As drama educators, we know that teaching students how to portray stock characters can be a challenge. While there are a lot of different approaches out there, how might we support students to embody these characters in an engaging way?
Often, students are given instructions to use *more* facial expressions, *more* posture, *more* change of voice, and *more* movement to create their character. While these techniques are not necessarily wrong, they can result in mixed levels of success across the class. Some students may have a natural talent for mimicking their character, while others may feel self-conscious and unsure of where to start.
So, how might we help our students better perform stock character types?
Recently, I’ve been exploring the use of characteristics and attitudes to help students portray stock characters. In a teaching unit focusing on British Soap Opera, students often ask questions like “what accent should I use?” or “how should I walk or stand like the character?” These external factors can often result in inconsistent and awkward performances that fail to capture the full essence of the stock character.
Through exploration, I’ve found that a more effective approach involves focusing on the characteristics and attitudes of the stock character, especially when students are starting to “step into role.” For example, when dealing with the villain stock character in melodrama, instead of asking students to “walk around the space like a villain” or “strike a still pose of a villain,” I first ask them to walk in a neutral stance, and then start saying adjectives that represent the attitudes and characteristics of the villain. These could be words such as “cunning,” “conniving,” “sinister,” and “ruthless.”
I encourage the students to let these words affect the way they move, how they interact with the space, how they engage with others in the space etc. We then gradually increase the intensity of how the words influence the way they complete the task. It’s a tool that I’ve found to be effective in many of my drama sessions, and it often allows for a more nuanced and authentic portrayal of stock characters.
Students should have a clear task to perform while incorporating these attitudes and characteristic words, such as greeting others in the space or reacting to a given situation. This helps anchor the performance in a specific context and allows a more focused exploration of the stock character.
Check out the Spot the Character starter exercise that you may wish to use in your drama classes. Don’t forget to also check out my free resource of pre-made characteristic cards to use in this exercise. Find them in the downloads section of this website. Let me know in the comments how you incorporate attitudes and characteristics in your drama lessons.
Spot the Character – A Starter Exercise for Drama Lessons
To start this drama exercise, I provide my students with cards containing details about different stock characters that are relevant to our current unit. After handing out the cards, I divide the class into two groups – performers and observers. Each performer has a different stock character on their card, which they should keep hidden from others. Then, I give them instructions to follow, such as walking around the space, exploring the space, and greeting others in the space, all while incorporating the characteristic and attitude words listed on their cards. The observers watch the performers closely, trying to identify the stock characters being portrayed. This exercise is a great way to introduce students to the stock characters of the unit in a fun and engaging way.
