ACTING TECHNIQUE: PASSAGES THAT RETELL A STORY
- Clare Lopez
- Apr 7
- 3 min read
Lets dig into scripts where characters re-tell a story or memory. Often these longer passages are full of emotional turmoil - our characters rant, rave, list complaints or recount an event from the past. And I want to unpack how to process these kinds of passages.
I think these scenes require two essential steps. We need to personalize each moment in the memory/story and we need to activate the story so that it can affect change the present moment.
1 - PERSONALIZE
We need to take each image, event, description and make it personal. We need to have a rich point of view for every moment. We need to be crystal clear about what happened, and all the sensory experiences that came with this particular memory (not just emotional - but what did it feel like in the body, what did it smell like, what did we remember hearing ect). Every person, place, thing, event needs to be vivid and alive and real for us. If we are going to ‘tell a story’ - it has to be from a place of describing something we can visualize - not from listing off the text we memorized.
2- ACTIVATE
We need to understand why we are sharing this long story, to this person, in this moment. As actors, it can be easy to fall into the trap of living and re-living the memory. We can get lost in emotion and our entire focus can turn inwards and become about making ourselves re-experience the events.
But I would like to offer. That is not the goal.If a character wants to remember a memory - they don’t need another character to do it. If a character is choosing to reveal, relive, and fully embody the events of the past in this moment it has to serve a greater purpose than the self indulgence of feeling our feelings.
We need to activate the text in the present. We need to engage with the present moment between these two characters - and ask:
📌 Why am I sharing this story with this person?
📌 What does this story have to do with what is going on right now?
📌 What do I hope to accomplish by telling them this story?
📌 How do I expect my scene partner to respond to this story?
This story isn't about ourselves reveling in what we experienced in the past - rather - this story is a vehicle that we use to get our objective. We are using this story as a tactical tool - as a way to affect THEM.
This is less about our own emotional experience at the time of the event - and more about discovering something new - now that you are sharing these words out loud (likely) for the first time. Often, in unpacking a past event- we are transformed. Our perspective in the telling of this story actually reshapes our experience of it. In that way - we are thinking as we speak, making discoveries, and most importantly - being affected in the present moment.
When we activate the text- and make it for and about our scene partner - something shifts. The telling of the story becomes alive, and takes on new shape because now, we can actually be affected by how our scene partner responds from moment to moment. We are able to allow our scene partner into the scene - and we can become changed in this re-telling.
We find ourselves experiencing something new every time we step into the scene - and our emotional experience widens beyond what we felt at the time of the event. We become affected - and we become engaged in the present.
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