When was the last time you saw a performance that had you mesmerized?  How would you like to give such a compelling performance, every single time?  Every great acting performance has one thing in common: the actor understands the passionate desires of the character.

When preparing for a role, one of the things you must discover is what your characters wants or desires in each scene you play.  Though it easy to make vague choices, it is very important instead to push yourself to make extremely specific choices.  Only then can you really go after your character’s desires with passion.

Let’s take a scene from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part II for an example.  In the play, Queen Margaret and the Duke of Suffolk have had an affair behind the King’s back.  In the particular scene (Act III, Scene ii), Margaret tells the Duke that he has to exile himself because the King has found out about the affair and wants to kill him.  As an actor, what do you think are the desires of the Queen?  Does she really want the Duke to go, or does she want him to stay?

If you were playing the Queen, you would have to make that decision.  If you don’t make a firm choice as to what your character passionately desires, you will never be able to play the scene with the passion that makes your performance exciting!  There is no right or wrong answer, but for now let’s say that you choose to play the Queen as if she truly, passionately wants to make love to the Duke.

Now you have a very interesting scene to play, because you have internal conflict built in.  You want to make love to the Duke, but you know that if you don’t convince him to leave, he will be killed, and you will never have him again.  With the intense passion of desire, you can beg and plead for him to go.  Then imagine the agony when you can not hold yourself back from embracing and kissing him - possibly for the last heartbreaking time.  Then you finally collapse in tears when he leaves you.

Do you see how captivating your performance can become when you make powerful choices?  What if you as an actor could not figure out whether your character, the Queen, really wanted him to stay or go.  When you don’t commit to a choice, you lose the ability to go after something with everything that you have.  Audiences want to see you go after something, and then they will rejoice or despair with you when you succeed or fail.

The bottom line is that you have to know your character well enough to know what he or she wants.  Then play the full scene to get that which you desire.  A great acting technique will help you to do this, every single time.

Tags: Acting Tips //