Performance of Dialogue Lecture Notes
(C) Copyright Tony M. Lentz 1997
Goal: To use the techniques of placement and focus to create the illusion of an interaction between two characters in a play. The key to success is to employ placement and focus so as to lead the audience from one character's action to the next character's reaction, moment to moment. Remember that the technique of the performance should happen as smoothly and monotonously as possible, to keep it in the background (backstage), and the actions matching the performance (onstage) should be varied and interesting. Here are a few hints to make it easier.
Make your transitions as quick as possible, but vary them. They should not all be the same length, not uniform, mechanical, "clunk, clunk" from side to side. Concentrate on each character's reaction to what the other person has just said. If you "think the thought" it will naturally vary the timing based on the time it takes the character to digest what has been said, and to decide what to say next.
When you finish one line, look down quickly to gather the next one from the page. Quickly "get" the thought of the new character, while the face is down briefly, then let that thought determine how long it takes you to look up, and what emotion/expression is on your face when you do look up.
Include a description of setting in the introduction. Plays don't usually include any narration or other words to describe the context. This is an important way to engage the audience's imagination, and might be important if you use physical gesture to interact with things in the fictional setting.
Describe the characters in your introduction. The play gives us little about the clothing and demeanor of the characters... people in the show usually do that with casting, acting and costuming. You must rely on the audience's imagination. You might wear something suggestive of the type of clothing your characters might wear, but it must be general because both characters wear it.
Introduce your scene...NOT the entire play. It isn't necessary to outline the entire structure of the plot. Just tell your audience enough so they can understand the particular scene you're presenting. The focus should be on the crux of the plot IN YOUR SCENE. What does your audience need to know in order to understand the things that happen in this scene. The priest and the nun in The Runner Stumbles, for example, have one little five-minute scene of happiness. We don't need to know much more than that they are in love, and that it is forbidden by their church vows. The rest of the play is very complicated and involved, but a little about the two characters and why they are attracted is probably enough.
Look for and attempt to highlight the dramatic structure of your scene...beginning, middle, end. Dramatic analysis looks at exposition, conflict, crises, climax, and denouement. Exposition tells us what's going on...who's involved, what the context is. Conflict shows us that the two people involved want two different things in the scene. Crisis is the moment when it is clear that something is going to happen...that one of the characters will "win," another will "lose." Climax is the moment when the winning and losing take place. Then it's clear that one or the other of the character has gotten what they wanted at the expense of the other. (Or, perhaps, that NO ONE has gotten what they wanted.) Denouement is the "falling action" after the climax, as the other threads of the scene or story are tied up, and we find out how the scene (or play) ends. Look for these key turning points in the interaction of your characters.
Show structure through character reactions. We see the meaning of these key turning points in character reactions as they happen. The first moment a character looks up is vital. We miss half of the scene in oral interpretation dialogue, so the moment before someone speaks as they come up in focus is vitally important.
Reactions Rule -- Physically react, based on the thought, to what was said by the previous speaker.
Focus -- look at someone. Your eyes should suggest that you see someone. So hold your gaze in one spot. You do not have to nail exactly the same spot on the wall with your eyes each time you look up, but you should hold the eyes still while you are looking up
Timing -- vary the pauses between character lines. There is a tendency with beginning readers to make each shift between characters about the same length. Again, us the thought and reaction of the next speaker as the basis for the pause...Quick in some places, slow in others. Don't miss cutoffs, those places in dramatic dialogue where "..." indicates that one character interrupted the preceding speaker. Be sure to make those transitions rapid.
Take gestures from the thought. Someone must look at the glass before they pick it up, must think of picking up the glass before they do. In physical confrontation, remember that reactions are more important than action itself.
Don't be inconsistent with props. If you create a prop, get rid of it cleanly before that character is finished speaking. Don't wag your arm up and down between focal points because one character is holding a gun...show us the reaction on the face of the person with the gun in his/her face.
Symbols & themes can be important in your interpretation. "Mendacity," or lying, is a central theme in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The family of "Big Daddy" has told him that tests proved he didn't have cancer; but he does. His son Brick has never lied to his father, but he has lied to himself about the death of his best friend. In reading from that play mixed signals become very important on lines where we know (as performers) that the character is lying. Roses are an important symbol in Milan Stitt's The Runner Stumbles. They are as fragile and short-lived as the love affair that is the focus of the play. So any mention of flowers by a character should receive special attention in the introduction, and in the performance of the character.
Note, also, dialects that can establish differences between characters, and the differences between characters in vocabulary, or the words which they use normally. If one character speaks in short phrases, and the other talks in run-on sentences, they should be performed differently as a result.
You should look for slight difference of face & voice between characters. The difference between a man and a woman, for example, doesn't have to be a very high versus a very low voice. You need only reach the balance point...a significant difference which is large enough for the audience to notice. So men shouldn't strain to create a falsetto voice for a woman's voice in performance, and women shouldn't strain to be overly deep. Just make the voice for a man a little lower, and the voice for a woman a little higher. Small differences such as this make it easier to follow the interaction when the pace picks up, because the words are instantly recognizable as those of a different speaker.
Placement should be just wide enough for a significant difference between characters. Don't face the wall on your right for one character, and the wall on the left for another. When the characters are placed too widely apart, the audience sitting opposite the placement can be prevented from seeing your character's face. You only need around 30 degrees difference between the characters, enough so that the audience can see the change as you move back and forth. The important point is that the audience should know you have changed character, and the movement to a new focus should be sharp and broad enough so that they notice it, but not so broad that you turn your back on part of the audience.
Your placement, in fact, could be dead ahead if the voice & body of the two characters is different enough. When I do Ebenezer Scrooge and his nephew Fred, the two voices and faces are very different. I place them directly ahead, so all the audience can see both faces clearly. They know immediately when the characters have changed because Scrooges voice is gruff and creaky, and his posture is slightly bent. Fred's voice is full and his posture upright, so the difference is clear. Again, the key po int is that the audience should not get lost in the course of your switching back and forth.
Find out who's lying. The performer must make clear to the audience when a character says one thing and means another. We should see and hear mixed signals, vocal and physical behavior which does not "match" the words. Antony says that "Brutus is an Honorable Man" in Julius Caesar, but as his "Friends, Romans, countrymen..." speech continues that phrase becomes deeply and passionately ironic. They were honorable men, he says implicitly, but they murdered Caesar, the best man in Rome. So we should hear the overdone politeness in his voice degenerate into spite and venom as that phrase is repeated.
The audience usually overhears your performance in dialogue. So in the audience section just mention that. Also be sure to describe placement the placement you'll use: right for character A, left for character B, etc.
Note, as well, places where one character or the other may be unfocused...not looking at the other but looking around the room. Remember to keep each character on their side of the placement boundary, even when they are "looking around." Don't confuse the audience by moving your head right to left all the way across the room while using the same character's voice. Offer the illusion of "looking around" while keeping your face on that character's side of the room. You may remember that I look forward center when doing the two waiters talking in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, to suggest each of them looking at the old man. Then I look back to their usual focus before ending their speech. That's as far right or left as any of your characters in a dialogue should look. (Trialogues get even more complicated.)