Introduction:
Throughout this module, I have been shown multiple ways to analyse in depth a range of different texts and styles of theatre. The aim of this e-portfolio is to reflect on my process as an actor. This will be done by reading, understanding the texts, researching and applying known techniques helping me progress as a performer in training. Studying the extracts provided in our Actor and Text lectures include modern texts like ‘The Importance of being Earnest’ (by Oscar Wilde) [1] and ‘Serious Money’ (by Carol Churchill) [2]. Also, Shakespearian works in groups with ‘Romeo and Juliet’ [3] and a monologue from ‘Macbeth’ [4]. Further working with musicals, comparing songs and monologues with ‘Les Miserable’. Throughout this module we have also looked into practitioners like Uta Hagen and her nine questions, Stanislavski and the “Magic If” as well as Oscar Wilde and his comedic techniques in writing. Upon reflection, I will be using the Boud Reflective Model (1985) [5] and the 5 R’s (Bain, J.D., Ballantyne, Mills, C. & Lester, N.C., 2002) [6].
Analysing Punctuation:
There are various ways to analyse a set text. Some examples being a table read, sight reading or walking the text. All of which are helpful to begin to understand the text however, each method forces us as actors to look at one thing, punctuation! When we looked into Shakespeare, we started with a game of Status Walks where we had the choice of whether to be a king or queen, down to a peasant. As a starter to the lecture, we walked around the room in character and when told to do so we performed small actions, such as jump, touch the floor, move in a new direction. The small lecture starter developed into using a small extract from Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2, where we would do similar things but influenced by the punctuation instead. I have done something similar before, touching the ground with every comma and semi-colon, stopping and turning with full stops, colons, question and exclamation marks. I have used this with another Shakespearian monologue, Henry V – Act 3, Scene 1 (See image on the right). I find this exercise very useful as it allows me to better understand the monologue, for example, what emotions the character is trying to possibly convey to another, what is actually happening in the scene and why my character feels the way they do. Setting out each individual thought allows you to make choices as an actor when you are very limited to what and where you are on stage.
This exercise is similar to the work we did on Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of being Earnest’ where we staged a duologue and went to emotional extremes. This duologue focused on Oscar Wilde’s comedy in text, the irony, rhythm and satire of the scene, analysing punctuation and beats. This lesson reintroduced us to objectives and obstacles. An objective in acting is “what your character wants in a scene” (Stagemilk Team 2017) [7]. Having an objective adds stakes to a scene, allowing us as performers to make acting choices based on what our character has to win or lose, in the context of the scene. Thus, making having an objective a useful tool for the actor. Likewise with walking the text, punctuation was a key focus, however rather than focusing on thoughts and what they mean, we highlighted the pace of the line and whether we sped up or slowed down while speaking. In the image on the left, I have annotated my extract, highlighting my characters punctuation in red. This emphasis on punctuation enabled me to act out emotional extremes like anger. When angry, we tend to speak rapidly whereas when we are sad, we talk a lot slower. I find that analysing the punctuation in multiple ways in texts, aids my delivery of lines in a scene. I sometimes find large sections of words difficult to comprehend so whittling the extracts down to something more manageable, makes my process a lot easier. These simple exercises allow me to step back and understand how a character has been written and how they may be feeling.
World building research:
Another huge part of my process is the ‘world building research’. To accompany the lecture and its teachings, we were given ‘Serious Money’ by Carol Churchill. Before being given an extract, we split off into groups to research a single theme out of language, fashion, finance, politics and music; my group did language. (See ‘Serious money research’ document). By doing this research we were able to identify a lot about what the mannerisms of a character could be. Considering how they may stand, talk to themselves or one another and what hand gestures they could use. This world research helps me to understand the world my character is living in and how it may give some context into the scene.
When it came to doing the extract from ‘Serious Money’, I didn’t fully understand what was happening and I found the scene too chaotic and jumbled to grasp what they were trying to convey. This made making a character rather difficult regardless of the ‘world building research’ we did the lecture prior.
However in contrast, world building research was essential and helped me when we did group work with Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare (Act 1, Scene 1) (please see “Romeo and Juliet script and lesson notes” document). When doing my research, I found that Abraham is a servant of the Montagues, and customary to the era, a lot of lower-class servants had a sword [8]. This fact allowed me to make the choice of walking around with my hand on my waist, as if a sword was on my hip, further allowing me to escalate the scene when it arose.
During the lecture on Romeo and Juliet, I performed a lot better than I had in previous Actor and Text lessons, giving me more confidence as I believe my acting ability as a performer requires improvement. Looking back on other lectures, I wasn’t able to fully immerse myself into the text as I was afraid of getting it wrong. From now on, I will try to do research in my own time to begin to fully understand a text I am given to prepare me for a workshop class.
Practitioners, Character choices and why they are important:
Practitioner Stanislavski:
In our contextual studies lecture, we found that there are four main parts of Stanislavski’s system: The Body, The Text, The Mind, The Company. ‘Given Circumstances’ are part of ‘The Text’, they are the facts of the scene, given by the playwright through the script. The five questions he asked were:
- Who are they?
- Where are they?
- When are they?
- What has happened?
- Why are they there?
In ‘The Mind’, you will find the objective, what do they want in the scene? He has influenced people throughout history like Oscar Wilde. Oscar took the use of character’s objectives in a scene, from Stanislavski, showing Stanislavski’s influence in acting and modern adaptations of plays and books. Having an objective in a scene enables an actor to make the choices necessary to show such an objective to the audience. This allows the audience to really lose themselves in the story without having to think about what is happening.
Another aspect of ‘The Mind’ is the Magic If. The Magic If is when an actor doesn’t know something about a character and so fills in the blanks and makes it up. This is an outcome of the ‘Given Circumstances’. Using Stanislavski’s Magic If could aid an actor by possibly reinventing and adding the details to a character. The ‘Illusion of the First Time’ is to make sure a performance doesn’t look rehearsed, as if the performance is happening for the first time, this comes hand in hand with the ‘Magic If’. To do this, actors could react to small changes on stage and also on what scene partners are saying, allowing an actor to stay present and in the moment. These small reactions could further become acting choices, allowing you to become noticeable in a large ensemble, adding to small details to the big picture. [9] [10]
Practitioner Uta Hagen
Uta Hagen is heavy influenced by Konstantin Stanislavski. Stanislavski’s teachings and his method hugely impacted the acting world and is still a massive influence today. Emotional truth and realistic actions were his main approach, introducing the “4th Wall”, cutting off the actors from the audience. Hagen focused on creating believable characters through psychological realism.
Uta Hagen’s 9 questions:
- Where am I?
- What time is it?
- What surrounds me?
- Who am I?
- What are the given circumstances?
- What are my relationships?
- What do I do to get what I want?
- What do I want?
- What is in my way?
These 9 questions are very similar to Stanislavski’s 5 questions, however Uta’s questions go into much greater detail. They also reference the ‘Given Circumstances’ as well as the objective (What do I want?).
Character Choices in songs and monologues:
I used some of these questions when we were tasked to analyse and make character choices on a monologue and a song, debating the overall point that songs and monologues are very similar and should be tackled with a likewise attitude.
When going through each piece of text, I translated Macbeth so I could understand it better. I did my world research on who my character was, why they started speaking/singing and then went into the character choices I would make. (Please see “11_11_2025 Macbeth Monologue for 18_11_2025” and “Stars analysis – 18/11/2025”)
Unfortunately missing the lecture when we discussed the classes’ song analysis, I emailed my lecturer and the feedback I received was I should think about wider choices and to think more about the objective my character is trying to achieve. (Please see Image below)
I find that using these questions and methods by Stanislavski and Uta Hagen helpful, they allow me to make my own choices about who I want my character to be while honouring the facts given to me from the script and writer. Making character choices are something that I need to improve on as well as prepping myself for upcoming lectures. If I already have an idea of what I want to do, then the time in lesson can be used more efficiently towards scene improvement and workshopping the character I am playing.
Conclusion:
Moving forward, I will carry on analysing my text with a focus on punctuation, do my world research and use Stanislavski’s and Uta Hagen’s questions to aid me when making acting choices as my character in a scene. Although not every technique and/or exercise we were taught throughout the semester work for me. The ones I have named, alongside others like transitioning from dialogue to song, have aided me to become more focused when tackling a new text, whether that be a scene or aiding my acting through song. I will continuously reflect on my actions and progress from now on, using Bouds Reflective Model, as well as making SMART goals for myself.
Overall, I have found these Actor and Text Lectures monumental to my progression into becoming a better actor and performer. They have taught me to be prepared before lectures, enabling me to tackle each one with the most efficiency as possible. Giving me a range of different exercises and techniques to deploy for any acting situation. I believe that my acting needs the most guidance out of the 3 core disciplines in Musical Theatre. These lessons have boosted my confidence as an actor, making me feel like I belong in the class and allowing me to put myself forward for scenes and other acting activities and events.
Bibliography:
[1] The Importance of being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (2024) Directed by Max Webster. National Theatre, Lyttelton Theatre, 20th November 2024
[2] Churchill. C (2002) Serious Money. London: Bloomsbury
[3] My Shakespeare (2025) Act 1, Scene 1 – Romeo and Juliet. Available at: https://myshakespeare.com/romeo-and-juliet/act-1-scene-1 (Accessed: 30 December 2025).
[4] Poetry Foundation (2025) Speech: “is this a dagger which I see before me”. Available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56970/speech-is-this-a-dagger-which-i-see-before-me (Accessed: 30 December 2025).
[5] The Open Univdersity (1999) Open Learning. Available at: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=51386§ion=4 (Accessed: 30 December 2025).
[6] Bain, J.D., Ballantyne, R., Mills, C. & Lester, N.C. (2002) Reflecting on practice: Student Teachers’ perspectives. Flaxton, Qld, Australia: Post Pressed. p14
[7] Stagemilk Team (2017) What is an Objective? https://www.stagemilk.com/what-is-an-objective/ [Accessed 29/12/2025]
[8] Shakespeare Navigators (1999) Note to ROMEO AND JULIET, Act 1, Scene 1, line 1: ‘swords and bucklers’. Available at: https://shakespeare-navigators.ewu.edu/romeo/Note_Romeo_and_Juliet_1_1_1.html (Accessed: 30 December 2025).
[9] Mroczka, P. (2015) Stanislavski method: Magic IF and illusion of the first time, Broadway Educators. Available at: https://broadwayeducators.com/stanislavski-method-magic-if-and-illusion-of-the-first-time/ (Accessed: 31 December 2025).
[10] Bera, M. (2025) The actor’s secret spell: Why the ‘magic if’ … – backstage, The Actor’s Secret Spell: Why the ‘Magic If’ Changes Everything. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/magic-if-acting-technique-explained-78254/ (Accessed: 31 December 2025).
