MAR
3

The Great Un-Boring

How to create more interesting characters 

By Flip Kobler 

Flip Kobler began his performing career as an actor before morphing into a writer.  Flip and his wife, Cindy Marcus, have written for Disney and now run Showdown Stage Company and Showdown Theater Academy in Valencia, California.  Pioneer Drama Service is pleased to offer several plays and musicals by this dynamic duo.   

Okay, quick story for context.  In high school I student directed The Man Who Came to Dinner, which opens with the butler counting Christmas packages under the tree.  And that’s how I directed it.  He counts and says, “I think they’re all there.”  Fine.  And boring.  Fast forward a dozen years and I’m watching another performance of that show.  Curtain rises and...

...there’s no butler.  Huh?  Then the packages start to rustle, which turns into an avalanche and out from under the tree crawls the butler, clutching an empty bottle of whiskey and slurring his words, “I thinga they’re-all-there.”  And the audience howled with laughter and the show started on a bright comic note.

Okay, it’s probably good that I didn’t add a lush to my high school show.  The point is that the director took a beige character and made him sparkle.  Why didn’t I think of that?

I still struggle with making every performance unique, because in the mad gallop to opening night — sets done, props collected, scenes rehearsed, and the five bajillion other things that need to happen before first curtain — some of those beige characters stay beige.

So how do you take an indistinct character that’s not super fleshed-out on the page and make them special?  Here are a few tips of what we’ve done over the years. 

Schtick

Is there anything those characters can be doing onstage?  Knitting?  Playing with a yo-yo?  Chewing gum and blowing bubbles?  Listening to music with earbuds so they’re out of the conversation, lost in their own world?  Maybe they have drumsticks and beat out rhythms on everything, or maybe they carry a guitar they don’t play.  Maybe even get weird and have them carry bagpipes...  or a tuba.

Giving actors something to “do” on stage is a great way to start fleshing out nondescript characters.  But you’ve got the gimmick, you have to dig deeper to build the character.

Knitting is cool.  But that’s usually considered an older person’s hobby.  So if your middle-schooler or high-schooler is knitting, what does that say about their character?  Is she sort of the unofficial mom?  How can we expand on that?  If she knits, does she also spit into a hankie and wash somebody’s face?  Does she have juice boxes and string cheese for everyone?  Is she super over-protective?  How can you make that character Momma Bear?

The guy who’s listening to earbuds is in his own world.  Why?  What is he avoiding?  Does he not do homework?  Is he a slacker who doesn’t care about grades?  Is he trying to escape an abusive home life?  How into his own world does he get?  Is he the guy who stays onstage when everyone else has exited because he doesn’t notice, and now somebody else has to re-enter just to lead him away?

Why is that girl chewing gum?  I mean, it’s fun to have her crack it, smack it, blow bubbles.  But what else can that be?  Is she afraid of bad breath?  Does she chew gum because she’s anxious no one will like her?  Is she a pleaser?  A non-conformist?

Like any of these examples or so many more, chewing gum is a great bit, but if you can dig into the why, you can make the character more interesting, so they’ll actually know how to react in different situations.

One-Word Characters

Disney’s Seven Dwarfs are a great example of one-word characters.  Consider how well-defined those characters are just from their names.  Bashful, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, Doc, Dopey — you know how each of those characters will react in any given situation.

So we do this early in the rehearsal process.  We put character traits on a card and have actors draw one blindly.  Today, they have to play their character like that.  It gives them a chance to experiment and try different character traits on like costumes to see what fits and works.

We have a whole bunch of different adjectives — paranoid, confused, lost, anxious, amused, bored, disgusted.  Whatever else you can think of.  Using those one-word descriptions, can you build an interesting character?  If someone is paranoid, how do they react?  Are they looking over their shoulder all the time?  Do they question every answer?  Do they not believe the truth?  Do they always stand behind someone, sort of using them as an emotional shield?

When we worked at Disney, they were making an animated film called Home on the Range.  It had a bunch of cows in it.  The animators literally hung a chalkboard around each cow’s neck with their one word on it.  That way the animators always knew how each cow would react to a situation.

Again, like schtick, one-word characters are a great place to start, but you still have to build upon them.

Archetypes

Archetypes are another great place to start building a character.  There are the traditional Jungian types:  the Mother, the Hero, the Sage, the Trickster, the Rogue, etc.  But our world, and every John Hughes movie ever, fully embraces clichés.  I mean, there’s a reason it’s a cliché.

We all know the clichés of high school.  The dumb blonde.  The smart nerd.  The beefy jock.  The class clown.  Can you use one of these to launch your character?  Better yet, can you flip those clichés on their heads?  If you can’t cast a beefy jock to play the security guard, can you cast the littlest guy in school?  Imagine a half-pint as a threatening security guard.  Why is this guy dangerous?  Is he going to go off like a crazy man with a black belt in taekwondo?  Is it his calm assurance that’s scary?  Is his dad the mayor and nobody wants to cross him?

Can you turn other clichés around?  Is the blonde actually the smart nerdy girl?  Is the girl in glasses who’s carrying a bunch of textbooks actually the one failing all her classes but trying to improve herself?  Turning a cliché on its head is always a blast and young actors love to try this stuff.

There are other places to find archetypes.  How about astrology?  I’m not talking about predicting your future; I’m talking about the personality types assigned to each sign.

Geminis are flexible, extroverted, and clever, and there's never a boring moment when they're around.  Their flaws include indecisiveness, impulsivity, unreliability, and nosiness, so don't disclose your innermost, deepest fears to a Gemini!  Don’t you agree that a clever, flexible extrovert who’s also nosy seems like a great platform on which to build an interesting part?

Heck, if you want to get ever deeper for your advanced actors, you can discuss the Myers/Briggs personality traits.  Those get more subtle and complicated, but they are a great way to see and understand various character types.  Imagine having your actors take a quick Myers/Briggs in character as they develop their characters!

Conclusion

In summary, paying a little bit of extra attention to those bland characters that could use a little fluffing really takes your production to a whole new level.  And it makes those actors in “smaller” roles (ugh, I hate to use that word) feel as important and valuable as anyone else in the show.

And that’s what it’s all about, right?  I mean, we’re giving these kids a moment in the spotlight.  We can help them take a little extra time and make them sparkle in that light.  Remember, you are changing lives, even if you don’t know it.

My high school drama teacher changed everything for me.  She gave me the courage and skills to chase my dreams.  And I caught some.  So go be somebody’s Mrs. Webster.  You may change a life and not even know it.

You rock.

Now get out there and break some legs.