There is a difference between taking on a role and performing a character, and knowing it will save you a lot of worry this year.
A role is a point of view you step into: the mayor at the town meeting, the friend who saw what happened, the worker whose factory is closing. Roles need no costume, no accent, no memorised lines — just a willingness to answer questions as that person instead of as yourself. Most of our class work happens in role, and most of it lasts two minutes at a time.
A character is a role you have lived with: a particular person with a history, habits, and a way of standing that is not yours. Characters are what you build for performance work like Scene Study from a Story. Every character starts life as a role. Nobody skips the first step.
Three ways into a role
When a role feels like nothing — when you are standing there feeling like yourself in a hat — reach for these three questions in order:
- Given circumstances. What is true for this person before the scene starts? Where were they an hour ago? Who is watching them now?
- Want. What do they want in this scene — not in life, in the next two minutes? A person who wants something specific stops being a hat.
- Obstacle. What is in the way? The want plus the obstacle is the scene. Without an obstacle there is nothing to act — see Tension.
You do not have to feel it — you have to pursue it
Beginners wait to feel like the character. Experienced performers pursue the want and let the feeling arrive on its own — or not. The audience reads pursuit, not feeling.
Two conventions exist precisely to deepen roles: Writing in Role slows a character down enough to discover what they actually think, and Hot Seating lets your classmates’ questions find the gaps in a character you thought you knew. Use both before any performance and the character will hold up under pressure.
Stepping into a role is also the safest kind of risk this course asks of you — which is why it depends on the classroom we build in Why Trust Comes First.
Curriculum connection
A1.3
use role play to explore, develop, and represent themes, ideas, characters, feelings, and beliefs in producing drama works (e.g., use improvisation exercises to explore how they might think, feel, and act in specific real-life situations; write in role as a character who is reflecting on the people, events, and relationships affected by a personal, social, or environmental issue)
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C1.2
use correct terminology to refer to the forms, elements, conventions, and techniques of drama (e.g., tableau, blocking, setting, improvisation, flash-forward, guided tour, upstage)
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