The definition of the word “act” is “to do something.” Often times we hear the phrase “acting is doing” thrown about the stage. While that is true, that is really only half – maybe even only a third – of the story.
When it comes to “doing something” we turn to verbs. We ask actors to come of with verbs for what their character is doing. The problem is, that kind of direction is incomplete. There are a lot of verbs that could be perfectly legitimate: He is thinking, he is feeling, she is loving, etc. The audience, the ones paying, can’t actually see these types of verbs. Verbs need to be actable. Not only do verbs need be actable, but they need to be directed towards the other person.
In the examples listed above, it is extremely difficult to involve someone in your thinking, feeling, and loving (yes, I can hear your justifications on that last one, but “to love” someone is a feeling inside you and has very little to actually do with them. If you do something TO them to show how you feel… well, that is different AND actable). All of these are incredibly boring to watch.
To take it one step further, I ask my students to make their tactics physical. If, for example, your character couldn’t say anything to the other character in the scene and could only use their body, what would they do to the other person to convey their feelings? Examples would be verbs such as to block, to flick, to stroke, to hold, to slap, to caress, to clutch, to hit, and many others. As you can see, all of these verbs can be done to the other character. IMPORTANT NOTE: this does not mean you must physically do them in the performance, but they are incredibly useful as a rehearsal technique.
Physical tactics allow you to actually do something that affects you and the other person, which makes for the most interesting theater – theater of action and reaction. In rehearsal, I might actually have an actor do (or simulate) some of these actions to the other actor so that each of them can feel what is happening. Human beings are very connected to the physical experience. Physical occurrences affect our emotional state. Basically, what happens to our bodies changes the way we feel. Constantin Stanislavski was a proponent of an outside-in approach when he realized that emotion memory was not accessible for some actors and even dangerous for a few. Following this realization, he wrote the sequel to his original work “An Actor Prepares” by looking at the physical nature of acting in his book “Building a Character.”
Physical tactics are also very easy to imagine. It is easy to picture yourself doing these actions to another person and allowing the physical act to influence the emotional impact of your line. Best of all, you don’t have to imagine – you can act them out.
The internet if full of verb lists. Remember, however, that not all verbs are created equal. Seek out the verbs that are physical and actable.
As a post-script, I have seen several lists of verbs that are negative in nature; to NOT do something. Never, never, NEVER choose a verb that involves not doing anything. Barring a character’s emotional struggle to not leave someone, not kill someone, or not jump out of a window, few audience members want to spend their money to watch you NOT do something.
