Acting : What actors look for in a screenplay by Richard Hyde

In my acting classes we look at a lot of scenes. we've a been taught a process whereby the first thing we do is look for two points where the scene changes. Firstly we're taught to look for the point where the conflict between characters comes in and then where the conflict has reached is apex. We've found that the scenes that get the best out of us as actors have points where these are easy to find. if a scene has absolutely no conflict whatsoever its harder for the actor to work out where the writer is going with the scene. Also scenes that are high drama are really hard to do if the drama is continually high as it doesn't leave the actor anywhere to go

Hey, Jonathan. Really good post. As a writer I'd say if there's no conflict in the scene it shouldn't be in the script but great to hear from an actor's perspective. Can I use your comment on the original post on my blog as well? Richard

ha, that's exactly what our Acting tutor said, he argued that if there's no conflict its not going to engage the audience and most probably isn't driving the narrative forward. Yeah no problem with adding my post to your blog

Your acting tutor is spot on! Thank you for that. It's a really good point for the local actors here to be reminded of.

Great advice. My action/character descriptions and parentheticals for how dialog should be spoken is at a bare minimum just enough to get the point across.

I'd have to say I rarely use parentheticals at all. If the actor can't pick up the intended tone then I probably haven't written the scene properly.

I feel the same way too Richard -- I really don't like to write how an actor should speak a line of dialogue and avoid it at all costs.

Excellent blog. I get her point. She, as an actress, wants to be able to use her creativity. That will give me something to think about on my next screenplay.

Do you have specific examples in mind that we could have a look at, Chris? Would be interesting to analyse...