{"id":688,"date":"2016-07-08T15:10:30","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T15:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mgs.performerstuff.com\/?p=688"},"modified":"2017-09-23T02:36:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T02:36:43","slug":"5-creative-ways-to-work-on-character-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/5-creative-ways-to-work-on-character-development\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Creative Ways to Work on Character Development"},"content":{"rendered":"
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5 Creative Ways to Work on Character Development<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \"\"<\/a><\/span>

Written by Ashleigh Gardner<\/p>\n

July 6, 2016<\/p>\n<\/font>

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Who says character development has to be dry and boring? Nobody! Character development is essential for every role you play, so why not make the process of finding your character fun? Below is a short list of 5 ways to creatively dig deep into who your character is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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1. Start a character\u00a0journal.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If you like to write, you might enjoy the thought of getting inside your character\u2019s brain to hash out emotions, relationships, and reactions to things that happen in your character\u2019s life during the course of the script. Character journals are a great way to set down any worries, fears, passions, or inner struggles your character encounters on and offstage. What\u2019s more, you don\u2019t have to limit your journalling to prose. If your character is poetic, compose some sonnets, haikus, couplets, or free verse poetry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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2. Make a music mix.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Making mixes isn\u2019t just for collecting\u00a0your favorite belting solos. Use Spotify or iTunes to create a mix that is distinct to your character. It could be a set of songs that tells the story of your character or a set of songs that your character would listen to. Either option allows you to listen to your mix while doing other things: or driving to rehearsal, writing in your character journal, doing your makeup before the show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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3. Create a photo collage.<\/h4>\n
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Have any old magazines lying around? Instead of throwing them away, cut out pictures, words, and phrases to artistically assemble a character collage: a visual representation of your character\u2019s personality, possible common phrases, and beliefs. You can also use found items like scrapbooking paper and other random paper items. Though the GIF\u00a0above is moving, it\u2019s a good representation of a character photo collage. This image might represent Billy Pilgrim from Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s Slaughterhouse 5<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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4. Make a character dossier.<\/h4>\n
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One of the most comprehensive activities you can do for character development is to make or fill out a character dossier. A “dossier” is a document, usually used in police and government investigations, that contains essential information about a person or an organization. A character <\/em>dossier contains tons<\/em> of questions about your character: ones that are obvious and ones that you may not even thought of asking. These questions might include, What\u2019s their educational level? Do they have any pets? Have they ever gotten a tattoo? Do they like to read? Are their parents still living?<\/em> Sometimes dossiers come in a table format (for you to fill in the answers), but other times you can take the questions that are posed and write them in a notebook or in a document on the computer. Where a journal and a mix are very free-\u00adformed activities, a character dossier keeps you on track with your character development. Check out our infographic<\/span><\/a> on how to create\u00a0a character dossier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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5. Cook foods that your character would make.<\/h4>\n
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No matter who you\u2019re playing, they have to eat something<\/em>. Use this love for cuisine to enhance your character development. If you\u2019re in The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em>, you might enjoy stacking some cucumber sandwiches, or if you\u2019re Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd<\/em>, try making a meat pie (but please — leave human flesh out of the recipe). What\u2019s even better, you can share the love with hungry castmates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ashleigh Gardner<\/strong>\u00a0received her AA in Theatre\/Drama\/Dramatic Arts\u00a0from Valencia College and\u00a0her Bachelors Degree in English Literature and\u00a0Masters Degree in Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies from\u00a0the University of Central Florida. She is a playwright, an actor, and PerformerStuff.com\u2019s Editor.\u00a0<\/em><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Thumbnail image from\u00a0Cain Park\u00e2??s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street<\/em>. Image \u00a9\u00a0Roger Mastroianni.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [...]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[259,260,258,269],"tags":[6,12,126,127,8,308,21,128,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}