For each of the 4 Essential Questions, an actor should determine a satisfying, meaningful and specific answer.
“Literal” meaning is often the given circumstances or content as stated in the text of the play. If not stated, it is the actor’s craft to create answers that engage and inspire them to play the scene fully, truthfully, and moment to moment fulfilling the intention of the script.
“Essential” meaning gets specific by personalizing the given circumstances. Essential meaning is rarely indicated in text. It is the actor’s craft to create answers that engage and inspire them to play the scene fully, truthfully, and moment to moment fulfilling the intention of the script.
“Essential” meaning is at the heart of engaging character/relationship/story. “Essential” meaning informs and shapes the nuance of performance and relationship, inspiring the moment to moment action to be spontaneous, compelling and truthful.
“Literal” meaning is often general, unspecific, and lacks dramatic content. When the scene is mined for its “Essential” meaning however, a treasure chest of dramatic possibilities is opened up. The dramatic action now has a specificity that stimulates the imagination, motivates the participants into a determined action, and sets tangible indicators for success and failure. The “Essential” action intensifies the degree to which characters and audience alike are drawn into the action.
The beauty and importance of establishing a clear, specific, and doable “Essential” action is that the actor is now wired, engaged, and prepared to respond moment to moment with boldness, determination, and clarity.
This is the lifeblood of all compelling dramatic action. It is the actor’s craft to nurture character/relationship story by unlocking its “Essential” meaning and living it out fully and truthfully.
