So, a zillion years ago, in my college “intro to acting” class, I got hand cramps doing these Stanislavski-based character history exercises, in which we were asked to find out all sorts of details about a character we’d be playing in class that week, things totally unrelated to the scene we would act out. Because I am a sucker for detail-oriented work and because I am a perfectionist, I took this homework very seriously. It felt IMPORTANT.
Heck, it probably was. But 22 years later, what I remember is not what that character who would come out to her parents listed as her favorite flavor of ice cream, but instead the process of getting to know tediously specific details about these characters I would inhabit, in service of doing a better job bringing their stories to life.
I was thinking about this exercise as I was working through some branding work with an actor recently.
I said, “Ooh, hang on. Walk through this with me for a second. What would you think about doing a character history exercise for your brand?”
Intrigued, my student took this on, and after months of having been frustrated with attempts to get clear on her brand, she had it. By diving deep into the minutia of what “a character of her brand” would wear to bed, eat for dinner, name as her favorite band, do if she won the lottery, list as her inspiration, and secretly fear, she was able to GET her own brand.
Sometimes taking an exercise outside of ourselves gets us closer to connecting with the root of it all — our deepest insides. Because we know ourselves too well and because we care what others think too much of the time, it’s sometimes tough for us to get an objective take on who we are or what we bring to the world.
If branding has eluded you, try analyzing yourself as a character, rather than as the person you know better than anyone else in your life. Lemmeknow how it works for you!
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001503.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.