Reading the Scene

I am constantly surprised by how few actors can actually read a scene. I mean they can literally go through the words, and they can tell me what happens. But when it comes to turning the conversation into something they can act upon, the dialogue with them turns into a gloopy soup of generalisms and stuff they made up. What’s the trouble? Well, of course, the first part is that reading a scene for an actor, is not just the task of reading it that the lay person would undertake. Instead, the actor must learn how to mine the script for action, for something to do, not just a way to say the line, not just to get angry on this or that line, but how to bring the scene to life, how to act it. Complete beginners and experienced actors can have the same trouble if no one takes the time to teach them the fundamental skills of how to read a scene. Learning to read it, dissect it for action, that’s the skills we’re talking about. You can’t learn that in a university, discussing themes and philsophies of performance. You may learn it at a theatre school, but often they teach you how to think about the scene, things to consider, mental or emotional issues, which again, do not relate to the action of the scene, the thing that the actor must pull from amongst the carefully written words.

When an actor reads a page of script, whether they realise it or not, they have one simple question. What am I supposed to DO here? This what must be answered when you read your script, this is the most important question of all. As an actor, you must inhabit the behaviour of a fictional character and speak words as if they were initiated by you, without the third party of the writer. To do this, you need to understand what makes the character take action, then you must find a way to take the same action with conviction and purpose.

But it’s not an easy task, I confess, had I not the tools to examine a script for action, I may be as lost as the next person, and so many then choose the path of ‘creative artist’, the path of ‘making shit up’, because that’s much easier than actually dealing with what’s in front of you. Read the scene, understand it. Then you will be able to answer that most important of questions: What should I DO here?