please read the instructions carefully

Character Analysis

Theatre 232: Beginning Acting

To successfully present your scene, you need to carefully analyze your scene and your character.

 

Your analysis must be written in the first person, typed, double spaced (please do not triple space anywhere on your paper), and cited properly in MLA format. I will not accept a paper under two pages.  Do not write out the question; just make each number a new paragraph. Find words that excite you; use words that affect you emotionally. You will be graded on the quality and completeness of your answers.

 

1. Who are you portraying? What do you know about this character? What has the playwright told you? What do the other characters say about you? What do you say about yourself? What is your educational level? What are your hopes, dreams, desires? If you had to introduce yourself to a group of people, what would you say about yourself?

 

2. What has happened to you just prior to the scene beginning? Where have you just come from? What were you doing? If the playwright doesn’t provide this information, then you must create a “moment before” that fits into the world of the play.

 

3. What is your character’s objective in the scene? What is your character’s objective in the play??

 

4. What is the obstacle that prevents your character from getting what he/she wants in the scene?

 

5. What is your motivation in the scene? Why is it so important for your character to achieve the objective?

 

6. What is the emotional high point of the scene and why?

 

7. Where does the scene take place? Describe the environment thoroughly.

 

8. Analyze your character’s method of speaking –the words used, the syntax, tempo, and rhythm. How does your character’s mode of speaking and use of language reflect their psychological, emotional, and socio-economic status?  How does it aid or hinder in the character goal of obtaining their objectives and playing their actions? Use at least 2 quoted examples from the script to illustrate your answer and make sure those quotes are cited properly.

 

Now in your own words…

9. Explain how you have used sense memory, endowment and/or substitution while working on the scene.

 

10. During your rehearsal process, what problems have you run into and what breakthroughs have you made?

Information about Chris Keller:

1- http://www.shmoop.com/all-my-sons/chris-keller.html

2- http://www.shmoop.com/all-my-sons/chris-keller-timeline.html