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Explain to the students that they should never do anything on stage just because the director told them to. Their character should always have a reason for moving or speaking. This reason is called their motivation—and it will determine how they speak and move.

• Ask for a volunteer. Tell the student you will be giving them three stage directions. The directions will tell them three movements or actions they need to do. Their job will be to find a reason for each of the movements or actions.

• You can explain it to them this way: “For example, if I asked you to enter from upstage left, cross to down right, and then jump up and down three times–you might make that cross because you’re imagining it’s your birthday and you’re hurrying to the mailbox to see if your grandmother sent you a card. And you jump up and down three times because, when you get to the mailbox, you not only find a card–you discover there’s a hundred dollar bill inside it!”

• Give the volunteer student three directions. After they have performed all three, ask the other students to guess the reasons the volunteer did each action. Then ask the volunteer what their reasons or motivations were.

• Let each member of the class have a turn. You can give the same directions to several students in a row, and let each student find different reasons for doing the same actions.

Sample Directions:
1. Enter from downstage right and cross to center stage.
2. Find an imaginary object there and pick it up.
3. Exit upstage right.

1. Enter from up center and cross to downstage left.
2. Look in the distance behind the audience and see something.
3. Exit upstage center.

1. Enter from center right and cross to center left.
2. Cross from center left to center right.
3. Crawl and exit down right.

1. Enter from up left carrying an imaginary object and cross down center.
2. Deal with the object so you are no longer carrying it.
3. Exit up right

© 2023, Friends of the Groom Theater Company

Curtains Up Curriculum by Friends of the Groom Theater Co. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Curtains Up is a training program designed for young actors sponsored by Friends of the Groom Theater Company.
It is available to the general public for free under the terms of the Creative Commons License above.