ACTOR'S SCENE STUDY: Playing Scenes From a Larger Work + Listening to your Instructor (?)

[@gabriellebadowski4712]

From what I've learned from my scene study teacher, everything that happens before and after a scene gives way to clues about the present. Something I've found helpful in character analysis is writing down character clues - I write down everything my character says about themselves and everything others say about my character. It's tedious and requires at least 2-3x of reading the play front to back, but it really paints a road map for you.

[@vincehorst]

💯 The full context of the play can teach you about your character: their past and future, their motivations, their life experiences, etc. By reading the full play you also read ALL the scenes, which can help you decide how YOUR scene should be played (acted) in the larger context. Your teacher and mine are aligned: reading the whole place is a must!

[@jgstudioscompany]

I agree with your understanding 100%. It’s the actors interpretations of the scene during scene study. Then it’s the coaches job to offer directions AFTER the actors has interpretation. I prefer to allow the actor be the actor and show what they gathered from it. That defeats the purpose if actor is not allowed to express their interpretation in 5 pages of a 50 page script that haven’t read. Personally I enjoy listening to what the actor interprets despite me knowing the entire script. Good for you standing up…I may get jumped for this comment as a coach but I feel you are right. We want you to leave fulfilled…on set with a director is different in my opinion…we are coaching not directing.

[@TheStartingActor]

Today I spoke with my teacher during class. She watched this video... yay! She also offered answers! 1 - Learn and play your scene in class the same way you would on set. After all, the goal of taking classes is to practice for being on set. 2 - Work with your instructor similarly as you would a director (e.g. take their guidance as direction) but know that they are also there to answer questions, bounce ideas, to dig deeper and help you understand how to implement the acting tools & techniques to produce a good performance (something that most directors will not help you with). Lastly, an interesting remark that my instructor gave is that - ideally - you should try to develop a relationship with your director so that you eventually can have open dialogue, bounce ideas, etc. as you would with an instructor. Collaborators produce better work! Thanks again, Sonya Cooke! Check out at The Actor's Studio of Orange County, www.asooc.com!

[@lalatochynski3302]

Great questions... I’m guessing that a teacher wants you not to include context of the before and after pages of the play to expand your creativity. Your interpretation of your scene can make the play a comedy or tragedy. Teacher and director have different objectives.