day or at least go through it, to face challenges even when they are tired or would rather curl up in a ball and hide away just for a while. If offstage lives could be this way without a why, what about the characters that the actors are supposed to bring to life? If an actor doesn’t take time to find out their character’s why and decide to live for their why, their characters have no purpose.
The first stage of “why” is for you to articulate your own “why.”
DIRECTIONS: OPEN A COPY OF THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT AND COMPLETE THE "ANSWER FOR YOURSELF" COLUMN. BE SURE TO ATTACH TO MODULE 6 ASSIGNMENT IN GOOGLE CLASSROOM.
Choose a letter below and select the drop-down to get a random description of a villain. This is a description of your next character. In order to play that character you need to link to them on a level that allows empathy to exist between you and the character. You need to understand the character’s wants and tactics. How will you do this?
Character A hates his boss. He hates that his boss gave a promotion to someone else instead of him. He hates his boss so much that he tricks his boss into thinking his wife is having an affair with the guy he gave the promotion to. He hates his boss so much that he gets his boss to kill his wife. Character A kills his own wife to stop her from ratting him out.
Character B wants world domination. And blood. Character B leaves his home and goes to London to get what he wants. Character B has powers and uses them to get what he wants. He kills to get what he wants. There are limitations to his powers, but he uses charm to get others to do what he wants. He is sinister, cruel, revengeful, and will do anything to get what he wants.
Character C is arrogant and cruel. Character C is also powerful enough to keep the weather stuck on winter. That is fitting since Character C has a cold heart and no remorse. Character C turns enemies into stone and uses magic for terror. Character C would rather destroy than negotiate. When Character C decides to kill a traitor, and another character volunteers to take the traitor’s place, Character C binds the volunteer, humiliates them, and kills them with a knife.
Character D was stood up at the altar and has never let anyone forget about it. Character D used the experience to grimly wither and decay into bitterness, wearing the same wedding dress for years and years. In order to take revenge, Character D adopts a girl in order to turn her heart to ice. Character D trains the girl to reject all men and break their hearts. Character D revels in the pain of anyone who falls in love with the girl.
Character E is used to getting his own way. And his own way means he is in charge no matter what. He is in control. He is a dictator. He has his own secret police. He orders executions of those who he has coerced into confessions. He steals, he claims the ideas of others for himself, and, when those ideas don’t work, he blames the original creators of the ideas. He convinces others to fight and die for him, which is something that he would never do for others. He declares himself the hero.
Character F wants all the power. In order to get that power, Character F kills his brother, persuades the wife of another guy he killed to marry him, kills two children who are in the way of him getting power, kills his wife, has his partner in crime executed, gets power, and then gets killed.
Do not cross character G. Character G leaves her people – killing her own brother in the process – to help and marry a guy. When that guy decides to marry someone else, Character G kills the new girl, the new girl’s dad, and her own two children – just to get back at the guy.
Create either a video diary or a journal entry documenting a normal day in the life of the villain. It is a normal, ordinary day where they do absolutely nothing evil. What normal, boring actions could this character take on when no one is looking? Make the actions truthful, whatever tasks they are doing. The point is not to make a caricature of the character. Make the character human.
IDEAS
What does your character eat for breakfast?
What does your character decide to wear?
What clothes do they put on when they’re going to spend the morning at home?
What does your character do when they are alone?
Is there anyone your character talks to?
Be sure to include: breakfast time, noon, dinner time, and bedtime routine.
ATTACH YOUR VIDEO OR JOURNAL ENTRY TO THE MODULE 6 ASSIGNMENT IN GOOGLE CLASSROOM.
Now that you have had a chance to be your character for a day, try to find their why.
DIRECTIONS: Using the document from Step 3, answer the questions as your villain in the 3rd column.
DON'T FORGET TO HIT THE "TURN IN" BUTTON