Look again for conflict. What is the conflict in the scene? A scene might not contain raised voices and cursing; however, the conflict is still active because their immediate objectives cannot both succeed. (This is an example of why it can be difficult to use general emotional words like tense, sad, or romantic to discuss conflicts; it is more immediately actionable to find the places where the characters want something different from one another.)
In a new script, this can be difficult to determine. Ask your actors what their character wants from the other character in the scene. If you have a clear answer, write it down on a sentence for each character. “She wants freedom” is not helpful, but “she wants him to stop questioning her” provides each actor with a playable objective, an action, that immediately informs the delivery of each character’s lines. In other words, you cannot act freedom. And if both characters could achieve their objective simultaneously, we haven’t found the conflict.
Again, we’re looking for a conflict that is immediately actionable. “You can tell what a character wants from their actions, not necessarily their intentions, but their actions will reveal the most important thing, which is their objective. And then you can play with what their actions will be based on that.”
Now that we’ve explored the characters’ immediate objectives with one another, we can look for more clues in the script. Where does one character get angry? What question goes unanswered? What secret is kept? What is being ignored or avoided? These are usually signs of where the conflict lies. Also, be mindful of where your characters shift tactic, from reassuring to bargaining, threatening, etc. This change can be a hint that one character was unsuccessful in trying to achieve his or her objective.
The actor then shifts tactic, and we find a turning point in a scene. Turning points happen when a character finds out something, or loses command of a conversation, or causes another character to act differently. Often a scene will have many different arguments; however, these individual arguments usually share a common thread. This thread could be something simple like who has power in the scene, and each individual argument arises from the power struggle between the characters.
So we have a clear idea of what each individual character wants; and hopefully these wants are conflicting. We have a sense of where each character turns, and why they change tactic. Now we can explore this in rehearsal and see what happens. Run the scene with little, or no, blocking and see where it builds dramatically or flags. If the scene flags or feels like it could be any other scene, ask your actors what their individual actions are and see if it helps.
Often when actors fall out of their characters’ actions, it is because they begin to speak the lines rather than act the words. If you find that the actors are struggling to find their actions, try switching verbs, replacing reassure with persuade. If the conflict still is not coming through, the conflict may need refining. Once you have a strong conflict that is driving the scene, you can begin to explore the characters’ physical actions. For example, if one character is trying to avoid being questioned, it might make sense for her to keep her distance, or guard the exits. Ultimately, the space should reflect the conflict, and if you muted the volume, you should still be able to tell who’s winning or losing.
