ABOUT MOVEMENT & MOTIVATION

MOVEMENT:

1.                  Movement is your main means of expression.  Your on-stage movement must express understanding of the character’s feeling about the lines.

2.                  Movement attracts the audience’s attention.

3.                  Movement is not permitted unless it is, and appears to be, motivated by your character’s drives.

4.                  Movement must be organic, plausible, possible, probable, and true to the logic of the play and your character.

5.                  Try not move during another player’s lines, but you may move on your own lines.

6.                  Movement must be used to emphasize entrances, speeches, or business (pantomimed action developed to enhance characterization). You must eliminate random or careless movements.

7.                  You should use movement as an essential aid to express emotion, attitudes, and thoughts.

8.                  You walk to pass the time.

9.                  You walk to calm your nerves.

10.              You stand still to listen

11.              You stand still to think.

12.              You sit down to plan your day.

13.              You sit down because you’re exhausted.

EXITS AND ENTRANCES

1.                  To make an entrance note the following:

i.                     Age and status of your character.

ii.                   What your character has just done before entering.

iii.                  Your  character’s mood before entering.

iv.                 Your character’s reason for coming into place of action.

2.                  To make an exit: Your character must remain alive until the exit is completed, and note the following:

i.                     What has happened to your character in the scene preceding.

ii.                   How your character appears different to the audience now at the end of the scene.

iii.                  Your character’s mood.

iv.                 Does your character decides to leave or is it forced to go?

v.                   Has your character won or achieved anything?

vi.                 Has your character lost anything

MOTIVATION:

Poor acting is a product of insufficient concern for motive.

1. Motivation must be based on script, character, or situation.
2. Motivation must be playable and played, not kept internal.
3. Motivation must be readily recognizable by the audience.
4. Motivation must be plausible.
5. Motive exists in the absence of achieving a goal.  When a goal is achieved, motive dies.
6. During play pauses, you are expected to “fill the silence” to communicate the unspoken dialogue- character reactions, thoughts, emotions, etc.

THE MOTIVATIONAL (ACTION) UNITS

1.                  The motivational unit is the smallest part of a plot and describes a change in the pattern of events.  The motivational unit is how a play’s action is described by saying, “ this happened, and then this happened, which caused this to happen.”  Each “happening“ is an action unit.

2.                  Action units have varying length and may overlap.

3.                  Following are questions you should be able to answer about each action unit:

I.                    Why did the Bayzaee put this scene in the play?

II.                 What is the major action of this scene?

III.               Whose scene is it?

IV.              What single line or lines must the audience hear and understand, if this action unit is to make sense to them?

V.                 Does this action unit build on previous units, or does it undercut so later units can build?

4.                  Within action units are beats (your division of thoughts in a given line).

5.                  Each new thought is a beat shift.  A beat begins with your character’s intention, and ends when the intention is completed.

6.                  Discovering your character beats lends insight into character’s thoughts and actions.