Scene Study was a class I took in Fall 2022. We studied Chekhov’s “The Seagull” for most of the semester. I took copious notes during this class, the highlights of which I will be sharing here in small doses.
Why am I sharing these notes that I paid to have the privilege to write? Because education deserves to be free. And because I felt like it.
SESSION 1
- Find your best way to memorize lines and then DO it
- This class is about interpretation – your first one is inherently the shallowest
- “There’s a fundamental difference between principles and rules.”
- Three major elements: objective (what you want the other person to do); action (tactic); super-objective (what the character wants in life)
- Characters almost never know what their super-objective is
- “Who am I? What am I doing? Who am I doing it to?”
- “The thing you need in life is who you are.”
- Your character is defined by their actions
- Super-objective = I want the world to see me as ____ because I’m not. (must be one word)
- If you believe you are x, the world will believe it too
- Real humans get in the way of their super-objective
- Codifying irrationality through strategic means
- What needs to happen within the scene? What is it that I really want within this beat?
- The language is the means, not the end