Week 4 – Objective

Whether you call it motivation, intention, objective, or any other name, it’s important to decide what makes the character do what is necessary for the dramatic action to continue.  The impulse to act is identified by answering the question: What do I want? To understand what the character wants I have to notice my own wants, to get in touch with real desire that spurs real impulse.  I also have to allow for the fact that my wants (as the actor) may be different than the character’s wants.  Getting them mixed up at first is inevitable, and part of the process.  Wants are fleeting, changeable and capricious.  We should not expect them to be consistent or easy to grasp.  They can be conflicted, complex and puzzling.  They can be conscious or unconscious.  Getting to the core desire, may be a roundabout journey through many seemingly unrelated desires.  Wants don’t happen logically, they happen viscerally.  Unmask them and don’t judge them too quickly.   You’ll be able to sort through the possible wants later once you’ve discovered them, but if you haven’t allowed yourself to discover any because you’re waiting for the “right” one, then you’ll have fewer options to choose from and fewer colors to fill in the objective that you eventually choose.  Allow the objective to be active in you and articulate it in an active verb.  I want to dance with joy, I want to take back what I just said, I want to comfort, I want to defy, I want to soar… Articulating an active verb allows all our attention to focus on that one verb, that one objective, and musters the energy to make that desire find its object.  Objectives tend to change when one want is fulfilled, or when a stronger want displaces it.

Life story:  Whether advising students, consulting for teachers, or counseling artists, the question “what do you want?” is sure to come up in the course of the conversation.  Often people begin by saying, “I don’t know what I want” or “I want everything.” These responses are opposite ends of the spectrum, and neither is specific.  Addressing the “everything” is easier, but needs to be focused.  It becomes matter of choosing one specific objective as a starting point, and then letting the awareness of other objectives follow.  Often we find it hard to choose one objective or one want because we are afraid to limit our options.  We’re afraid we’ll be missing out on something.  But we forget that the next moment allows us to bring in more.  We just have to wait until we truly experience one.  It is also difficult when someone says ‘I don’t feel desire for anything at the moment.” Often this is a fear of desiring anything because we fear disappointment of our objective not being realized.  We may have unconsciously trained ourselves not to want anything to protect ourselves from the desire not being fulfilled.  Then we need trust.  What do you do then?  Ignatius Loyola would say that if you feel you do not have the desire, then try to desire to have the desire.  Again, it is a clear single choice that can be expanded once desire is ignited.  In these extremes, naming any starting point, no matter how unrelated it seems, can begin a process of digging into the deepest desire.  By entertaining the possibility of desire, I can ignite a want and draw more wants to it.  The objective becomes clear when the wants line up, we connect the dots,  and it becomes clear where they are aiming.  This goal then provides the impulse to work, to act, in order  to achieve the objective

Work Story:  I was teaching some students who were doing a scene from Uncle Vanya.  Helena and Astrov are in looking at maps while Helena is trying to find a moment to speak to him about her stepdaughter Sonia.  Of course deep down Helena wants to talk about herself to Astrov as well but she has hidden this even from herself.  In the course of the first part of the scene when Helena is listening to Astrov, the actress playing Helena tells me she is lost.  She doesn’t know what she wants.  She feels fidgety and disengaged from what is going on.  As she tells me this I notice that she is picking at layers of tape that have become stuck to the rehearsal table.   I say to her,  “do you notice what you are doing right now?”  “No,” she replies.  I’m fidgeting, I’m not involved at all.”  I asked her “you are doing more than fidgeting, you are peeling away layers and layers that have been stuck to that table… and you don’t see that Helena is doing the same thing? She wants to expose herself, peel off the layers of propriety and decorum and free herself from the overlays that have buried her true self.  This is her moment, and her fidgeting is actually accomplishing metaphorically what she is longing for in herself.”  Even though it seemed unrelated or disengaged, noticing the spark of desire in what was really happening at the moment, got her in touch with what was truly her deepest desire.  Once this was done the rest followed, and the scene opened up for her.

Further investigation:

One of the best resources for getting into the objective is a book by William Ball called A Sense of Direction.  The chapter on Objectives gives a great overview of how to get into the objective, how to layer it and adjust it, and how to make sure it is doing what you want it to do for you in the scene.  It’s clear and practical.  Though it’s written for directors, it is one of the best introductions to the objective that I know.

Suggestions:

1. Examine a choice that you made in the recent past.  Did you deliberate about it?  Or just go with the flow.  Ask yourself “what did I want?”

2. Watch a pet or an animal.  Look for the impulses in how it moves.  Try to name the desires behind each impulse

3. Notice the things that you do when you are bored.  Name them specifically, then ask yourself “Why am I doing this now?  What do I unconsciously believe that I am accomplishing?”  You’ll be surprised at how clearly your unconscious behavior points to what you want in the moment.

4. Try to remember back to when you were a kid and someone asked you “what do you want to be when you grow up?”  See what feelings come up with that memory.  Write for a few minutes about what comes up.

5. Notice when a friend, co-worker or family member changes their mind about something.  Notice how immediate it is.  Think about how their inner wants changed and see if you can imagine or articulate what those wants might be.

6. Watch a big, over-the-top, movie from a bye gone era.  See how passionately the main characters pursue what they want. 

7. Ask yourself “what would I do with ten dollars right now?”  Then give yourself ten dollars and see what you really do with it.