Audition by Michael Shurtleff - Humor

The following is the fourth in a series of twelve articles based upon the twelve guideposts listed in Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part by Michael Shurtleff. The author was the casting director for many of David Merrick's Broadway productions. He also worked with Bob Fosse and Andrew Lloyd Webber. His book is known as the actor’s bible. If you take a college acting class, it will likely be required reading. While Shurtleff’s book is aimed at actors, his principles are beneficial to both writers and directors as well. This series is geared toward writers.

Humor

Shurtleff reminds actors, writers and directors that humor is not jokes; it’s not being funny. Humor is the coin of exchange between humans that helps us endure the tragedies of life by providing balance. It helps us get through the day. Every life situation and every scene, no matter how serious the topic, contains humor. Humor is more important in drama than it is in comedy. Write your serious scene without humor and it’s too dark. You’ll lose your reader/audience. Actors must become conscious of it and put it in their performances. Writers must infuse it within their stories and find it as they explore their characters. Directors must guide actors in applying humor in their performances.

Humor allied to a character’s passions, his kind of dreaming, his own unique personal fight makes the character and the actor’s performance of that character a legend. Shurtleff cites the unique ways in which Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart utilized their senses of humor in their performances in The African Queen. Think of some of your favorite films and stage performances. What made the characters come to life for you? How much of your remembrance of those performances involved the unique portrayal of the characters’/actors’ humor? Wasn’t it the humor conveyed, particularly in the darkest, most tragic scenes, that helped make the characters/actors more memorable? Some of my favorite uses of humor in a role were utilized by Claude Rains as Captain Renault and Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine in Casablanca. I have a hard time imagining anyone else bringing the same vitality to those characters, mainly because of their use of humor, particularly in the scene in which Rick holds Captain Renault at gunpoint.

Be mindful of humor in every scene of your story. It is the tool that makes your characters/actors attractive, seductive and irreplaceable.

Great News: A Sale!

I just submitted a contract to one of the confession magazines. One of my short stories, FAREWELL, PURPLE TUTUS; HELLO NEW BEGINNINGS is tentatively set to run in the August edition of True Love magazine. I'm very excited, and continue to work on more stories.

If you’re interested in participating in Internet groups comprised of writers working in the short fiction market, some of the good ones out there include yahoo’s True Writers group for those interested in writing for and sharing information concerning Dorchester Media’s confession magazines (True Story, True Love, True Romance, True Confessions and True Experience) and yahoo’s WWWriters group for those who want to send submissions and network regarding Woman’s World magazine. There are many of these specialized writing groups out there. I’m relatively new to both of these groups, but they’re very active and I’ve found them very helpful for getting back into the short story market. If you’re a member of some online writers’ groups that you’ve found beneficial, please share in the Comments section. Thanks!

I'm sending the good vibrations of my sale your way and hope this finds you all writing!!!

: )

Audition by Michael Shurtleff — The Moment Before

The following is the third in a series of twelve articles based upon the twelve guideposts listed in Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part by Michael Shurtleff. The author was the casting director for many of David Merrick's Broadway productions. He also worked with Bob Fosse and Andrew Lloyd Webber. His book is known as the actor’s bible. If you take a college acting class, it will likely be required reading. While Shurtleff’s book is aimed at actors, his principles are beneficial to both writers and directors as well. This series is geared toward writers.

Every scene an author writes begins in the middle, and it is the author’s responsibility to provide what comes before. This is true whether you’re writing the opening, middle or final scene of the story. Something has always preceded what the character is doing. This is the moment before.

However you want to create this moment before—utilizing dialogue, action, reaction, narrative expression—can be best selected depending upon specific factors concerning your character’s relationship in the scene you’re drafting. What is your character fighting for in the relationship brought to life in the scene? Exactly where are the character’s feelings at the specific moment before? The more specific, the more focused the moment before, the more flow and connection will be presented in the scene, and the easier it will be to write.

The moment before requires an important emotional commitment from the character. A great deal of action may have taken place in the moment before, but emotion drives action. Authors need to know their characters’ minds, but this is never enough. When developing character, the mind is only useful if it leads to feelings. These feelings and what springs forth from them keep readers turning the pages of your story. Have your character become overcome with feeling in the moment before. Authors must know how their characters will complete the following statement in the before moment:

“I must fight to (character goal) because (character motivation).”