SANDY UNDERWOOD

Jon Jory
on Acting

Tactics
How to get what you want

L ET US BEGIN the new year with a fif-

teen-second review of the acting basics
The obstacle is what keeps you from
completing the action easily. The ob-
doesn’t get off until ten, you argue. If
you had to be home by midnight you
that we’ve covered in the last few months. stacle makes you struggle to get what you wouldn’t have time for a late movie. Your
A circumstance (surely you remember) want. The struggle produces energy and parents don’t care. Next you try plead-
is a fact of the script. Such as: Leslie makes our work dramatic and interesting. ing, then you try getting angry because
owns a parakeet. The circumstances give The stakes are how much you want they don’t trust you. They stand firm.
the acting context and detail. For ex- what you want. To increase the energy You try joking with them about the wild
ample, if the script says it’s fifty degrees and heat up the drama, you just want it stories they tell about their own youth.
below zero you can’t take off your coat more. They don’t laugh. Finally, you try negoti-
just because it makes you look bulky. That concludes our review and brings ating the time to at least 12:30 and, tired
The beat is a paragraph for acting. It’s us to what I want to discuss this month: of your persistence, they agree if you’ll
a handy unit to work on. Usually a beat the actor’s tactics. Tactics are, to put it call at midnight. Bingo. Each thing you
covers one subject, but if the subtext simply, how you go about getting tried was a tactic.
(what’s really being talked about) under- around, over, or under the obstacle and Now, you obviously have to try tactics
lies more than one subject, the beat thus get what you want. For instance, you that are possible within the limitations of
could be longer. want your father and mother to let you the text you have. If there’s no opportu-
An action is usually what you want the stay out on a first date until one a.m. and nity to joke with them or jolly them up
other person to do, to feel, or to under- they aren’t buying it. The action is clear it’s, duh, not a tactic you can use. We tie
stand (some people call it an objective). and their refusal is the obstacle. What these tactics to the beat and action. The
It ties you to the other character and might the tactics be? beat may cover six lines that are directly
helps you make active rather than pas- First, you might try logic. The guy about the date. Within that beat you de-
sive choices. works nights on the weekend and cide on your action. A single beat, how-
16 DRAMATICS • JANUARY 2001
In this scene from Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s courtroom drama Inherit the Wind, defense lawyer Henry Drummond, at right, wants
to undermine the credibility of his opponent, Matthew Brady. What are the tactics he uses? (Philip Pleasants as Drummond and Joneal Joplin as
Brady in the 2000 Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park production.)

ever, may have more than one tactic. at a church. Dad? You said you were During the early speeches when Flora
Let’s take a look. proud of my grades. That’s not a “no,” is describing why she needs the late cur-
it’s a “no” without thinking. You’re few, what might the tactics be? She could
FLORA: So, he finally, you know, like a no machine. Okay, I’m sorry. try to be cool, concise, and logical, as-
called me but… Dad, listen, please, We’re not like going up to the lake, suming her father would react well to an
okay? Please, this is important. Dad, we’re going to a movie. Give me a unemotional approach. Or she might use
he works till ten and… I mean… so I break, it’s 102 Dalmations. the other side of her personality, the
would need a one a.m. curfew. (Dad smiles.) sweet, excited, charming Flora that has
MOM: You know your curfew… don’t You’re smiling. Come on. The movie’s often been able to melt her parents’
make that face… and, and we don’t at ten, we get a pizza, I’m home at hearts. Or she could allow herself to show
know him. 12:30. how upsetting it would be to her after
FLORA: He came over that time with MOM: Jack? waiting and waiting for this call if they
Lucille. He used to date Lucille. You DAD: (Laughing.) Will the two of you turned her down. Three different tactics
said he was funny. lay off? All right already, 12:30. leading to three different tonalities in the
DAD: Is Lucille the one with the acting. And this is only on her first
purple hair? Now, Flora’s action, or objective, is speech! Plus, I’ll bet you could think of
FLORA: Dad… clear, simple, and direct. What is it? Yes, other possible tactics. The text’s open-
DAD: Tell you what, take no for an an- that’s right—she wants her parents to say ness to different approaches is one of the
swer. yes to a later curfew. But the acting, as it reasons why acting is so exciting and ab-
FLORA: Please, Dad. He’s nice. He’s develops, could be very different mo- sorbing.
smart. He’s the one with 1200 on the ment to moment depending on the tac- We’ll move on now to Flora’s big
SATs. Come on, he works as a janitor tics. Let’s consider the possibilities. speech toward the end of the beat. The
JANUARY 2001 • DRAMATICS 17
one that begins “Please, Dad. He’s nice. length of text the actor chooses, or even
He’s smart.” Now here there are a wealth within a beat.
of possible tactics. Before I take a shot at Why do we use this technique? It al-
it, why don’t you grab a pencil and paper lows the actor to sense the architecture
and list a half dozen. of the role. It gives the acting shape and
Done? You may have more than six. a sense of progression. It provides (and
You may even have a dozen. A moment this is crucial) variety in the acting that
ago, in describing the scene, I mentioned helps in telling the story and in holding
logic, pleading, self-righteous anger, hu- the audience’s attention.
mor, and negotiation. Add these to your All right, what sort of arc can we see
list and you see that there are a lot of dif- for Flora in the beat about her curfew?
ferent things to try in rehearsal. What does she feel and how does she act
One important thing about tactics: in the beginning and how does that dif-
they are not simply underlying emotions fer from the end? Remember that, as
that that we allow to show. Flora is not with all the other acting tools I’ve de-
pretending to be angry in order to sway scribed, there is no single right way. All
her parents, she is angry. The key is that our choices are subjective but we are al-
she allows this suppressed anger to show ways careful to make choices that are de-
and then, seeing it doesn’t help her finable within the context of the play.
cause, she gets it back under control and Just for the sake of argument, let’s say
tries something else. In most cases, this that because Flora knows her parents are
“something else” draws on natural as- likely to object since they don’t like to
pects of her personality and ways of relat- bend the rules and they don’t know the
ing to her parents. Watch your own be- boy, she is tight, defensive, and even
havior (or your sibling’s) when you want spoiling for a fight. Gradually she realizes
something from Dad and Mom, and that isn’t going to help her get her way
you’ll see what I mean. and she begins to plead her case rather
The actions (what you want the other than insisting on it, using elements of
person to do) and tactics (how you go charm, humor, and even apology. The
about getting them to do it) are ideas arc then could be described as from tight
you try out in rehearsal. They aren’t hard to loose, or from defensive to open. If you
and fast truths—you can always adjust or were to make this choice you would want
change your actions and tactics in rela- to make sure that the tactics you chose al-
tion to the other actors or under the lowed your acting to follow that arc.
guidance of the director. For heaven’s By tying the tactics to the arc you give
sake don’t get into an argument with your acting a unity that gives the story
your co-workers about them. On the and your performance more impact.
other hand, they can get a useful discus- I call the tactics and the arc the
sion going. There are even times when “actor’s battlefield” because this is the
the director doesn’t know or use this ter- area in which our goals in performance
minology. Maybe, in a pleasant, non- are won or lost. Very few of us will break
threatening way you can open up a new every beat down in this way, but the key
world for him or her. scenes or the part of the script where you
There’s another little secret that im- feel uncomfortable or stiff are the places
pacts on all the tools we’ve been learning to get busy.
how to use, and that is the arc. In life In March we’ll talk about that super-
people are usually much different at sixty hero of acting tools, the super-objective,
than they were at eighteen. In theatre with some side trips to “mystery mo-
they are usually much different in act ments” and “the gorilla on the table.” If
three than they were in act one. In fact, you want to find out what I’m talking
it’s a good acting tool to think of Flora about you’ll have to check in. See ya.
being different or acting differently at
the beginning and end of the beat we’ve Jon Jory, the artistic director of Actors Theatre of
been examining. The arc charts the inte- Louisville for thirty-one years, is now teaching
rior difference in the actor between page acting and directing at the University of Wash-
one and “fade to black…” or over any ington. This article is the fourth in a series.
18 DRAMATICS • JANUARY 2001
Originally published in Dramatics magazine. More info: Schooltheatre.org