The Actor's Menu® A Character Preparation Handbook Bill Howey Compass Publishing • Lakewood • Colorado ^e Actor's Menu® A Character Preparation Handbook by Bill Howey Published by Compass Publishing P.O. Box 280188 Lakewood, CO 80228-0188 [email protected] Copyright © 2005 by Bill Howey ^e Actor's Menu is a registered trademark of Bill Howey. Library of Congress Control Number: 2004106457 ISBN: 09753102-2-4 First Printing Manufactured in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to Legal Department, Compass Publishing, P.O. Box 280188, Lakewood, CO 80228-0188, (303) 989-8654. Email: [email protected] ^e purpose of this manual is to educate and entertain, ^e author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained in this book. If you do not wish to be bound by the above, you may return this book to the publisher for a full refund. I dedicate this bookto my son, Chad Howey, who never had a chance to live the menu ofhis life and to my dad, jack Howey, who never fulfilled his. "Bill, I'm in your debt." -George Clooney Table of Contents Acknowledgment 11 Introduction 13 Appetizer. 17 Goals 17 What Is Acting? 20 Hidden Acting Agendas 22 Payback 28 Excellence Is A Habit 28 Your Acting History 29 Coming Across Or How Others See Me 31 Using Feelings Vs. Feedback 33 "I've Been Told I'm A Type" 37 Acting Preparation 38 Booking 'tte Job 40 Auditions 41 "tte Work 42 In a Scene 42 Plays*Movies*Industrials*Commercials 44 On "tte Job 48 Training 49 Acting Class 49 Class Time 51 Reading 53 Writing 54 Dance/Movement 55 Voice 56 Scripts 57 Your Process 58 Clearing ^e Table 60 A Flinch Test 62 Entree 65 Primary Ingredients 66 You 67 "Do I Have Talent?" 67 Imagination 70 Some Words About Words 72 Fuzzy Words 74 Story 75 ^e Character's Story 77 Character 77 Introspection 81 Impulse 82 Essential Ingredients 85 Emotion 85 Emotion As Opposed To Feeling 88 Feelings As Opposed To Emotion 90 Perceptions 93 I Can Eat; ^erefore, I Can Cook 93 Distinguishing Emotions 94 Levels Of Emotions 96 Emotions Up Close And Personal 97 Happiness 98 Anger 100 Fear 103 Pain 104 Grief 105 Unactable Emotions 108 Love 108 EmotionalAssociates 110 Is ^e Character's Emotion Mine Or Not? Ill Emotions-Finding ^e Sweet Spot 112 Controlling Emotion 115 Presenting Emotion 115 Interesting Or Interested 117 If One Emotion Is Good—Two Are Better 117 Taking Your Place At "tte Table 119 Emotions, ^e Audience and You 119 Why Not Take A Shortcut To Powerful Emotions?... 120 Objective 121 "What Will An Objective Do For Me?" 124 Wording ^e Objective For Maximum Result 125 ^e Benefits Of A Completely Worded Objective 127 Your Need And ^e Objective 128 Conflicts: ^e Consequence Of Objectives 129 Past Experiences 130 From ^en To Now 131 What Just Happened? 132 When Events Of^e Past Meet Events Oftte Present 134 Past, Present And Change 134 Subtext 135 Inner Monologue 136 Traits 137 Flinching 138 Seasonings 141 Improvisation 141 Why Actors ^ink ^eyCan't Improvise 142 How Do I Plan To Do What I Don't Know I'm Going To Do? 143 Masking 144 Masking And Physicality 145 Masking In Acting 145 Masking In Casting 147 Moments And Transitions— Getting From Here To ^ere 147 Moments To Remember 148 Your Acting Recipe 151 Read ^e Script For Impressions 152 What To Do IfYou Still Can't Get An Impression 154 Activating Your Impressions 156 Intellectual Vs. Visceral Choices 157 In Character 158 Generating ^e Impression 159 Phrase 159 A Drawing 160 Music And Songs 160 Photograph 161 Reinventing ^e Character's Story 163 A Sequence For Your Reinvention 163 Reinventing ^e Character's Story In One Expressively Worded Paragraph 164 Presentation 166 Claiming ^e Stage 168 At An Audition 169 Finally 169 Dessert 171 Response Is Your Dessert 171 Inner Critic 173 Review 174 ^e Joy OfDeveloping 175 Less Isn't Always More 176 Deconstructing Frustration 176 Development Is Natural 177 Reinvent Once More 177 Your Acting Menu 179 Glossary. 183 About the Author 189 Comments from Bill's Acting Students: 190 Quote Citations 193 Index 197