Courses / English language arts / Poetry, drama and performance / Give each character something to do INVESTIGATION 4 OF 6 Give each character something to do Infer contrasting character objectives and connect a shift in tactic to a dramatic beat.
Why learn this? A scene becomes more than alternating speeches when each character is trying to affect the other.
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1. try 2. predict 3. experiment 4. understand 5. apply 6. continue Quick recap: An objective is what a character seeks in the scene. A tactic is a way of trying to get it. A beat is a useful unit of changing action, not a fixed number of lines.
Lesson activities Choose your task depthHigh-school scaffold College extension Choose either at any time. Your drafts stay with you.
1. Try — read before judging Before the Doors Open — an original fictional scene. RAE and MILO are preparing a neighborhood exhibition. The only prop required is an envelope; a text-only staging plan is equally valid.
[A closed envelope lies between RAE and MILO.] RAE: We agreed to open it together. MILO: The visitors arrive in five minutes. RAE: Then we have five minutes. MILO: I have already put the labels on the wall. RAE: You used the names from last year? MILO: People like to recognize something. [RAE slides the envelope toward MILO.] RAE: You can read the new names. MILO: And if mine is not there? RAE: Then I will still need you to open the doors. [MILO puts a hand on the envelope but does not open it.] Go directly to the workbench
2. Predict — make a provisional choice What might Milo want besides finishing the labels, and which line could change your first answer? 0 / 16,000 characters · length is a storage limit, not a quality score 3. Experiment — test your reading Add cues to at least four lines. State each character’s immediate objective and a possible tactic in the direction field. Identify a beat change when practical scheduling gives way to the question about Milo’s name. Explain the evidence for the change. Write a short staging plan in which Rae’s final offer is reassuring, then explain how a different delivery could make it dismissive. Your performance score A score records interpretive choices. Select a line, choose a pause, name the words to emphasize, and explain an action or intention. No sound, recording or timed performance is needed.
Score line1: [A closed envelope lies between RAE and MILO.] 2: RAE: We agreed to open it together. 3: MILO: The visitors arrive in five minutes. 4: RAE: Then we have five minutes. 5: MILO: I have already put the labels on the wall. 6: RAE: You used the names from last year? 7: MILO: People like to recognize something. 8: [RAE slides the envelope toward MILO.] 9: RAE: You can read the new names. 10: MILO: And if mine is not there? 11: RAE: Then I will still need you to open the doors. 12: [MILO puts a hand on the envelope but does not open it.] Pause after lineNo added pause Brief pause Long pause
[A closed envelope lies between RAE and MILO.] Words to emphasize, or leave blank Direction and reason Add performance cue (0/24) Working draft / artifact 0 / 16,000 characters · length is a storage limit, not a quality score Keep this draft for comparison
Comparison draft Save your first version here before revising. It will remain unchanged while you edit the working draft.
Revision commentary: what changed, why, and what remains uncertain? 0 / 16,000 characters · length is a storage limit, not a quality score 4. Understand — connect choice and effect Begin with an action a character wants from another person. Rae may want Milo to open the envelope and acknowledge the new names. Milo may want to delay a decision that could exclude him. These are provisional objectives, inferred from dialogue and behavior. They are more useful for staging than a fixed instruction to “be sad” or “be kind.”
A tactic is a way of pursuing an objective. Milo invokes the approaching visitors, the completed labels and familiar names. These can function as successive reasons to avoid reopening the decision. His question about his own name makes the personal stakes more explicit. You can mark that as a beat change: the scene’s action shifts from practical preparation toward possible exclusion.
Rae’s final statement can be reassuring or limiting. “I will still need you” may affirm a continuing place in the exhibition, but “to open the doors” may also assign Milo a supporting role when he wants recognition. Test both possibilities by changing emphasis, distance or the timing of the line. Explain which earlier details each version fits.
The final hand on the envelope is an unfinished action. Opening it would settle one practical question; withholding the opening lets the conflict remain active. A performance that has Milo open it contradicts the supplied direction unless you clearly label the change as an adaptation. Interpretation works within a text’s constraints; adaptation may change them, but should say what it changes and why.
Objective What a character tries to achieve in a scene. Tactic An action or strategy used to pursue an objective. Beat A segment of dramatic action that may shift when an objective, tactic or relationship changes. Worked example — a possible revision, not the only answer Before Milo is sad, so the actor should sound sad throughout. After Before the question about his name, Milo may be trying to delay the new list by invoking time and familiarity. On “And if mine is not there?” I would reduce that defensive pace and let the direct question change the tactic. The plan gives the performer an action to pursue and a specific turning point. It avoids reducing the whole character to one emotion.
Return to your workbench and reconsider a choice
5. Apply — make something and try a new case Your main artifact Mark two objectives, two tactics and a beat change. Produce four explained cues and a 200-word staging note.
Keep your artifact in the working draft above. Suggested lengths help you plan; they do not measure quality.
Unfamiliar passage NOOR: Your coat is still on the chair.
ALI: I know.
NOOR: The last bus leaves soon.
ALI: Then we should stop talking about the coat. Infer two different objectives for Noor and show how each would change a pause or emphasis. Identify what the dialogue leaves unresolved. 0 / 16,000 characters · length is a storage limit, not a quality score Save transfer response 0 saved attempt(s).
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