One day in class, we began talking about letting the character live in you. I really liked this discussion. There are many things that have so much meaning to us as people. The characters that we are portraying are no different. When someone mentions the name of a person, behind the mention of that name is all of their feelings about that person. They could be good or bad feelings which all could be portrayed in different ways. Someone could have good feelings about the aforementioned person and they could be excited that the person was even brought up because they are a good friend or even a lover. They could have these same feelings but for whatever reason need to hide their feelings because they don’t want to give anything away. The same can be true for bad feelings towards that person. They could show that they don’t like that person or feel the need to hide their negative feelings. All of this can be true about an object as well. In all of these cases, the mere mention of these things effects the characters in some way, shape, or form. It is so interesting to explore these things for these characters because they become more than characters, they become people. This is exactly what actors need to in order to give an authentic performance. The parts they play can’t simply be characters, they must be people. People that live within the actors. In class, the suggestion of how to have the characters live in you is to free write. To find the lines that the character says that are the most provocative and then free write as if we are the character to bring more meaning to those lines. In addition, we are to find the key facts and free write about those as well.   

I really liked something that my teacher said about this. Once these characters live within us and we have a connection to the imaginary circumstances, we no longer have to worry about how to portray something in a believable and authentic way, we are able to live in the moment and act believably and authentically. I am excited to do this with a character that I will be playing.