INTRODUCTION
In Actor and Text sessions, I worked alongside an actor and director to delve into extracts and develop my skillset. In this term, I wanted to challenge myself with naturalism and understanding characters objectives during a scene. We’ve looked into practitioners such as: Stanislavski, Uta Hagen by looking at extracts from ‘Me and My Girl’, ‘Punk Rock’ and Shakespeare plays. Throughout this semester, I’ve discovered how to find out characters’ intentions and motivations, embedding this into the performances I’ve performed during this term. With what I’ve learnt, I will make artistic choices that fit within the context of the scripts and what the characters objectives are, to ensure I produce a naturalistic approach. In my lessons, I worked with Claire Eden who has taught me how to approach certain texts and mentored me by experimenting with techniques from practitioners we’ve touched upon.
‘PUNK ROCK’
In the first session, we looked at ‘Punk Rock’ by Simon Stephens which is about a group of sixth form students taking their a-level mock exams. The extract we looked at was scene 1 where the character Lily is introduced to the group. To further understand Lily, I used ‘Uta Hagen’s 9 Questions’ and applied these to Lily, to help discover my interpretation of her being the new student and how she just wants to fit in with this new group. These questions were a good starting point and supported me to comprehend her objectives throughout the extract. As you can see in the photos, I discovered that since she was new to the school, she was quite shy and desired to make new friends. Her main aim was to fit in. The photos show how I answered each question to create an image of Lily. This helped me understand how she would want to be involved in the groups conversations and show interest with what they were saying. When she was included in the conversation, she was hesitant deciding what to say since she wants to say the ‘right’ thing, something that will impress the others, or something they would be able to relate to. Moving forward, I wanted to use Uta Hagen’s technique in the next piece we worked as this technique helped me step into this characters mind.
This technique further supported me outside of these sessions. In our Research & Development week, I used these questions for an original character, a 13-year-old called ‘Liv’ who was on a day out with her family. Since I couldn’t watch other peoples interpretations of this character, I used these questions to really support me in building my own idea of who she is and how she might respond to her family members in the scene. Even though I had some direction from the director of the show, I needed to fill the gaps that were required so I could fulfil the objectives of the scene.
Understanding my own abilities and how I would perform the scene as myself means I can make decisions based on the character. Throughout sessions, we’ve reflected on the work we’ve created and how we would approach it in the future. This has supported me returning to the rehearsal space because I know my weaknesses and my strengths when approaching a text. This has impacted how I can improve personally since I can be negative and question my interpretations of a text. However, during these sessions, I’ve trusted my decisions of how to perform a scene and shared my ideas with Claire Eden who has supported and given me further ideas to explore the scenes.
“The more an actor develops a full sense of his own identity, the more his scope and capacity for identification with other characters than his own will be made possible.” – (Hagen, 2008)
‘ME AND MY GIRL’
In a later session, we worked on a scene from ‘Me and My Girl’ by L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber. With this, I wanted to find Sally’s objectives because she doesn’t fit in to Bill’s new life and class anymore, so, she feels constantly out of place. Looking into Stanislavski’s ideas of ‘Given Circumstance’, ‘Objectives’ and ‘Super Objective’, I found that Sally’s ‘Super Objective’ was for Bill to stay in Hareford Hall and hopefully forget about her, she decides to move back to Lambeth, forcing them apart. As (Merlin, 2014) states that these objectives are “to unlock why the character does what he or she does in the course of the dramatic action.” By breaking down what Sally says in her dialogue and how she may be feeling, means that the objectives are clear along with her thought process, which I believe is clear to the audience in this scene.
However, I found that a characters objectives can be opposed by a ‘Counter-objective’ (obstacle). Sally’s ‘Super Objective’ for the scene was constantly questioned by Bill, since he wants her to stay with him. I referred back to ‘Uta Hagen’s 9 Questions’ and explored Sally further. I learnt that even though she loves Bill dearly, she has to be dismissive in her body language and harsh in her tone when she speaks to him. By the way she says ‘No, Bill. I’ve decided’, it shows Bill how she’s not changing her mind no matter what he says to her. In the video, I put what I found into the scene and how Sally is uncomfortable when Bill is talking to her about the party Hareford Hall is having for him. However, when she talks to Sir John, she sees how he views Bill as an ’embarrassment’ which only convinces her to leave, so he can finally settle in and become who he’s meant to be. Sir John almost wants her to take Bill with her, but that backfires because Sally is so confident she’s the problem, that it confirms that she must leave so he can fulfil his role in the family. Sally seems single minded in this scene and won’t look at all perspectives in this scenario. I took this as her being quite stubborn and thinking she knows what’s best for Bill. By picking up on these little personality traits it means that me as the actor can embed these into Sally when performing the scene.
SHAKESPEARE – HEIGHTNED TEXT & ANALYSIS
We also looked at Shakespeare text and how we would deliver the lines depending where the punctuation was. For one task, we walked around the room saying a extract from Romeo & Juliet (as shown in the image) but we had to either change direction, spin around or stop when we reached certain punctuation. This forced us to change thoughts for each line and understand what the character was saying despite the Shakespearean language. This is called ‘walking the text’ and it’s a method used by actors to break apart the sentences and put it into their own words. “Whenever we “walked into” a comma, semicolon, or colon, we changed direction. Whenever we “walked into” a period or other end punctuation, we stopped.” (Benjamin, 2019) We were also told to ‘raise the stakes’, which meant that we delivered the monologues we were given as melodramatic. I was unsure of whether this would make it seem unnatural, but it showed how much these characters care about what they’re facing in their situations. For example, in the text in this image, Juliet is willing to give everything up for Romeo and when I exaggerated each line, it made her seem more desperate. This not only seemed truthful and natural, but it also showed the audience how much she cares about Romeo despite her age. Also how her age and immaturity could mean she thinks unreasonably about how she’s feeling.
Then, we split up into groups and we were assigned a role in an extract from Romeo & Juliet (Act 1 Scene 1). I was given Benvolio to study. I used a checklist, so I could thoroughly research this character, I could take what we already know about him, fill the gaps in my knowledge, so that my performance displayed my interpretation clearly. I researched who the character was, his traits, status, relationships and then the show as a whole and what this specific character’s journey is. I also worked on world building: the time period, fashion, music and beliefs/politics to further understand the culture that the characters lived in.
In this image, I noted down traits about Benvolio’s character and the facts we have gleaned from the play. Outside of this session, especially in acting through song, I’ve used this checklist to find out the context of the song. To understand the journey and what the character achieves within the lyrics and melody. I find that research into the character is so important and it’s impacted me making thorough decisions on how I want to perform a scene, monologue or a song. Having a checklist means that I remember to cover all bases with world-building, who the character is in the scene, and in the show as a whole. Using the information I find, I ask ‘what does this mean for my character?’ and ‘how will it help me achieve their objectives?’
Out of options given, I decided to pick Macbeth’s monologue from Act 2 Scene 1 and make decisions of how I would perform it, looking at the techniques we used in session.
First, I analysed what each line meant so I knew what I would be saying. Then, I gave myself ideas of what I could do for certain lines to reflect Macbeth’s terror and how torn he feels, whether he should kill Duncan or not. I found that subtle changes in demeanour made it more naturalistic. As the servant exits, I want to turn and be taken aback when I see the dagger, stopping me in my tracks. As I describe and talk about the dagger, I never want to break eye contact with it, since I believe he would be mesmerized by it, as if he’s being put under a spell – almost in awe. I would unconsciously keep this eye contact when I draw my dagger from my pocket. I would then break out of that trance when I say ‘Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’other senses’ (Shakespeare, 1623) since I’m unsure whether what I’m seeing is reality or not and whether this is my punishment for thinking of killing Duncan. I see Macbeth in this scene as very paranoid and anxious, so pacing as I explain my options and reflect on what the witches have said, would display how torn and indecisive I am to murdering an innocent man. Towards the end, I think I’m pleading to the universe to not give me away or reveal what’s about to take place. I think I would play around with vocal dynamics, saying some things in whispers, but also louder when I get more distressed. However, when the bell rings I want the sudden shift in my eyes and my demeanour, foreshadowing how evil and sinister Macbeth becomes at the end of the play. It’s as if the witches have cast their spell on Macbeth but instead Macbeth has done it to himself by dwelling on what they ‘prophesied’.
To conclude, I’ve found techniques from Uta Hagen and Stanislavski that have supported me in understanding characters and making interpretations to create a naturalistic approach to text. Some techniques worked for me better than others. I struggled with ‘walking the text’ and understanding how that plays into the Iambic pentameter. (Royal Shakespeare Company, n.d) Since you had to put movement to the punctuation, it pulled me away from what I was saying and trying to remember what movement I had to do. I found it distracted me from the naturalism and restricted me from speaking the monologue, how I would want to speak it. This isn’t something I would want to use again, but I’m willing to try it again, to see if my views change. It might depend on what text you use in Shakespeare to whether this works better but with the extracts we used, I found it difficult to connect with the pieces, because my focus was on the task instead. However, ‘Uta Hagen’s 9 Questions’ and looking into the characters ‘objectives’ really helped me to understand the characters which aided me to connect to the piece more. Taking what we know about the character from the context of the show and then filling in the gaps with our own ideas, really meant that I could embody the characters we looked at and create a naturalistic approach to the scene. I will definitely use these techniques again as they supported my interpretation of the characters and scenes I was looking into.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Benjamin A. (2019). Getting Physical With Punctuation. Available at: https://www.amybenjamin.com/getting-physical-with-punctuation/ (Assessed: 3rd January 2026)
Hagen U., Frankel H., . (2008). Respect for acting. Hoboken (NJ): John Wiley & Sons.
Merlin B., . (2014). The complete Stanislavsky toolkit. London: Nick Hern Books. pp. 33-61
Royal Shakespeare Company. (n.d) Available at: https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/macbeth/language/key-terms (Assessed: 5th January 2026)
Shakespeare, W. (1623). Macbeth. Available at: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/macbeth/read/ (Assessed: 5th January 2026)
