It’s hard to allow yourself to open your heart to strangers. You think about being dressed as a comic book hero or an animated character or a dinosaur or a robot. It feels goofy to be serious about any of this. It feels better to wink and nod and make jokes about the whole situation.Continue reading “The Character And The Guest”
Tag Archives: Create Characters
Shakespeare For Today’s Actor
I’ve been working a lot with Shakespeare lately. Teaching, performing and writing about his plays. I realize now how much this training and performance experience adds to work with contemporary scripts and in working as an interactive character. Doing Shakespeare well means the actor is portraying a bigger than life character with unshakable commitment, believabilityContinue reading “Shakespeare For Today’s Actor”
More Behaviors and What They Suggest
The definition of ‘interactive’ is a two-way flow of information, allowing people to influence or have an effect on each other. It’s commonly accepted that, as humans exchange information with each other, only 7% is done with words. Another 38% is in vocal tone. And the greatest factor in human communication (55%) is body language.Continue reading “More Behaviors and What They Suggest”
Gotta’ Walk the Walk
I’ve been away for a bit. I’m creating a character – using the same tools I talk about in this blog. Walkin’ the walk… Macbeth is the character. The show is an original comedy written by Lloyd Schwartz called Classic Couples Counseling. Lady M and I are one of the five sets of characters fromContinue reading “Gotta’ Walk the Walk”
Eliminate Reasons To Hold Back
Here’s a quick thought about what we do and the creative process. Sure, in our work we have to “color inside the lines”. That’s part of the whole process. We are part of teams that help us prepare performances and evaluate what happens in rehearsals. The final product belongs to many contributors. Still, I runContinue reading “Eliminate Reasons To Hold Back”
“Yes, and…”
The Goal – Each guest becomes a unique, contributing partner in the word of our story. Every time a guest interacts with a character, their feeling of being a valued part of this new world grows deeper and fuller. They go on to explore their new environment, inspired, confident and emotionally connected to this imaginaryContinue reading ““Yes, and…””
A Real World Example
Here’s a non-human character that couldn’t speak and still pulled guests into her world. I worked regularly with a large dinosaur that would appear in the park. We wanted her to feel as real as possible. The tone surrounding her is this is a real event, with a real animal. Any suggestion of performance isContinue reading “A Real World Example”
Recover A Scared Kid
A quick tangent. As I was writing, I traced these interactive character ideas back to the one standing rule, “Do whatever it takes to Recover A Scared Kid”. When a character unintentionally scares a kid, performers usually do one of three things: Fumble around until someone moves the sobbing kid away and the meet andContinue reading “Recover A Scared Kid”
How Connections Are Made – First Step
You are wearing a character costume in an immersive environment. You’re staged in one place and there is a queue of guest waiting to meet you. Your job is to connect and have a fantastic interaction with every guest. The most fundamental way to connect with another person is to share eye contact with them.Continue reading “How Connections Are Made – First Step”
Connections
We are created with a deep, instinctive drive to belong, to love and to be loved. Connecting is a fundamental human need. It is so ingrained in us, we make the decision to like or reject someone in a matter of seconds. It’s a survival mechanism. We are hardwired to do that. To our instincts,Continue reading “Connections”
Interactive Characters 