Quarter 3

Realistic Acting

Building Character through Inner Motivation

INT ASSIGNMENTS 2025 - 2026

Realistic Acting, like Heightened Acting, is a big basket of performance styles. From our current perspective on history we can look back on many influences that make theatre- the set design, the actor's performances, the lights and sounds made to mimic reality- for a time, look real. There's a technique, one that evolved through generations and perspectives, that allows an actor to find their performance not based on mimicry, but from their own experience. The name of the technique officially is...

Method of Physical Action

Technique for character’s thoughts and feelings to be expressed through physical action
Representation of real life under imaginary (given) circumstances
Requires a concentrated use of imagination & belief in the given circumstances
Heightened awareness of environment and concentration on partner

John Malkovich & Gary Sinese in Steppenwolf Theatre Company's 1982 production of True West by Sam Shepard at Cherry Lane Theater

"...his range of human sympathy is still unstretched" -Peter Brook

Realism Context: Setting the Stage For a New Form

Scene Assignments

Australian students from Edith Cowan University studied Stanislavski's original Method of Physical Action (Stan's work before connecting with The Group in NYC). There's multiple parts to this series outlining the actor's craft from the beginning to the end of the process (I believe five of them).

The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by Rolin Jones

Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts

Appropriate by Braden Jacobs-Jenkins

Below are links to information you'll need in order to prepare for performance. Click on the play title for summary, performance examples, full play text, and scene cuttings.

Proof by David Auburn

Some Girls by Neil LaBute

Boys' Life by Howard Korder

Almost Maine by David Cariani

Reasons to be Pretty by Neil LaBute

The Pavilion by Craig Wright

Orange Flower Water by Craig Wright

Enfrescada by Tanya Saracho

Those The River Keeps by David Rabe

Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute

The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg

The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney

Reading a Play: Understanding What You're Interpreting

As we move forward into prep for our scene assignments, let's study the anatomy of play so we know what we're preparing for performance.

ASSIGNMENT: Given Circumstances

The given circumstances are a very important list of facts: The GCs are the Rules of the Game. As you stage your scene, questions will arise: where do I go? when do I cross? what do I do with my hands? Having your GCs at hand will provide answers to What Comes Next.

Go through your scene - and if interested, scan the entire play - for given circumstances of your Role:

What does the playwright say about me
What do other characters say about me
What do I say about myself

What are the environmental circumstances of your scene? For example, is it cold/warm? Is it private/public? Is it comforting/dangerous?

Take photos of your lists and attach to the Canvas assignment for credit.

DUE JAN 29, 2026 on Canvas

The Method is a second-generation realistic acting technique that brings the actor as close to the given circumstances of their role as possible. Empathy between actor and role is achieved by "living in the character's shoes", allowing the actor to believe in their given circumstances because "they live the given circumstances."

Subtext: Empathy with Role + Action

Finding Empathy with the Given Circumstances: The Moment Before, The Magic If

The Given Circumstances are the Rules of the Game; they are non-refutable facts of the play. When they pertain to your part, the collected basket is called your Role. All three practitioners succeeding Stanislavski developed different methods/approaches to EMPATHIZE with the Role. We utilize their exercises to find personal/mental stress: we activate vulnerability and heightened state.

Strasberg: You are character/actor. Recall from memory. Live as close to the given circumstances as possible. What happens onstage is a reflection of your experience living the role.

Adler: You are separate from character. You create everything (motivation/justification, gesture, dialect, etc). What happens onstage is a reflection of your preparation, your creative expression.

Meisner: It doesn’t matter. Focus on your partner. Get what you want. What happens onstage is a result of responding in the moment, and it will never happen again.

Given Circumstances

age, occupation, family history, past trauma, what’s important, what time of day it is, etc.

These include SECRETS and AMMUNITION:

Things your Role knows

Things the Audience knows about your Role

Things other Roles know about yours

Things that only your Role knows

+

Finding Subtext: Script Analysis to understand Character

We return to the play text to understand what the role does. The result of one action - aimed at an objective, a desire - causes the next; an understanding of these chained-together actions creates the story the audience follows, empathizes with and enjoys. What are you trying to get?

What do I actually perform?

Given Circumstance + objective + partner stimulus = your next moment (action)

Act-able Verbs

There's nothing ordinary about the stories we're telling onstage. We need meaty verbs that inspire importance, inspire the fight: we need our actions to activate our extraordinary moments. To seduce is much more interesting, scary, intense and sexy than to convince to love me back. The word seduce inspires images, movements, colors, goosebumps; convince makes me think of an English classroom. Both describe a similar moment, but seduce is much more interesting.

The link above sends you to "Action Lists" compiled by Acting Studio Chicago by a former friend of mine Jane Brody! Nice list, Jane! Say hello to Bingo :)

ASSIGNMENT: Objectives and Actions

When characters speak onstage, they are trying to get something from - or manipulate - the other character.

To score a script is to analyze the given circumstances, playwright description, stage direction and dialogue for objective and strategy. Traditionally, the actor writes goals and actable actions in the margins of their script, connected to the dialogue.

Every moment is an attempt to get something from your partner.

The subtext of each line is not text at all, but unspoken re-negotiation:

I want this;
I tried to get it by doing this;
This is how they reacted. Now what?

On your script next to each phrase you speak or scripted movement you make...

Fill in the blanks: I'm trying to get _____________ by doing ___________.
"I'm trying to break up with him by pitying him."
At some point in the script, did you accomplish it?

AEthan Hawke discusses what an actor is really good at: The Struggle. That's what objective and action describe, is what the role wants and how it's going to get it. If it's a good play, it won't get that objective very easily.

For every scene, there's ONE objective (or goal, intention, want) and there's likely MULTIPLE tactics (or actions, strategies).

Take a photo of your notated script and attach to the Canvas assignment for credit.

DUE FEB 2, 2026 on Canvas

Mean it all personally, take it all personally.

Rehearsal: Living In The Moment onstage

Before you have the privilege of experiencing In The Moment, The Flow, The Groove, Vibin', your lines are memorized implicitly, you have a full understanding of the chain of action that constitutes the play, you've found a connection to the given circumstances of your role and have a clear picture of Role. If there's any reason the actor can't achieve Living In The Moment, typically it's because they don't have faith they may let go.

Above is author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Mee-Hi Chick-Mee-Hi). I think he's explaining the same thing which he calls Flow. Further he connects the dots between flow and happiness, explaining what he means in different disciplines. Worth a watch!

I'm paraphrasing, but Csikszentmihalyi mentions The Flow = Ecstasy, which is a "more concentrated, arranged form" of day to day life. Sounds like a good performance worth watching!

"We're reading behavior. Acting is about behavior, not lines."

-Anthony Montes

Put it in your back pocket.

This is a frequent catch phrase I've heard among practitioners: your rehearsal is a plan to what it's going to probably be, but it's a back up plan, really.

Until you get on your feet, armed with your Moment Before work, and experience The Flow, that in-the-moment connection with your partner, you don't really know. :)

Motivated Blocking

Many theatre practitioners believe theatre is the actor's medium. Realistic acting supports that: Motivated Blocking - the type of movement we create with Realistic work - is based on where the actor/role needs to go in order to satisfy their objective.

For example: the objective "I want them to fall in love with me."

If you want to "play it coy" - meaning be chill/relaxed when secretly you're anxious and stressed - then the actor needs to be able to sit somewhere away from their partner. Maybe be able to put their feet up.
If you want to get I want them to fall in love with me by "seducing", then you need to able to get close.
But sometimes you want to get away. Like you need to put something between you. Or maybe just give yourself a reason to cross to the furthest point in the room from your partner.

It's about tension.

Like gas under pressure: the closer you get, the more excited we're all going to feel.

ASSIGNMENT: Birds-eye Set Design & Motivated Blocking

As you start blocking your scene, consider the following:

The Status Dance: physical proximity adds/lessens tension
Character's Activity (physical/actual)
Given circumstances of location: anchors, objects, topography
Angles and cheating out

Draw your set on your script as if you're looking at it from above. To the right is an example. As you continue to rehearse,

What happened right before your scene starts?
Where do you enter?
What are your initial observations of your partner?
What's in the way of getting what you want?

Take a photo of your bird's eye set and attach to the Canvas assignment for credit.

DUE FEB 9, 2026 on Canvas

Rehearsal Session: Opening Moments

Rehearsal is a time for the actors and the director to collaborate together on performance. The second phase of production after tablework, rehearsal is a valuable and important time where actors - in safety - get to plan, sculpt and practice their performance. All directors work differently, but theatre is an actor's medium; the director is around to make you look good and represent the play so your performance fits the rest of the play.

The Status Dance: physical proximity adds/lessens tension
Character's Activity (physical/actual)
Given circumstances of location: anchors, objects, topography
Angles and cheating out

Draw your set on your script as if you're looking at it from above. To the right is an example. As you continue to rehearse,

What happened right before your scene starts?
Where do you enter?
What are your initial observations of your partner?
What's in the way of getting what you want?

Given Circumstances: Non-deniable facts of the play; the rules that keep the action in play. Each designer looks for the rules that pertain to their design.

time period (contemporary vs. period)
temperature/weather
aesthetic style
facts about locations

American Theatre Wing put out many small insights into theatrical design; I've collected them in a playlist here.

Realistic Design: An Actor's Perspective

The more message-driven your play, the more symbolic it becomes.

The more narrative-driven your play, the less symbolic it becomes.

To explain theatrical aesthetic I've always pictured a spectrum...

Expressionistic (more symbolic, message/theme) Impressionistic (less symbolic, narrative)

...where design choices in Realistic Theatre fall tend toward the impressionistic. However, a theatre audience handles pretense and abstraction than a film audience; we're allowed artistic interpretation.

I've specified a few aesthetic characteristics in the categories below:

Set: GCs communicated through color, texture, material; set design can help establish value/worth/class. Realistic sets tend toward the complicated, layered, busy; could include objects that don't get locked up (and sometimes they're glued down).
Lights: Use of color must be justified by GCs; all light justified by practicals (a lamp, for example, or an open sunny window). Whites @ different temperatures/ambers for light, blues/purples used for contrasting night or transition.
Costumes/Hair/Make-Up: GCs communicated through clothing style, age, color, material, texture, value/class
Properties: GCs communicated through material, object, value/class. Pieces actors touch, small enough to be locked up. Typically built/salvaged/bought
Sound: Music and SFX justified by practicals (a stereo, for example). Music used as a transition can help communicate tone/mood; can communicate GCs if delivered as a role's preference
Projection: Liberties can be taken to loosen the impressionistic hold on Realistic Theatre; projectors can provide efficient scenery changes as well as, in the case that we get a little abstract, deliver analogy/antecedent (big deal in the Brechtian tradition).

"Invent Nothing, Deny Nothing." - David Mamet, True and False

Scene Study Final

Perform your scene - fully memorized - with suggested/rehearsal-grade set and the best costume you can assemble/create.

Understanding the rubric. Below is how your performance will be evaluated. I've broken down assessment of performance into FOUR parts, each part worth up to 5 points (20 pts total).

Participation: in addition to your weekly participation points, this describes the quality and quantity of your involvement in the final.
Application: this describes your understanding and use of improvisation technique
Theatrical technique: beyond theatre style, this describes your mastery and application of technique that allows being seen and heard
Reflection: beyond theatre style, this describes your process of growth as an artist