A Writer's Guide to Acting

A Writer's Guide to Acting: Creating a Character From The Foundation Up

This lens is dedicated to a proven method of creating a character. You will begin by learning the importance of setting on how a character reacts to the world around him. From there you will learn how to incorporate relationships, motivation, conflict and discovering things about your character that you maybe never thought about before.

How to Use Setting When Creating a Character, Part I: Learning to act means more than simply saying lines. A good actor uses everything he knows about the character and the world he inhabits. Setting is the foundation upon which all roles should be built.
How to Use Setting When Creating a Character, Part II: Part II of this section of the Writer's Guide to Acting further illustrates how setting can be the foundation for creating a character.
Relationships are About Emotions, Not Facts, Part I: This section of the Writer's Guide to Acting builds upon the foundation learning the importance of setting by expanding to include how your character relates to other people.
Relationships are About Emotions, Not Facts Part II: Part II of this section of the Writer's Guide to Acting continues to examine why relationships should not be considered in terms of facts, but in terms of feelings.
Conflict and Motivation: Once you've learned how to incorporate setting and relationships into your acting, it's time to introduce that favorite of acting coaches: motivation.
Discovering What the Scene is Really About: The final component in this series about learning to create a character is about adding in the discovery of what is really going on in the scene.
Putting it All Together: Learning how to use all you've discovered about setting, conflict, and motivation to create a unique and memorable character.
Stanislavsky's An Actor Prepares: A Book Every Actor Should Own: If you are an actor there are only two books that you have absolutely no excuse for not owning. And this is one of them.
Michael Shurtleff's Audition: This is the second book no actor has any viable excuse for not owning.