Jonathan Carden's Lounge Discussions

The moment before: Your character has to be coming from something that has just happened. Good or bad. Its either in the script, or a bridge you build. You have to be coming from somewhere when your scene begins. Otherwise the first moments are neutral.

Hi Alexandria, great question! All of the ideas said so far are right on. Just to add another: my process is to do the backstory, scene analysis, emotional analysis, etc. a day (or more, if you have the script earlier) before the audition or performance, and just let it marinate and live in me for those few days. The morning of the audition or performance I start to live in that emotion and character. And then the hour or so before the audition or performance, I do whatever I need to get me into the emotional state -- sometimes that's listening to a song, or maybe it's doing something physical like pushups, or watching a particular video, whatever I need to to get into the emotional state I need for the character. By that point, all the other analysis is living in you and will come out in the right way, so the few minutes before I just focus on fine-tuning my emotional state.

I like to write background stories about the characters I play. The more detailed, the better.

as you must have done with the lines and character outlines before getting ready for a scene .. i must suggest you to 1- Focus under the parameters of the scene/stage 2- With blank or empty mind helps in getting natural

You only have two choices to make initially. The character is either fiction or non fiction. If non fiction your work will be to define the idiosyncrasies of that character. For fiction characters....repeat the same as non fiction. As a Director if I wanted a carbon copy of a historical or current character I would animate or have CGI print it out because any actor that thinks they should replicate the character is never going to achieve that goal and be out of character because they are defeated. The practice of creating a back story seems to be the popular prep de jour, but has less value for any particular scene than the character acting on impulse to their senses and what that scene at that specific time requires. It is the spontaneous and valid actor that sends chills through an audience. So how do you live on stage? Be physically fit because you cannot drag an impulse out and hang it out for all to see. Be mentally fit because every spark of change and subtext must be processed in a manner of nano seconds and communicated to the body and the target. There is no "ME" there is only "I" so you cannot substitute emotions as I see even the most adept actors use because they have let the recall stick to the emotion, then applying it to an ever changing target, which then becomes "ME" This is not complicated as your Masters Degree in the Stage Crafts prepared you for. You ever wonder why the greatest of actors never went to an acting college. Relax in a constant state of improving your craft, much like the athlete that practices 8 hours a day for one moment of not thinking how the feat is done. Oh yea..and..............................always have a light heart and have fun!