6-20-2012 Now it gets fun... Objectives and Actions

For the next few days a lot of my work will focus on identifying objectives and actions for each scene.  So what does that mean?

Last post I identified a Super Objective to begin playing around with:

"I want to prove that I was the right man to be promoted."

Now, within each scene, Cassio has at least one Objective.  An Objective is something that I need to accomplish in order to achieve my Super Objective.  These are based on things I need other people to think or feel or do.

The magic sentence I use to craft Objectives is this...

I want to get (insert the name of the chararcter I am dealing with) to think/feel/do ___________.

It's that easy.  And by making sure that these objectives are based on needing something from the other people onstage, it ensures that I am acting WITH my fellow actors rather than IN SPITE OF my fellow actors.

So... the first time we see Cassio, he is searching around Venice with messengers from the Duke urgently trying to find Othello. 

I see Cassio's Objective as being:

I want to get Othello to go to the Duke's immediately.

It's a pretty easy Objective to identify.  Now, does this Objective support my Super Objective?  Sure it does!  It's likely that the Duke, when he couldn't find Othello, sent Cassio to find him.  Cassio wants to impress the Duke by promptly dealing with Othello.  At the same time, the manner in which I do it, will hopefully instill more confidence in Othello about my abilities.  If my Super Objective is:

"I want to prove that I was the right man to be promoted"

then doing this task successfully and quickly will be one step in doing just that.

In order to achieve an objective we play actions.  Actions are verbs that we are going to do to the other person to achieve the objective. 

Example...  

My first line to Othello is...

"The Duke does great you General, and he requires your haste poste haste appearance even on the instant."

One possibility here would be TO EXCITE Othello with the line.  (HEY THE DUKE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU NOW!!! WOO HOO!!!!  THE DUKE!!!!) 

Another possibility might be TO WARN Othello with the line.  (Othello!  Something is up and the Duke wants you at his place... NOW!)

Either are valid possibilities to use to achieve my objective.

Othello asks me if I know why the Duke needs him there... and I reply...

Something from Cyprus as I may divine:
It is a business of some heat: the galleys
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night at one another's heels,
And many of the consuls, raised and met,
Are at the duke's already: you have been
hotly call'd for;
When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The senate hath sent about three several guests
To search you out.

With this line I could do all sorts of things.  Again I could try To Excite.  Perhaps Cassio is really fired up about the potential of going to war and he's trying to excite Othello too.  It's possible.  I could try To Impress Othello, showing him just how much good information I have picked up, but while that helps my super objective, that doesn't really help my objective.  I don't know that my impressing him would get him to come to the Duke's.  The line "you have been hotly call'd for" seems a great line to use TO WARN... but I need to figure out if I want to try and warn throughout the entire line or if there are other things I could play.

Perhaps the first half I try TO WORRY Othello about the seriousness of the meeting, and then I try TO WARN him that the Duke has been trying unsuccessfully to get Othello to the Duke's.  The hope being that if he sees the gravity of the situation and the fact the our superior, the Duke, has been calling for him, Othello will make his way there immediately.  Which... will help me achieve my Objective, which in turn helps me to achieve my Super Objective.

This seems to be a solid possibility because Othello replies...

'Tis well I am found by you.
I will but spend a word here in the house,
And go with you.

'Tis well I am found by you. ----  as if Othello acknowledges that this is heavy stuff I am saying and it was good that I found him as opposed to one of the other groups that the Duke sent out in search of Othello.
Throughout a rehearsal process actors try out different actions on each other in order to craft a scene.  But, it's good to have an idea of what I'm going to start with before rehearsals begin.  A lot of times, I'll list two or three actions by a single line, so I can either play around with a few things or, if a director doesn't like a choice I have made, I have another possibility prepared. 

This is where the acting really begins.  Memorizing is not acting... it's homework.  This action and objective type work is where the craft begins. 

So that's two lines... 108 to go.  haha

Shout out of the day goes to the cast and crew of GOLAC, many of whom have been following along rather consistently.