Guidepost 6: Discoveries -- Major Points

Guidepost 6: Discoveries -- Major Points

Overview Michael Shurtleff explains, "Every scene is filled with discoveries, things that happen for the first time. There is something new about this experience, this moment." This post will take you through his guidepost on Discoveries.

Major Points

• The discoveries may be about the other character, or about oneself, or about someone who is offstage, or about the situation now or the situation as it existed ten years ago and how that affects the now.

Guidepost 5: Opposites - Major Notes

 Guidepost 5: Opposites - Major Notes

Overview  Michael Shurtleff writes, "Consistency is the heart of dull acting." Therefore, it is the actor's job to find or create the opposites that occur in each monologue or scene. One moment, the actor may be laughing hysterically, and the next the character might be painfully distraught. That inconsistency (which occurs in real life all the time) is exactly what captivates audience to keep watching.


Major Notes

• Whatever you decide is your motivation in a scene, the opposite is also true and should also be in it.

Guidepost 4: Humor - Major Notes

Guidepost 4: Humor - Major Notes

Overview Michael Shurtleff explains, "There is humor in every scene, just as there is in every situation in life." He continues to say that humor is important in both drama and comedy. This post looks at the major notes on this guidepost to help the actor create honest, humorous moments in any scene or monologue...

Guidepost 3: The Moment Before - Major Points

Guidepost 3: The Moment Before - Major Points

Overview Some might refer to it as "given circumstance," but something always precedes whatever is happening in the scene - something Shurtleff calls the "moment before." By knowing this moment before, it gives the actor a certain energy and objective when performing the scene.

Major Points

• Every scene begins in the middle.
• It is up to the actor to create the moment before.
• The actor has to come onstage with it, not wait to get going.
• The more specific, the more focused the moment before, the better the scene will be.
• The moment before requires an important emotional commitment. One has to seep oneself in it, drown in it, be overcome by it.
• Underneath every human being’s rational cool exterior is passion.
• The moment before must be strong, full, and meaty; it has to give the actor something to feed on for the entire scene.

Up Next Applications and homework for Guidepost 3!

Guidepost 2: Conflict - Major Points

Guidepost 2: Conflict - Major Points

Overview Shurtleff suggests that instead of using the Stanislavski objective or the generic goal/motivation, one must rather ask himself "What am I fighting for?" He uses fighting because it is an active term and there is no passive scene. To connect conflict to real life situations, Shurtleff says,

"All of life is a fight: we always want something. What seems like defeat is just another way of fighting. We always want something; we are always fighting."

 Heads up - it's a lengthy post!


Major Points of Guidepost 2: Conflict

1. Conflict
2. Dreams
3. Finding Conflict/Dreams within Your Character
4. Conflict and Relationship

Up Next Look out for the next few posts: GP2: Conflict - Application! I will be applying this guidepost to Antigone and her conflicts with all of the characters, and to two other scenes (an actual scene from a play and a "contentless scene"). Also, there will be a special post about which acting system serves as the best supplemental method for Shurtleff's work! Exciting stuff.

Guidepost 1: Relationship - Major Points

GP1: Relationship - Major Points

Overview Shurtleff begins his first guidepost (Relationship) by explaining:

"Every scene is a love scene. The actor should ask the question, 'Where is the love?' of every scene, or he won't find the deepest emotional content. This does not mean that every scene is about Romeo and Juliet-type love; sometimes the scene is about the absence...of love."

With this question as the foundation, one should be able to develop an emotionally honest relationship with their scene partner.


 Major Points of Guidepost 1: Relationship

1. Commitment
2. Love
3. Questions to Ask Yourself
4. Other Important Notes

Up Next Look out for the next few posts: GP1: Relationship - Application! I will be applying this guidepost to Antigone and her relationship with all of the characters.

Welcome to The Shurtleff Technique: An Application!

Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part is a intriguing guidebook by Michael Shurtleff. Audition details twelve acting guideposts that he feels an actor must know and apply to any character in order to create a true and honest performance. Whether you're a beginner in the acting realm or even an experienced acting professional looking for ways to better your skills, you will find here the valuable acting guideposts by a renowned casting director.

The twelve acting guideposts are:

• Relationship (How do I feel toward my scene partner?)
• Conflict (What am I fighting for?)
• The Moment Before (How did I get to this point?)
• Humor (What makes this scene funny?)
• Opposites (What are the hidden tensions within the scene?)
• Discoveries (What can I do for the first time that will reach my goal?)
• Communication and Competition (How do I talk to my partner?)
• Importance (What are the stakes for my character?)
• Find the Events (What is really happening in the play?)
• Place (Where are we and how do we use the theatre space?)
• Game Playing and Roleplaying (What is the game I am playing in this situation?)
• Mystery and Secret (What is going on unknowingly within my character?)

But are these guideposts enough? Is it really "everything an actor needs to know to get the part"? Has Michael Shurtleff narrowed down all of the world's acting tips and tools (theatre and film) into twelve simple guideposts? Do these acting tips require supplemental methods for a thoroughly developed character, such as Meisner or Stanislavski? Do they work for only a full-on theatre production, only film, or only at an audition?

The only way to answer those questions is by personal application. As a college theatre student just learning these guideposts by Michael Shurtleff, I am working to determine whether they are sufficient for creating an honest performance. I will be doing three things three posts for each Audition guidepost: summary of the guidepost, application of the guidepost, and an exercise for the guidepost so that the actor may be able to apply it to his/her own scene. In my application, I will also critique how well the acting tips work for myself personally.

At the end of the day, different methods (and combinations of) work for different actors. You can only know what works for you by application. Be sure to leave no acting stone unturned! Because of that, you can also find acting resources, information on Michael Shurtleff himself, reviews from others who have read Audition, as well as many other helpful resources for the theatre actor and the character.