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9 things to consider while designing a
physical action for your character.
To act means to do, so you must always have
something specific to do onstage or you will
immediately stop acting. This is why physical action is
so very important for the actor. Simply defined, an
action is the physical pursuance of a specific goal.

Physical action is the main building block of an actor’s

technique because it is the one thing that you, the actor,
can consistently do onstage. Choosing a good action is
an invaluable skill that can only be developed by long,
hard practice.

In this chapter you will find the requirements of a good

action; use them as a checklist when figuring out an
action for any scene. An action must:

1. be physically capable of being done.

2. be fun to do.
3. be specific.
4. have its test in the other person.
5. not be an errand.
6. not presuppose any physical or emotional state.
7. not be manipulative.
8. have a “cap.”
9. be in line with the intentions of the playwright.
1. An action must be physically capable of being done.
At any moment you should be able to begin doing it. For
example, “pleading for help” is something you can begin
to do immediately. Everyone knows how to do it. On the
other hand, “pursuing the American dream” is not
something you can pick up and do at a moment’s notice.

To say something is physically capable of being done

does not necessarily involve intense physical activity
such as jumping up and down or assaulting someone.
Pleading for help can be accomplished while sitting
absolutely still in a chair. An action must be something
that you, the actor, can actually accomplish onstage.

2. An action must be fun to do. As you will discover in

scene analysis, any number of actions can be correct for
a particular scene. Common sense dictates that you
figure out the one you as an actor will want to do since
you are the one who will have to do it every night of the
week.

By fun, we don’t necessarily mean something that

makes you laugh, but something that is truly compelling
to you. This includes things you might never actually do
offstage, but that appeal to your sense of play.

If you’ve ever really wanted to tell someone off, for

instance, here is your chance. Language is your main
tool here.
The more vital, active, and gutsy your language is, the
more life you will bring to the stage because your action
will be that much more exciting to you. How much more
fun it is to “talk a friend into spilling the beans” than to
“get someone to give me information.”

There will occasionally be times when a seemingly

mundane action is perfectly correct for a scene. The
point is to find the action you want to do. What gets you
going? What gets you hot? Only you know. The way you
speak to yourself is the way you will act. If you are clear,
specific, and strong with yourself, then, chances are that
that is how you will be onstage.

3. An action must be specific. Stanislavsky said,

“Generality is the enemy of all art,” and nothing could be
truer. If your action is in general, then everything you do
onstage will be in general.

The specificity of an action such as “extracting a crucial

answer” will bring you to life much more than the
vagueness of “finding out something.” Furthermore, a
specific action will provide you with a clear, specific
path to follow when playing the scene.

4. The test of the action must be in the other person. An

action is the physical pursuance of a specific goal, and
that specific goal must have to do with the other person.
In other words, by looking at your partner, you should be
able to tell how close you are to completing your action.
This will also make you less self-conscious and allow
you to concentrate on something infinitely more
interesting than how well you are performing—that
person across from you.

If your action is “forcing an enemy to do my bidding,” at

any moment you should be able to tell how close he is to
doing your bidding, and only when he has done your
bidding will you have completed the action.

5. An action cannot be an errand. An errand is an action

that has no test in the other person. “Delivering a
message” is not a good action because you do not have
to look at your partner to see if you have accomplished
it. Also, it can be accomplished in one line, leaving you
with nothing to do for the rest of the scene.

If you pick an action that keeps you working off the

other person to achieve it, you will be brought to life
throughout the scene. Too quickly and easily
accomplished, an errand is boring both for you to
perform and for the audience to watch.

The action must be something it is possible to fail at;

you cannot fail at an errand.
6. An action cannot presuppose any physical or
emotional state, either in you or in your partner. You
can’t artificially induce a physical or emotional state
(e.g., hunger, anger, sorrow, drunkenness), because they
are not within your control.

Any action requiring you to put yourself into a certain

state before or during a scene will force you to act a lie,
the truth being that you are not actually in that state. If
you try to work yourself up into a certain state for a
scene, your attention will be entirely on the creation and
maintenance of that state rather than on your action.

As will be discussed later in detail, there is no such thing

as a correct emotion for any scene. “Making a jerk know
how mad I am” is a bad action because you cannot do it
unless you are angry. A better action would be “putting a
jerk in his place.” The same holds true for your partner.

“Calming down an excited friend” will not work because

if the person in front of you is not excited, then you have
nothing to play. “Building up a friend’s confidence” is a
better choice because it does not presuppose your
friend’s physical or emotional state; you can always
build someone’s confidence higher than it already is.

7. An action cannot be manipulative. A manipulative

action is one chosen to produce the desired effect on
your partner.
This type of action gives rise to the attitude that “I can
do whatever I want to you, but nothing you do is going to
affect me.” In other words, you make up your mind
ahead of time how you are going to play the scene and
allow nothing to sway you. An action such as “making
someone cry” is manipulative.

An action such as “forcing a friend to face facts” might

very well make your partner cry, but the crying is more
likely to be the honest response to your carrying out your
action, rather than the result of your manipulation. A
manipulative action can cause you to act in a
predetermined way instead of dealing truthfully with
what is happening in the other person.

8. The action must have a “cap.” The cap is that specific

thing you are looking for that will mean that you have
succeeded in your action. You must be able to tell
whether or not you have finished doing your action by
looking at the other person.

For example, “to get a friend’s forgiveness” is an action

with a cap. You know when your partner has forgiven
you for his behavior toward you. On the other hand, an
action such as “maintaining someone’s interest” does
not have a cap. Depending on the scene, you may never
actually achieve your action, but you must always have a
specific end to work toward onstage.
9. The action must be in line with the intentions of the
playwright. This is extremely important and can be
better understood in conjunction with scene analysis.
Once you have determined exactly what the playwright’s
intentions are, the actions you choose must be true to
those intentions.

For example, in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, in

the scene where Willy returns home after his harrowing
trip if the actress playing Linda chooses an action such
as “putting someone in his place” for the scene, it is
clearly out of whack with the intentions of the
playwright.

Something more in line with the scene would be

“assuring a loved one of my support.” Within each action
is an infinite number of tools, or ways to go about
executing that action.

For instance, if your action is “to get a straight answer,”

at various points in the scene you might demand, cajole,
reason with, intimidate, or threaten the other person to
get the answer. After you have analyzed a scene try
listing some of the tools you can use to go about getting
what you want. The right tool is, as you will learn later
on, mainly dictated by what the other person in the
scene is doing.
Acting Guide is an initiative by the GOOD ACT team to bring
you important topics from various acting books.

This will help you keep in touch with acting easily so that
you don't have to read a complete book amid your busy
schedule.

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