Saturday 12th May Of Character Creation

We continued with our final week looking at the basics to approaching text.

Following on from this we have begun to look a bit more about how we create brand new characters. What do we give them in order to make them interesting?

Over the next couple of weeks we will be coming up with all of the new writing, characters and scenes that are going to add to our script for the final showcase on 7th July.

So where do we start?

1) The basics

There are a number of places to start when creating a new character but often the simple can inspire us onwards. What age are they? Where are they from? How do they speak? Are they human? Where do they live?

One exercise to really help with this is called, 'hotseating'. A number of the Windmill Young Actors spent time brainstorming today. We asked them what would their favourite character be to perform - who is their dream role, if you like. 'Hotseating' is where the actor sits on a chair and the audience ask them questions that range from the simple of 'what is your favourite colour' or 'where do you live' to the obscure of 'what are you most afraid of.' They have to answer 'in character'. The idea is not that the actor has all of the answers but that they are made to think of an answer. This can help them more fully develop their simple characters into more complex and interesting ones.

2) The advanced

Once the basics are there, it's time to start giving them relationships. Who are the people in their world and how do they feel about them. How do they speak to these people? What do they think about the world around them - do they wish it was different and why? How do they place that character into a scene or place and make them believable?

3) The 'Want'

Every story needs conflict in order to make it watchable. Every character needs to 'want' something. As I've spoken about previously, without a 'want' or 'need' there is little to move the character forwards or backwards and they will tend to wander around stuck in limbo, boring the audience. They need this 'want' because we all have this 'want' and in order for us to get interested we see to recognise those 'wants' in who we're watching. Once we know what the character wants then we can begin to see what is getting in the way of that want. Once we know that then we begin to see the conflict and so the stories starts to live. Right?

By the end of the session a number of students were beginning to get much clearer on the character that they want to create. The hope is that I will then incorporate all of these characters into our final showcase in the form of small scenes, monologues and duologues.