Real Talk with Jeff

Howdy everyone! Welcome to the first Real Talk with Jeff. I hope that over the course of the next few months, I’ll be able to show you what happens behind the curtains in Allen Theater. Today, the cast of Grease worked on character development by playing a series of theater games. In the first exercise we participated in, we had to walk around the room while incorporating different elements of our characters into our bodies. The purpose was to do this without talking in order to really get a feel for what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes.

However, as Mr. Howard says, the most important thing to remember when working on a character is not to focus on the similarities between oneself and that persona—that comes naturally. In fact, it is more constructive to focus on the differences that oneself and the character have. These nuances can be controlled through “switches, dials, and lenses.” “Switches” deal with obvious character differences, such as facial expressions or voice differences. “Dials”, on the other hand, deal more with the intensity/ level of a character’s personality, a level that can be adjusted accordingly. Finally, “lenses” deal with the various outlooks that characters may have on a particular person or event. When incorporating these three elements into acting, it helps bring out honesty in characters.So now that we’ve participated in these helpful exercises, it’s now time to fully develop our characters over winter break. Until next time!

-Jeff Erazo