The Secret of Text Analysis

What is the Secret of Text Analysis?

Regarding text analysis, there aren’t any ‘correct’ answers, there are just answers that can acted upon and answers that can’t.

The results of the text analysis should lead you the actor towards action. Anything that leads you back into inexpressive reaches of the inside of your head is not useful to actors, actors are active, not waiters or thinkers.

But where do these answers come from? The script. You’d think that was obvious but many actors look for magical answers and there aren’t any, just those evidenced by the script, discovered and revealed by asking the right questions.

Unfortunately many actors think this is the time to engage creatively and they are wrong. This no time for creative work, this is time to understand the work of another creative artist, the writer.

And without a robust technique to apply, the actor is not armed to tackle the text, and yet so many actors leave college, conservatory or drama school without rudimentary technique. Sometimes because it isn’t taught, sometimes through laziness. Sometimes both.

And yet discovering the actable part of the script comes directly from your understanding of that script. That is the secret, and of course, it’s not a secret, it’s quite rudimentary, but you must learn it, and if you do not know the right questions to ask, well, you can always look for an acting coach.

So if you there’s a skill you need to work on this autumn, it’s text analysis.