Making it personal
Four steps to help your students
connect to a character’s actions
BY PETER KING
I RECENTLY DIRECTED A Raisin in the
Sun by Lorraine Hansberry—an Ameri-
can classic, no question, and certainly
an actable script, but a daunting choice
for a high school-aged cast. The play’s
setting, a cockroach-infested tenement
in 1950s Chicago, seems pretty remote
from our independent day school in
suburban Baltimore, to say nothing
of the characters’ struggles. How can
a seventeen-year-old of today play
Mama, as she strives to lead her family
after the loss of her husband? Or Ruth,
who’s pregnant and fighting to save
her marriage? Or Walter, a man try-
ing desperately to realize his dream of
owning a liquor store?
The challenges my students faced,
connecting to Hansberry’s characters
and bringing their story to life in a
truthful way, were perhaps an extreme
example of what all actors face every
time we pick up a script. It’s not easy,
making it real. Luckily, some very smart
actors over the years have figured out
ways of at least making it ours—and
that can make all the difference.
As Sanford Meisner said, “acting is
the reality of doing.” If you’re really
doing something on stage, chances
are, you’ll be believable to the audi-
ence. Meisner also defined acting as
10 TEACHING THEATRE
“living truthfully under the imaginary
circumstances of the play.” Living, of
course, just means “doing.” So the path
to good acting lies in discovering what
the character is doing in the scene, and
in particular, what the character is do-
ing to the other character in the scene.
That’s what creates the conflict, and
drama is conflict.
My Raisin in the Sun cast members
spent a lot of time and energy getting
at the root of what their characters
were doing, using a simple (I won’t say
easy) four-step process that I also teach
in my acting classes. It’s based on a
technique called Practical Aesthetics,
which was developed by David Mamet,
William H. Macy, and Gregory Mosher
in the mid-1980s, and is described in
detail in A Practical Handbook for the
Actor by Melissa Bruder (Vintage,1986).
It builds on the work of Stanislavsky,
Meisner, and others, so the principles
should be familiar to you even if you’ve
never read A Practical Handbook,
though it’s become a widely used text.
I learned Practical Aesthetics in the
early nineties from Lee Michael Cohn,
one of the book’s co-authors. Over the
last fifteen or so years, the technique,
taught at the Atlantic Acting School in
New York and elsewhere, has evolved,
 SHANNON BISHOP

Portia Boston as Mama and Jordan Williams as Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Peter King
this spring at The Park School in Baltimore.

TEACHING THEATRE 11
SHANNON BISHOP
and I too have refined it in my own id-
iosyncratic ways, for my own purposes.
For example, if you read the book,
you will find only three steps; an ad-
ditional step (number two, of the four I
describe in this article) was developed
later at the Atlantic. The basics remain
the same, however, and I think you’ll
find them extremely useful with your
students.
The four steps as I use them are as
follows:
1. What is the character literally
doing?
2. What does the character want the
other character to do in the scene?
3. What is my essential action?
4. What is the action like to me? It’s
as if…
Here’s a quick example using a dia-
logue between a brother and sister:
BEN: I won’t ask you again.
GEORGI: I don’t believe you.
BEN: I wouldn’t ask you unless I really
needed it.
GEORGI: What you really need is help,
Ben.
BEN: Please.
GEORGI: I won’t. I can’t.
12 TEACHING THEATRE
Here’s how I might answer the four
questions if I were the actor playing Ben:
1. The scene’s literal activity: Ben
is literally asking his sister for money.
2. The want: Ben wants his sister to
give him three hundred bucks.
3. The essential action: To beg
someone to help me out of a bind.
4. The as-if: It’s as if I’m trying to get
my wife, who works, to stay home with
our sick kid, so I can go to rehearsal.
Now let’s examine each step in
more detail. I’ll suggest several exer-
cises you can try with your students
to help them better understand the
process and eventually apply it to their
work on stage. Finally, I’ll share how
two of my actors in A Raisin in the
Sun were able to work the steps with
a particular scene in the play, building
personal connections to Hansberry’s
dialogue that helped them avoid vague,
clichéd, or flat acting choices.
1 What am I doing—literally?
I tell my students they need to distin-
guish between what they are saying
(along with any physical business) and
what they are really doing with their
partner—what they are trying to get. In
the first step, the actor analyzes his or
her scene in terms of what is literally
happening (I call this the literal activity
so as not to confuse it with the essen-
tial action)—for example, a boy tells a
girl he loves her. Next the actor deter-
mines what the character wants in the
scene; maybe the boy wants the girl
to kiss him. So, here’s the big trap for
most inexperienced actors or perform-
ers: they try to spoon-feed the lines to
the audience, matching each inflection
to their idea of what the playwright
means. The boy actor always gets star-
ry-eyed when he says he loves the girl,
and the girl always glows when she
says she loves him back. I call this “act-
ing the line.” The audience hears the
words “I love you” at the same time the
actor is “acting” the words “I love you,”
and so they get a double dose. David
Mamet says this sounds to the audience
like, “I love you. I mean it.” See what’s
happening? The interaction becomes
redundant—over-acted. It is, as Mamet
says, “like putting a horse costume on
a horse.” Acting the line while you say
the line is far from dramatic; it’s boring.
It’s an insult to the audience’s intelli-
gence. That’s what you see in all those
bad daytime soap operas on TV.
 Thus, the first step in your students’

SHANNON BISHOP
analysis is to determine their charac-
ters’ literal activity, so they know what
not to act.

Exercise: The Popcorn Test

The Popcorn Test, developed by the
folks at the Atlantic Theater, is an easy
way to determine what literally hap-
pens in a scene. Have a student leave
the room to “get some popcorn” while
the rest of the class watches a bad soap
opera or TV movie improvised by two
actors. Upon his or her return with the
“popcorn” the student asks the group,
“Hey, what happened? What’d I miss?”
The students must then recount what
they saw happen between the actors
improvising the bad soap opera or TV
movie. For the most part, what the
students relate will be literal and non-
interpretive. Here’s an example of what
might happen with the students impro-
vising the soap opera scene:

GABI: How could you do this to me?!

MICA: How could I do what to you?
GABI: You went out with him, didn’t
you?
MICA: I don’t know what you’re talking
about.
(Gabi slaps Mica and rushes out of
the room in tears. Cue bad soap opera
scene-change music.)

The students watching will say

something like, “Gabi accused Mica
of going out with her boyfriend, then
Gabi slapped her.” That’s what literally
happened in the scene.
As we do this exercise several times,
I discuss what literal activity means and
remind my students of some important
points. The literal activity…
s)SANON
INTERPRETIVENON
JUDG-
mental statement about what’s going
on in the scene.
s)NCLUDESEVERYTHINGTHATHAPPENS
in the scene or unit of action in a single
descriptive clause. When written out as a
sentence, it should not contain an “and.”
s)SSTATEDINTHETHIRDPERSON
s#LARIlESTHEPLAYWRIGHTSINTENTIONS
While rehearsing the end of Act 1, Scene 2 in A Raisin in the Sun, actor Portia Boston (left) looked within her own family
s7OULDSTRIKEDIFFERENTREADERS to find a personal connection to Mama’s challenge of her son. Meanwhile, Jordan Williams, playing Walter Lee, imagined
viewers as an accurate description of that he was speaking to his own parents about his dream of attending New York University.
what happens—it is simple and direct
enough that everyone would agree.
TEACHING THEATRE 13
 s)SWHATTHESCRIPTSAYS)TISWHAT
the characters say to each other.
s3HOULDnot make someone curi-
ous. It should be cut and dried, nuts
and bolts.
s3HOULDBESTATEDCLEARLYANDSIM-
ply, as if you’re talking to a young
child.
s)LIKETOINCLUDEANYBUSINESS
called for in the scene as well. For
example, in the above example, if the
s3HOULDNOTBEANERRAND!VOID the scene work. The action is a univer-
simply delivering a message, for ex- sal objective that both you and the au-
ample. dience will recognize and feel. The ac-
s3HOULDBEINTHEVOICEOFTHE tion serves as the vehicle that connects
character, not of the actor. you, the living actor, to the character.
s-USTBEINTHESERVICEOFTHESTORY If, for example, your character wants
of the play. Should evoke the spirit of her husband to sign the divorce pa-
the scene. pers, and you’ve never been married,
s-USTSTARTATTHEBEGINNINGOFTHE much less divorced, you won’t know
scene. Should make sense from the how to play the scene. You’ll make up
first moment. a cliché or act a vague generality—but
script called for the girls to be in the
ladies’ room putting on makeup, I’d
want to include that in my statement
of the literal activity: “While putting on
makeup, Gabi accuses Mica of going
out with her boyfriend.” If the script
calls for the slap, I’d try to incorporate
that as well.
2 What does the character want?
After having examined their scenes
and determined the literal activity—
what the characters are saying along
with any physical business—students
determine what their characters want
within the literal confines of the scene.
The want is what the character specifi-
cally wants the other character to do,
plain and simple. If we return to our
example of Mica and Gabi: Mica wants
Gabi to say she went out with Mica’s
boyfriend. If the actor understands what,
in exact terms, her if character wants, the
actor will engage and play off her part-
ner, because the test of her goal is in her
partner. Her partner’s words or behavior
will show her if she has won. We call
this sign of victory “the cap.” The actor
playing Mica will know she’s achieved
her want if Gabi’s character says, “OK,
so I went out with him.” Caps can be
non-verbal as well: Mica might have seen
the guilt and dishonesty in Gabi as Gabi
turned away, avoiding eye-contact.
Here’s what I emphasize as I discuss
this step with my students. The want:
s)SYOURCHARACTERSGOALWITHTHE 3 What is my action?
other character in the scene.
s3HOULDBEWITHINTHELITERALCON- want, the actor determines the essen-
fines of the scene’s circumstances.
s3HOULDBESOMETHINGPHYSICALNOT if instead you define a clear, strong, es-
emotional; wants such as “Gabi wants sential action, such as “to get an enemy
Mica to feel ashamed for betraying her” to concede defeat,” you will under-
can get the actor stuck in an unactable stand what playing the action means,
tangle of psychological manipulation. because we all have enemies and we
s)SROOTEDINTHEPOINTOFVIEWOF all would love them to concede defeat.
your character. Like the literal want, a good essen-
s(ASACLEARCAPAVISUALORVERBAL tial action has a test in the partner—in
sign you’ve gotten what you want). other words, the answer to whether
s3HOULDNOTHAVEANhANDvWHEN you win your goal is found in your
you write it down. partner. I like to say an essential action
s7ILLCORRELATEWITHANEWACTION is the pursuit of a goal on a partner.
every time the want changes. "YHISBEHAVIORTHEPARTNERCHARACTER
shows you that you’ve won: he signs
Many actors, directors, and act- the divorce papers.
ing teachers stop after this step. They Whereas Steps 1 and 2 focus on
know their character’s want, and they what the playwright has provided, and
act it. This can work, but it can also can lead to some enlightening discus-
produce superficial results. Actors can sions with your students (even some
cheat. They can remain emotionally strong disagreements—none of this is
and psychologically outside the charac- an exact science), Step 3 invites the ac-
ter. You’ll notice the scene feels clear tor to find parallels in his own life. It’s
(there may even be some conflict) but the crossroads between the fictional
flat, not quite real. Another danger en- desires of the character and the person-
countered by young actors who stop al, vibrant, and moving desires of the
at this stage is that they act clichés. It actor. If the actor does not distinguish
looks okay, it feels okay, but it looks as between the literal activity and the es-
if you’ve seen it before—a lot. It looks sential action, he will be in danger of
like TV. The actors are “showing” us acting “I love you,” when he should be
what their characters are feeling and trying very hard to get the scene part-
doing. This happens because the actors ner to do something, something big,
have not made a personal connection something he must have, something
to their work, a connection to what he may not be able to live without.
their characters do. This leads us to our A strong undercurrent will propel the
third step. scene forward, and the audience will
be swept along with it.
I tell my students that how we
After determining the character’s literal phrase an action makes a difference
in how easily we can relate our char-
tial action. I explain to my students acters’ actions to our own lives. No-
s3HOULDBESPECIlCEGh-ICA
wants Gabi to say she went out with
Mica’s boyfriend” instead of “Mica
wants Gabi to confess.”
s3HOULDNOTCREATEANYCONFUSION
in the partner.
14 TEACHING THEATRE
that an essential action is the true na- tice in our example about the divorce
ture of what you the actor and you the above, there is no mention of signing
character are trying to get in the scene. anything. This is for several significant
It is the physical pursuit of a specific reasons: first, you want to avoid act-
goal with a partner on stage. It embod- ing the literal. You don’t want to be
ies the struggle or conflict that makes tempted to act what you are saying or
 see how what we say doesn’t matter,
The action is a universal objective that both but rather, how we say it and what we
do while saying it, does.
you and the audience will recognize and feel.
Exercise: One-line scenes
The action serves as the vehicle that connects I use one-line scenes a lot. They help
actors get out of their heads, play
you, the living actor, to the character. strong actions on their partners, and
stay connected. For these scenes, have
the actors sit across from each other.
(If you’ve ever practiced Meisner tech-
literally doing in the scene, because it s)FPLAYEDFULLYCANMAKETHEOTHER nique, this setup will sound familiar.)
will come across as redundant—over- actor waver, even if circumstances Give them the situation and their char-
acted. The second reason is that you make it seem impossible. acters’ actions. Each actor repeats his
want an action that is universal, an s$OESNOTNECESSARILYHAVETOBE or her line in response to the partner
action that you intuitively understand “to get” or “to make” the partner do while playing his or her action on the
and that the audience intuitively un- something, but these two verbs almost partner. Actors sometimes fall back on
derstands. A good portion of the au- always work as a basis for a strong ac- playing the literal words in this exer-
dience will never have been married tion. cise; coach them to play their action.
nor have signed divorce papers, but s)SPHRASEDINAWAYYOUWOULD
they will have tried to make an enemy talk about yourself, and readily accepts Situation: Two friends. Sarah wants
concede defeat. There’s a third reason: an as-if. Darcie, who happens to have a car,
you want your action to accommodate s3HOULDSUPPORTTHEGIVENCIRCUM- to drive them to Rhode Island to visit
your as-if readily. More on that later. stances and the characters’ relationship, Sarah’s boyfriend for the weekend. If
Here are some other important while reflecting the story of the scene Darcie does, she won’t be able to study
points for this step; see the sidebar and the entire play. for a big test on Monday.
on page 18 for some examples. The s3HOULDNOTINCLUDEANYTHINGPRES- Sarah’s action: Get a friend to take a
action: ent in the literal scene. walk on the wild side.
s)SYOURGOALONSTAGEWITHYOUR Line: Darce, it would be so cool!
scene partner. Exercise: Text vs. subtext Darcie’s action: to get a dreamer to
s)SANINTERSECTIONBETWEENTHE I use this exercise to help my actors face reality.
character’s wants and your own. (This understand the difference between the Line: You’re crazy, Sarah.
will be clarified further when we dis- literal activity and the essential action. The first time through, here’s what it
cuss as-ifs.) Improvise a scene between two might sound like:
s)SAUNIVERSALHUMANOBJECTIVE sisters washing their father’s car. You
Most everyone will know, understand, are allowed to talk about washing the SARAH: Darce, it would be so cool!
and have at some time played the ac- car. The actor playing the older sis- DARCIE: You’re crazy, Sarah.
tion in real life. ter should play the essential action of SARAH: Darce, it would be so cool!
s(ASAGOALTHATLIESINTHEOTHER “getting an inferior to see who’s boss,” DARCIE: You’re crazy, Sarah.
person. The test is in the partner. and the actor playing the younger sis- SARAH: Darce, it would be so cool!
s3HOULDEVOKEAVERYSPECIlCSET ter should play the essential action of DARCIE: You’re crazy, Sarah.
of behaviors in the partner. “getting a sibling to accept her as an SARAH: Darce, it would be so cool!
s)SONEUNITOFDESIRE7HENTHE equal.” Remember, you can only talk DARCIE: You’re crazy, Sarah.
action is achieved, a new action is cho- about washing the car. In this scene
sen, along with a new want. the literal activity is talking about and You and your students will see and
s4HEhCAPvVISIBLEORVERBALSIGN washing the car, which is distinctly dif- hear how strongly the actors play their
you’ve won your action) should be ferent from the actors’ underlying es- actions and how many different tactics
concrete but exciting to you. sential actions. they use. These scenes don’t last more
s)FYOURCHARACTERISLYINGTHEAC- A variation: a husband and wife than five or six repetition cycles before
tion itself should still be honest, and talking about and folding laundry. His they start sounding contrived, so after
noble as far as your character is con- essential action is “to get a lover to actors have really explored the action
cerned; your character assumes he or take a walk on the wild side,” and her through repeating only their lines, I
she promotes what is right and best. essential action is “to get a child to allow actors to repeat their partners’
s3HOULDFEELASTHOUGHITSOLVESTHE grow up.” Again, the literal activity, the lines back to them and to say the part-
problem of the want. dialogue, may only pertain to folding ner’s name whenever they want. Actors
s3HOULDBEUNDERSTANDABLETOA laundry. Though these scenes may end will want to break the rules, and after
ten-year-old. up becoming stilted, your students will I know they understand the exercise
TEACHING THEATRE 15
is about playing action truthfully, I let
them. I stipulate that they may break
the rules but only if they come back to
their scripted lines and keep playing
their action.
Here’s what this might sound like:
SARAH: Darce, it would be so cool!
DARCIE: You’re crazy, Sarah.
SARAH: Darce, it would be so cool!
DARCIE: You’re crazy, Sarah.
SARAH: I’m crazy? Darce, it would be
so cool!
DARCIE: Yes, you’re crazy, Sarah.
SARAH: Darce, it would be so cool!
DARCIE: No, it wouldn’t be so cool!
SARAH: Darce, it would so be cool!
DARCIE: You’re crazy, Sarah.
These scenes do not need to go on
very long. The objective is for each ac-
tor to commit fully to his or her action
and to try to win at all costs. It is not
about being clever or trying to “play-
wright” around the script. Here are a
couple of other examples you might try
with your students.
Situation: Siblings, in which the older
brother (Nick) is trying to find out if
his sister (Sue) is in love with his best
friend (Adam).
Nick’s action: extract crucial infor-
mation.
Line: It’s Adam, isn’t it, Sue?
Sue’s action: Get a family member to
respect my privacy.
Line: Nick, forget I even mentioned it.
Situation: Mother and daughter, in
which the mother is telling the daugh-
ter (Natalie) she cannot go to college
out-of-state because she’s not mature
enough.
Natalie’s action: Get an authority fig-
ure to accept my independence.
Line: Mom, I can take care of my-
self.
Mom’s action: Put a rebel in her
place.
Line: Natalie, you’ll do as I say.
Your students will enjoy making up
new situations with new lines. Doing
one-line scenes allows actors to focus
entirely on their partners and to play
their actions without having to worry
16 TEACHING THEATRE
about the script. Acting the literal be-
comes more difficult because the script
is so limited. These scenes also demon-
strate the difference between the want
and the action.
Which brings us to the last and cru-
cial step…
4 The as-if: what’s it to me?
As-ifs catapult the actor inside the
character’s actions and energize the
actor like nothing else. For the actor
truly to become the character, he or
she must take it personally. With this
step, the actor can tap his deepest
desires or hidden fantasies, and that
is what makes as-ifs exhilarating (and
sometimes scary) to play. When he
rehearses the scene, he doesn’t have
to pretend he’s in love with his scene
partner, whom he might not even get
along with offstage. He also won’t be
“acting” or “indicating” he’s in love,
which would strike the audience as
artificial. Instead, he will be doing what
he would really do in order to get a
special someone to show his or her af-
fection for him.
Basically, an as-if is a fantasy based
on what is currently happening in an
actor’s life. It’s like when we stand in
front of the mirror and imagine say-
ing what we really want to our bosses
or our loved ones. For your students,
this might mean imagining what they
would love to say to a potential boy-
friend or girlfriend, to a teacher who
does not appreciate their work, or to a
friend who has let them down. As-ifs
allow actors to fantasize and tap their
true passions, likes, and dislikes. They
encourage actors’ sense of play and
ignite their imaginations in a way that
helps them fully embody their charac-
ters’ actions.
To practice as-ifs, you can take any
of the one-line scene examples above
and simply add the fourth step. For
example, in the scene about Sarah
and Darcie, Sarah’s action is “to get
a friend to take a walk on the wild
side.” The actor would go to her own
life and think of someone whom she
would love to get to walk on the wild
side with her. Her as-if might be: it’s
as if I’m trying to talk my best friend
into going to prom even though she
doesn’t have a date. The actor playing
Sarah then speaks to the actor playing
Darcie as if Darcie were the friend in
her real life. For the actor playing Dar-
cie, whose action is “to get a dreamer
to face reality,” the as-if might be: it’s
as if I’m talking to my talentless friend
who thinks she’s going to be a pop
star. The actors would do the scene
speaking to their partners “as if” they
are speaking to the people in their
real lives.
As-ifs give energy, life, stakes, and
urgency to a scene by encouraging
the actor’s sense of play and fantasy.
Most students find them not only use-
ful, but invigorating. A cautionary
note for teachers, though: Normally,
actors should never reveal their as-ifs,
because they are deeply personal and
very powerful, but while your students
learn to use them in class, they will
need to share. Have everyone agree
that “what happens in Vegas, stays in
Vegas.” And you might have to exer-
cise some discipline yourself to avoid
reacting to what you hear in a way that
makes a student regret “going there.”
Try to stay neutral and focused on the
work. Later, privately, you can follow
up on any troubling revelations that
seem to demand a response or some
other adult intervention.
With all that said, a good as-if:
s4APSTHEACTORSPASSIONSANDIS
important to her. She would love to do
it or must do it.
s-IRRORSTHESAMEACTIONASTHEAC-
tion in the scene.
s)SNOTTHESAMESITUATIONASTHE
scene or a substitute for the scene.
s(ELPSSHOWTHEURGENCYAND
stakes of the scene.
s5SESANACTIONPERTAININGTOACUR-
rent and unresolved situation in the ac-
tor’s life, not the past.
s-AYHAVEIMAGINATIVECIRCUM-
stances, as long as they are plausible
to the actor and as long as the target of
the action is someone specific that the
actor knows.
Giant steps toward truth
For my cast of A Raisin in the Sun, the
four steps of the Practical Aesthetics
process were a perfect way in. The stu-
dents were able to break down Hans-
 Essential actions: a menu for inspiration
HERE’S A LIST of essential actions
your students might use as models:
Let someone down easy
Get someone to admit a betrayal
Put someone in his place
Get someone to open up
Put someone on the right path
Bring someone down to earth
To lay down the law
Make a love bond
Get someone to back my crusade
Get someone to face reality
Burst someone’s bubble
Teach a simple lesson
Get someone to accept a simple truth
berry’s script into workable pieces and
to play strong, honest actions.
One particular sequence toward the
end of Act I, Scene 2, where Mama
questions Walter about his having to
go out and drink, provides a nice ex-
ample. (If you have a copy of the play
handy, the exchange I’m talking about
between Mama and Walter begins after
Ruth’s disgusted exit and Walter’s bit-
ter reaction, when Mama asks, “Walter,
what is the matter with you?”) The ac-
tor playing Mama defined the literal
activity (Step 1) just the way I wrote it
here: “Mama questions Walter about
his having to go out and drink.” The
actor defined the want (Step 2) as:
“Mama wants Walter to tell her what is
wrong and why he is going out drink-
ing.” For the action (Step 3), the actor
said, “to push a loved one to do his or
her best.” As you can see, the action
is bigger and deeper than just getting
an answer about the drinking. The
big goal is to get someone to see they
need to do better, to live better. For
her as-if (Step 4), the actor imagined
encouraging her smart, younger sis-
ter to engage more in her education.
In reality, the sister was doing fine in
school, but the actor could imagine her
sister failing classes and throwing her
life away.
A little later in the same scene, Wal-
ter (Step 1) tells his mother how much
Get someone to loosen up
Get someone to loosen me up
Get someone to give me what I
deserve
Get someone to respect my
boundaries
Get absolution
Get crucial guidance
Get someone to take me under her
wing
Help someone to see his own
ridiculousness
Get someone to lighten up
Get someone to heed my warning
Get someone to come clean
—P.K.
the insurance money would mean to
him. The actor playing Walter easily
defined a very clear want (Step 2): the
money. A powerful essential action
(Step 3) emerged: “Get someone to
trust me and my decision-making.” For
the as-if (Step 4), the actor used the
fact that his parents had told him he
could not go to college in New York,
where he had his heart set on NYU. He
spoke to his scene partner—“Mama, I
don’t know if I can make you under-
stand…”—as if he were speaking to his
own mom and dad.
Because these young actors could
tap into their own lives and relate
personally to their characters’ ac-
tions, they could play with fierce
honesty and complete conviction.
The four steps provided a technique
for rehearsal; by the time we reached
performance the technique had faded
away, the actors could live fully in
their imaginary circumstances, and the
audience forgot they were watching
high school students. Instead, they
saw the characters as real people,
striving for real dreams. WEB EXTRA
Peter King studied acting at Northwest- For more on as-ifs, see Peter King’s article
ern University and received his M.F.A. in the Winter 2002 issue of Teaching
in directing from Boston University. He Theatre, archived at Schooltheatre.org.
directs and teaches acting at The Park Go to the publication page and click on
School in Baltimore, where he heads the Teaching Theatre journal.
theatre program.
TEACHING THEATRE 17