How to Make The Most Interesting Choices in a Scene

I was recently teaching some classes on subtext and in discussion, we started to talk about what makes for a good choice in scene work. It can be tough to define. The words always seem to take the scene in one direction, the characters can take it in another, and potential subtext sways it to another direction too.

When we see a scene, we often see a confrontation. Dramatic action is a conflict of two opposing forces, who want something from each other. That’s what makes interesting drama - apparently.

BUT, that’s where we start to go wrong. From there, we think we have to demonstrate the conflict. But that’s almost never the way to take the scene.

A young couple are talking about their future. She’s just told him she’s pregnant. He hasn’t taken it well, even suggesting it might not be his child.

Conflict is built into this scene.  Playing that conflict is so tempting. We enjoy it, we like playing out the drama of conflict, the emotion of pain and anger and sadness. As actors we enjoy playing this. But it isn’t always the best for the scene. We see dramatic conflict as a chance to fight, because it’s fun, it’s easier and we can escape revealing anything about ourselves as we hide behind the fight.

Instead of working to create a fight between two characters, you should work towards getting an agreement with the other person. And that’s much harder.

Many of us see how a scene ends, and in order to prove to everyone that we can act, we start painting the scene with how it ends from the beginning.

Don’t do that.

Look for the dramatic conflict in the scene, and then try to solve it. Play the scene with the characters trying to find a solution. A question I often ask is “What’s the ideal ending of this scene for your character?” Okay, so try out the best way to get that. Conflict, attacking, criticising, is often the worst way. You have a broad range of ways to resolve it.

Two gangsters meet in a diner. They want their rival gangs to come to a ceasefire, but they can’t show too much weakness. But the interesting way to play the scene is how they come to agree to the ceasefire.

It’s more interesting if a mother and daughter in law find ways to get on, even though they hate each other.  It’s more interesting if the killer is nice to the victim - actually it’s much scarier, rather than playing the evil, or the murderousness. Find the conflict, and then find a way to reach agreement with the other. It brings a much more interesting scene, with much more intriguing options for you to play.