Discover Your Worlds

Discover Your Worlds – The ability to connect with the audience can really transform a mediocre performance to that which is moving and powerful. It is one thing to understand what you are saying and why you’re saying it, however, the manner in which you execute these thoughts is what can leave the audience wanting more. As actors it is useful to think of these thoughts and interactions as belonging in one of three different worlds, or circles:

• First circle – This is the smallest circle, it encompasses just your body. This is your inner-self talking. These thoughts involve your inner-conflicts, desires, fears, ambitions, and turmoil – either confirming the already known or a new discovery. This is perhaps the hardest circle to allow the audience into – and as it should be. As people we don’t allow everyone into our personal world – it can take a long time to build that relationship. However, as actors it is imperative to be open with your deepest and most complex emotions, welcoming the audience into your mind and soul.
• Second circle – This circle lines the stage. It is everything and everyone in your immediate vicinity. All other characters with you at that time are within this circle. Not only are you dealing with your problems and objectives, you are also involved in all of theirs. This circle deals with your given circumstances, the time and place and most importantly your relationship with the other characters. Be specific in how you would talk to different people – how would you speak to your mother? Is this different to how you would speak to your father? Or lover? The second circle also deals with your surroundings, furniture, and props. How does that character feel about their environment?
• Third circle – This is the largest circle. It encases your past and future. These thoughts can be nostalgic but also very active and determined. As well as time it also encapsulates other spaces – everything that is not present to the character at that time. Simplicity is the key within this circle – the fate of this circle is usually out of the character’s control, however, questions must still be asked within this world. Is your character accepting of the past/future? Or are they in denial? The third circle can directly connect to the first – what are their fears? Ambitions? This larger world is usually what has shaped the character’s inner-world.

Go through your script and specify which world you are occupying at any given time. You can highlight it passage-by-passage, line-by-line, or be real specific and identify it thought-by-thought.