Boleslavsky Chapter 3 Dramatic Action

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: What is an objective? What is an obstacle?   What is an objective? What is an obstacle? What is tactic? What is dramatic action? How does the author feel about movies? How do you build up emotion? How do you choose your actions?

Dramatic action is NOT movement Dramatic action is NOT movement. It is the emotion that appears UNDER a line of dialogue. Sometimes it is called objective, character arc or through line Dramatic action is difficult because it constantly changes—your feelings change quickly and affect your movement

The only rules in art are the rules we discover for ourselves   Movies are the only record an actor has of his art.

Dramatic action is objective—purpose and goal for the words—the WHY for why a character acts that way   Long actions should be broken down to find what’s really going on from moment to moment. Use that to find the secondary action. The primary action is the through line

A play also has a through line A play also has a through line. All character through lines MUST back the play’s through line.   The secondary action (and the tertiary action) still have to be built off of the primary action USE VERBS—verbs are words of action!!! Don’t use being verbs

A scene is just beads of secondary action   You must choose your actions based on the character you ARE and the character you are WITH. ACTION IS ESSENTIAL!! All theatre tells a story

All action requires OBJECTIVE and OBSTACLE Objective is what your character WANTS   Obstacle is what’s stopping you from getting what you want Tactic is HOW you get it

  When in doubt RAISE THE STAKES! The objective must be larger than life. Theatre is HEIGHTENED REALITY. Theatre is elevated life the goals and risks are higher