Character Building Exercises

We have one set of experiences to draw from on stage… and that is our own. In contrast, there are a lot of diverse and complex roles out there beyond our perception and knowledge. So, as you draw from your background, examine your relationships, human interactions, motivations, experiences, strength, and hope.. Be present in real life so you can also soak it in creating a character persona on stage.

Now… onto research. Choose a few places to “people watch”. A favorite park, a grocery store, a campus quad, a bookstore, or a bench at a mall. Keep a journal with the observations that really speak to you. People and situations that give you inspiration in creating characters. How they move. Their vocal tones. Facial expressions. This is a guide to help you when creating characters swiftly, and we all know in the industry that that next role if we’re lucky, is right around the corner.

Your character development journey has already started, so you can pull from these real-life examples to provide insight into future roles and how to create and bring depth to the spotlights.

Also, surround yourself with people that truly enrich your life and help you in your “safe space” to explore and create… People that challenge you to grow! These friends, family, and mentors are crucial to developing healthy wellness offstage. For If you’re only focused on acting without this insight and life balance, you will never realize your full potential.

Challenge to percolate:

Choose a role you would love to have. To gain perspective, brainstorm on people that could add nuance to this role. Do a monologue from the role using these insights.

HOW TO TEACH TEENS STAGE PRESENCE?

When you are on stage, it is easy for any beginning actor to fall into the pitfall of just smiling and being ready for your photo op. But this is not real acting. And any good director’s job is to create learning opportunities for teens to grow on stage, to deliver scenes with realness – not just a photo-op. And that realness? That’s where the best memories are made!

When you are on stage, you need to use your space, and give your body resistance to the area surrounding you. And you did this differently as your character…. And each character you create on stage will be VERY different than you, with unique personality traits, and motivations that you will represent with different animation in your acting physicality and expressions.

You have the opportunity to be a real storyteller on stage. You are taking the audience on a journey -a story arch with your scene partners. Stage presence is being PRESENT. If you “check out”, so will the audience, because the magic of theater and stage will be broken. This takes stamina and using your rehearsals to build this muscle memory allows for real transformative change and gorgeous stage presence.

Real stage presence call for each cast member to be energetic and activated, showing animation. Think of this as a forcefield that extends across the stage and into the audience. It is easy to fall into the trap of only activating part of the body or face when every part of the body is needing to be “activated” from your hair to your toes. Alive and animated, moving and attracting real and raw feedback. So create tension and release WITH your scene partners, and in doing so, you will stand out as an Acting Professional!

A Challenges to Percolate:

Do a simple mirror warmup with yourself or your scene partner. Challenge yourself to be bigger and give your muscles more resistance and realness.

The Java Jive: Depicting Trauma on Stage

It happens. You get an incredible role – with trauma in it. Thankfully, you haven’t experienced anything like this in real life. You haven’t lost a loved one. Or been trapped in a garret to avoid persecution. Or been burnt at a stake. Or walked down the street and be assaulted – or accused of something you never would do. So how do you deliver a real and authentic performance when you have no such life experience to draw from?

We’ve all seen it happen. A normally talented performer becomes wooden and emotionally-affective during a fight scene, retreats during aggressive stage conflict, or worse – “fights the part”. How do we transcend this “fight or flight” instinct? How do we keep it real and authentic on stage?

It answer is simple. What parallels have you experienced that you can draw from? Maybe, thankfully, you have never lost a spouse, parent, or sibling, but, you might have helped a friend through the pain – or know the pain of losing your pet. Think on how you would, with kindness and empathy, help them. Then, use that as your starting point.

The stages of grief are universal. The rules would definitely apply to this pandemic. As humans, we deny. We bargain. We are shell-shocked. We grieve. We become depressed and angry. And finally, we find some acceptance. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Because the stages of grief can come and go as we process these painful losses. The loss of a job and our identity. The loss of our childhood home. The loss of a child. The loss of what we thought was permanent and safe and protected.

That is what we take to the stage. That is what we give to the audience. The honesty of the emotion. The bravery of showing it through our actions. And portray hope for the future

Challenges to Percolate:

Be super brave for five minutes today.

  • Think about something you mourn. Remember “the emotions in the room” at that time. Think what got you through it, that you could bring to a role in healing.
  • “Text” a letter to a character you struggled with, showing your support for them, and then read it as that character would. Allow this to be a “moving action” to heal.

~ Felicia Pfluger

© The Pfluger Empathy Movement Method

The Java Jive: Fatal Flaws and Fantastic Strengths.

As you develop your character, think of them in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. What fatal flaws will they conquer? Which of their strengths will help them triumph? What other characters of the stage have complimentary faults that together, could be their undoing? Which combined strengths could be used to help them triumph over adversity? Tag team with your fellow ensemble to create this. Are the tensions internal or external? How can they be heightened? When the audience is sitting in the darkness, what “magic” you created will make them lean forward in their seats?

Create an emotional scavenger hunt for the audience. Before the “moving action” of the play takes place, ask where can you embed foreshadowing. Where might you build tension early on to give the audience inklings of what might happen? Remember, it is only through your action, and little “tells” that anything can be visualized. Your breathing. Your eye contact – or lack of. Your posture changes. Yes. these gifts to the audience allow you to create the backstory to bring forth the tension and build the dynamics of your role, so that the play is going someplace. 

Challenge to Percolate:

  • Pick up a script and take some time to “play”. Choose two areas to build tension as “the stage is being set” in the first scenes.
  • Think about your favorite movie characters. Write down bits about her that make her/him character authentic – that make you “root” for them well before the crisis.
  • Choose a character in a show you hope to act some day. Create a few journal entries, in their voice, over a week. These can even be from a decade before or after the story we know takes place. There are no limits. Just have fun! Play!
  • Look at the relationships between family members in the show. What habits stretch generations? Which are a character developing their autonomy or rebelling?

~ Felicia Pfluger

© The Pfluger Empathy Movement Method

The Java Jive: What’s in a Script, Anyway?

Congratulations! You got the part! Now what? THE SCRIPT! Think of it as the best treasure hunt you will ever go on. It has hundreds of “life hacks” for the  character you are creating.

Some are easy. Who is the playwright? When did they live and what cultural aspects of their world influenced this story?  What political and historical relevance affects the interaction of the characters and ensemble? Be the anthropologist on a quest. Is the play staged in a different era than the life of the writer? Then both eras need to be inlaid in the character.

How will you create the life of your character? What was the clothing like then? How will this affect your movement on stage and your character? What tidbits are in the dialogue of other characters?

Create a journal for your character with all these facts. Write down tidbits about the character’s age and relationships. It will affect their movement and spacing on stage. What other characters are they closest to? What characters are there the most conflict? How do these aspects and growth change during the show?

What daydreams can you imagine about the character? This discovery and creation process is the backbone of your role! Your time in the spotlight

By committing to invest in the script, you’re allowing yourself to inspire your future audience and create magic in this world.

A challenge to Percolate:

  • Choose a character in favorite movie or book. Write down bits about her that make her/him character authentic.

© The Pfluger Empathy Movement Method

Our Upcoming Production

Get Tickets for Porchlight

LATTE Theater presents…

The Porch Light

 An original work by Chicago Playwright, Felicia Pfluger that chronicles over 120 years (from 1893 through the present) of American life and family. Through powerful, hilarious and fun vignettes, we explore times of radical change in history, the context of cultural change, changes in the family unit, social awareness, wars… and our humanity. The Porch Light is on, children. It is time to come home.

Plymouth Place Auditorium

315 N. La Grange Road
La Grange Park

Show Times

Friday, Nov 8:  7:00 PM
Saturday, Nov 9:  2:00 PM and 5:00 PM

Discount Presale Tickets

Tate’s Ice Cream
25 S Ashland Avenue, La Grange, IL 60525
$12 Adult Presale Price

Tickets at the Door

(Unassigned seating, so come early)
$ 5 Students/Seniors/First Responders with ID
$15 Adults