Campbell Vertesi

Today, we start a seminar - Campbell's (almost) completely amateur guide to building characters. When I started performing, I had no idea what I was doing.  (to a certain extent, I still feel that way)  But at the time, I felt particularly useless when I was handed a role to prepare.  What was I supposed to do?  Learn the notes, I guess.  But how?  How does a role go from a bunch of dots on a music staff to a living, breathing character in your body?

I may not be the greatest actor in the world, but I'm not the worst either; and I've been doing this for long enough to have some advice to lay on people.  At the very least, I figure I can learn a lot from people's comments.

Disclaimer - only a few times in my life so far have I actually arrived at the first rehearsal with my role well and truly completely prepared. This is completely typical of a young singer, and something I consider an ugly problem.  I'm working to make the sort of preparation described in this "seminar" habitual.  I write with the greatest possible humility - I hope to use it to kick my own ass, as much as anything else.

Part 1 - Thinking big picture, and the score

The best way to start any big project - and make no mistake, preparing a role is a big project - is to decide on your goal.  What are the conditions for success?  What constitutes a well prepared role?  For me, I have successfully prepared when I walk into the first rehearsal ready to go onstage that night, if the director can give me the staging fast enough.  That means: music learned to the point where it is instinctive, a character I can don at a moment's notice, including mannerisms, walk, and a different way of thinking of the world.  It means knowing what comes next well enough that I don't have to think about it, and feeling what the character wants to do well enough that I could improvise my way through a role.

So we must learn the music, and learn the character very thoroughly indeed.  This process is a slow one.  If at all possible, start months in advance.  The more time you give a character, the better this will serve you.  Because this is about character building, I'm going to leave the musical aspects alone... Maybe I'll write about those another time.  For now, what does the score have to offer your character?

The first step to your character is to simply read the score like a book.  If it's in a foreign language, get out a dictionary.  If you want a fast way to work through scenes you're not in, by all means use a Nico Castel translation.  But for scenes in which you are directly involved, there is simply no substitute for translating every word yourself.  I know it's a pain in the ass, and worse if you're a wordy character like Figaro, but it really is essential.  When you speak English, you know what every word means, and all the implications of that word, and the ebb and flow of your speaking is dependent on this knowledge.  

Take a very short example from the Catalog Aria from Don Giovanni.  Leporello sings "ma in Italia..." with a wonderful high note on the first word.  If all you know is that this means "but in Italy", and you don't know which word is which, the phrase becomes meaningless.  Which word got the high note?  Was it "but in ITALY"?  or "but IN Italy"?   Thanks to the fantastically simple example I chose, we all know that it was "BUT in Italy".  The meaning of the sentence hinges on you knowing every word, even in this totally idiotically straightforward example.  In a more complicated sentence, especially in the sort of poetic language often used in arias, translating by hand with a dictionary is the difference between night and day.

So you're reading the score in the original language.  You should also be taking notes at this point, preferably on paper, about everything you learn about your character in this process.  If someone else calls you a lazy jackass, you should know about it!  Keep all this information stored away for future reference.

 I shouldn't have to say this, but I'm going to just in case: the translation in the score is not good enough!  They are almost always terrible mangled versions of the original meaning.

If you do the translation yourself, you will hopefully remember exactly what other characters are saying to you, as well as what you say to them.  Listening onstage is an important skill to cultivate.  Your character can't just stand in place and wait for his turn to speak!  He should actively listen and see what's going on around him, and respond. 

Again, word for word understanding is important.  In Rigoletto, Maddalena proposes to Sparafucile that he kill the jester and take the money, rather than fulfilling his bargain.  Sparafucile is furious at her for the idea.  But when in her long musical line does he realize what she's proposing? It's not realistic to suddenly get angry at the end of her page of music, it really has to be in response to something specific.  If you translate the score yourself, you will figure out that it is only really obvious about halfway through Maddalena's line, when she actually says "uccidere" (to kill, slay, do in, murder).  That is the kick off point for Sparafucile's anger - well before his line.

Interestingly enough, you will often find that the music reflects this amount of text specificity as well. In Boheme for instance, just because a character enters onstage doesn't mean that the music reflects it.  The music "notices" when the characters do - something you can only discover when you know every word that is being said.

The last part is so straightforward that it hardly bears repeating: now that you understand the textual content of the score through and through, listen to the music.  Get as many recordings as you can muster, and pay attention to what the music seems to say about your characters' relationship to everyone else. This is not as subjective as it seems!   Trust your ear, and your instincts.

So much for characterization from the score.  At this point, you probably have a reasonable sketch of your character.  This is all subject to complete change and reversal in later steps, but for now it's a good base.  Part II will deal with external sources - books, plays, and acting like a 5 year old.