Week 12: "Coordinating Blocking: Director's Tools and Techniques"
The Dynamic Tool of Movement
Up to this point in the discussion of the visual tools in director-actor communication, we have been concerned with how you, as the director, can help actors penetrate the subtext of a play through suggestions that have been, with the exception of gesture, primarily of a static nature. The intention of this week is to reveal the dynamics of movement as the most powerful of all the tools in organic blocking.
Definition
Movement is the actual transit of an actor from one point on the stage to another. Although it includes gesture in that the body sphere is always animated during the process of movement, it is a separate tool from gesture in that the actual distance traveled, the route of travel, and the speed of travel all communicate specific values, in themselves distinct from gesture.
Concept
Think of movement as continuous lines on the floor of the stage between points (see Figure 46). When a point is reached, an actor stands still and we have a composition. The movement thus takes place between compositions. In order to see movement on the stage— that is, in order to see its meaning—the distance traveled must be five feet or more, for anything less will look like a gesture (the body in the sphere). Movement, then, is climactic, because all the other tools—groundplan, composition, gesture, picturization—must be operating before movement can take place. And because movement is climactic, it is the most overtly powerful of all the tools of director-actor communication. Because it is large, because it is continuous, and because gesture animates it, movement can convey illustrations to an audience quickly and with force. An actor walking conveys a very different idea from an actor running or sauntering, and walking toward an actor means something very different from walking away from him. Movement therefore has tempo values; it takes place in time.
The Director as Choreographer
In a more restricted sense, a play performed on stage looks like a dance. Just as a dance starts and stops, a play alternates between movement and composition, with gestures working continuously. Thus, a director tries to find the appropriate movements to punctuate the still shots. If he and the actors find them, their production will have the appropriate animation— the rhythms—inherent in the playscript.
In the movies, we see many close-ups that punctuate the long or medium shots—shots that usually contain movement, either that of actors in transit, as movement is defined here, or that of the camera moving. But on the stage, compositions act as close-ups and movement as the long and medium shots. Yet, a playgoer always sees both at relatively the same distance from his eye, whereas movies can vary the size of images greatly. In this comparison, the stage and film are very different. The power of the stage, however, arises through intensely articulate and highly selected movement that is potent with meaning and ideas. Because of its dynamics, then, all movement must be inherently motivated directly out of the dramatic action; it should not be “laid on” but must be generated from within. For this reason, some directors prefer to have the actors improvise their own movements because it can flow freely from their inherent comprehension of the action. This approach also has limitations, however, because actors often prefer gesture to the movement for illustration. The director must therefore learn to motivate actors to articulate specific dramatic action through suggestions for movement.
Kinds of Movement
Although all movement must be motivated by dramatic action, it is important to note the different kinds of movement in order to see the full range of this valuable tool.
Playwright’s Movement
The playwright’s movement is formally prescribed by the playwright—what she considers the basic playscript requirements. It includes all entrances and exits, as well as those movements to locations on the stage prescribed by the author as necessary for the completion of certain business absolutely requiring that location by the dramatic action. Thus, if an actor must climb a scaffold to man a machine gun mounted thereon because the playwright has located the action there, an actor is performing playwright’s movement. If actors are required to dance, play a game that requires movement, to participate in a military parade, fight a duel, to crawl around on hands and knees looking for dropped jewels because a character has instructed them to do so, they are performing playwright’s movement. As you may note, these movements are quite specific in their demands. However, except for exits and entrances, most playwrights prescribe a minimum of this kind of movement. Be wary of directions for movement written into a printed play, for they are very likely to be the movements inserted by the director of the first production of that play on a specific groundplan and not by the playwright at all. (Do Exercise 1)
Technical Requirements
The choreographing of a play is not entirely free improvisation but is partly mechanical, because two hours of staging a play, often in one location (one setting), creates an immense traffic problem. How to get actors on and off the stage quickly and efficiently, particularly if there are many characters, and how to bring about the performance of business in appropriate areas of the stage are of utmost importance to the director. Thus, parts of playscripts must be blocked by directors, either in their minds or on paper, to be certain that they are exploiting their groundplans in the most imaginative ways.
In this regard, a director will occasionally require an actor to move arbitrarily from one location to another, and only then look for the motivation to support it—motivation that can always be found if the actor is imaginative enough. The actual placement of a piece of business may be extremely important to the revelation of character, so the director arbitrarily locates the scene for the actors and then decides, with the actors, how they get there. Actors may thus be required (1) to cross the stage at a certain time, (2) to uncover from behind other actors who may stand in front of them, (3) to close in or spread out as the business requires, and to do other such movements. This manipulation is always essential when several actors are involved. The intention is to make arbitrary arrangement, when motivations are added, look like spontaneous improvisation. In arranging group scenes, a director may want to distribute the actors in a particular way to show balance or imbalance. The movements by which they reach their assigned points, though otherwise motivated, are probably technical movements. Probably is used here because actors can frequently reach assigned positions through primary dramatic action. The skillful director will use technical movement only as a last resort when the use of primary dramatic action simply will not solve the traffic problems. (Do Exercises 2 and 3)
Movement Derived from Dramatic Action
Approximately 95 percent of all movement in staging a play is derived from the dramatic action—what the subtext tells the actors and the director to do. Actors who know their trade will move spontaneously and knowingly out of their strong sense of the action in a play. The director’s job in that case becomes one of suggesting more or less movement, more selective movement, more or less speed on certain movements, and often the specific destination of these movements in order to indicate to the actors the next important composition. Beginning actors on the other hand, are movement-bound; that is, they may not move unless required by the director to do so, because they have not yet learned the illustrative values of movement. In handling such actors, directors often suggest much of the movement that will eventually be absorbed into the performance. If it is used skillfully, it can open up the subtext to the actors in a very real way—the outside-to-inside approach, organic blocking. However, if it is not well conceived, it can impede actors’ imaginations.
What is difficult about all of this—whether the actors develop movement on their own or the director suggests it to them—is finding the appropriate movement directly inherent in the playscript. As this book makes clear, every line of dialogue is a word statement of a dramatic action and a dramatic action is the forcing of one character by another. Thus, it is in the forcing or in the reception of the forcing (adjustment) that the movement inherently lies. For this reason, we use verbs to express dramatic action, for a verb is a statement implying activity. If you always think of verbs as possessing inherent movement, you will see how actors and directors can readily devise this sort of illustration. (Do Exercise 4)
Thus, the director must study the dramatic action of a play intensely to be certain that, when an actor presents a movement or the director suggests it to the actor himself, the truth is being told about an action. Movement can tell a bald-faced lie; it can even tell the opposite of what is intended. Therefore, both the director and actors must be certain that actions that go “toward” and actions that “retreat” actually do so in the visual movement unless opposite movements are consciously intended for very specific reasons.
In a sense, there are only two directions of movement on the stage: the advance and the retreat. That is, the advance or retreat of one character toward or away from another as the dramatic action is pursued. Whichever one is used depends on the meaning of the subtext. Movement is played in cat-and-mouse fashion, with characters switching to play “Cat” or to play “Mouse,” depending on the meanings of the actions. One character will always be the aggressor and one the pursued; and the change in roles will occur very frequently, perhaps as often as every minute or two. (Do Exercise 5)
Mood Values in Movement
Movements (1) occupy space when actors move from one location to another, (2) require time periods (duration), (3) are large and dynamic, and (4) can vary greatly in their rates. They have many mood values that need the most careful control if they are to be continuously expressive. Following are some of the values you must consider
Length of a Movement
Long movements tend to be weaker than short ones unless they are used with the greatest care; yet, they can have strong mood values when used in the appropriate places. Remember that all movements, if they are to be seen and recognized as movements, must traverse five feet or more. Continuous short movements, however, unless specifically intended, have a choppy effect, something like a series of simple sentences. Learn to vary the lengths of movements with the moods you want illustrated. On the whole, inexperienced actors tend toward short movements; therefore, when working with such actors, you will need to show them how relaxation and ease can be illustrated in generous movements.
Movement and Space
Although movement technically occupies space only when it is being made, it possesses the psychological value of tying areas of the stage together, thus making it seem as though movement occupies more space than it actually does. Learn to exploit this value by interrupting long patterns of movement with momentary compositions that will occur each time an actor stops. Traveling the diagonals of the stage will give the feeling of occupying the upstage areas and the far corners of the downstage areas. If the movement zigzags with interrupted stops, it will appear to occupy the stage. The mood values of occupying small spaces are quite different from those of occupying large spaces. You must learn to use each appropriately.
Size and Dynamics
Movements vary in size according to the number of gestures employed while making them. If an actor plays his character-decorum and his character-mood-intensity appropriately, he will vary the size and dynamics of his movements. Encourage the use of the sphere (gesture) while moving, increasing or decreasing the size of a movement and thus affecting the mood values it reflects.
Rate or Tempo
The rate of speed of movements is most important in expressing mood values because audiences are so easily affected by the rate. The major problem with actors lies not just in helping them discover when and where to move but in how to vary the tempos of the movements in line with the character-mood-intensities of the scenes. The tendency with inexperienced actors is to take all movements at the same rate of speed, so that movement as illustration becomes quite ineffective. You must therefore be certain that actors move at their appropriate character intensities, a condition that will come about only if they understand their dramatic action thoroughly. Two characters never have the same rate, but each moves according to his nervosity. Only by understanding this concept can actors learn to make moods through the use of movement.
Movements in Series
You must learn how to plan movements so that they are joined in a series, with each move proceeding from the logic of the previous one. Thus, movements are more interconnected than they would seem to be, and moods can evolve out of their accumulation. If you learn to play this “chess game” sensitively, you will find that you can control the moods of a play more through movement than through any of the other visual tools.
Movement in Relation to Speeches
Movement is so dynamic, so eye-catching, that it exerts great power over line-reading illustration. Thus, the exact point at which a movement is made becomes extremely important, something that you and the actor must decide together. To accent a line, the actor moves before he says the line. To accent a movement (that is, to have the movement actually say more than the line), the actor moves after the line. It is for these reasons that actors tend to move on the lines because by making such movements most of the time, they can then save the pointing of a line or movement for special moments. However, you can readily see that unless your actors are fully aware of the value of pointings, many of them will not use movement as an illustration at all, and thus you will lose the most valuable tool in your directing kit. Therefore, you must learn to mix up the speech-movement relationship and to exploit it in every possible way. (Demonstrate with numbers and dialogue.)
Quantity of Movement
At first, you will not need to worry about putting too much movement into a scene, because you will have difficulty finding enough of it. But after you understand the value of movement and learn the knack of arousing such illustration in your actors, you will learn to select all movements with extreme care. Excessive movement (that is, movement on nearly every line) can kill the other tools of expression, but insufficient movement will mean under illustration. You will also learn that experienced actors do not need as much movement as the less experienced because they know how to exploit all the tools of illustration and not just one or two. But to help the inexperienced, you must learn how to suggest movement to them, for these suggestions will build their confidence by giving them something specific to do and will lead to the use of the other tools, as well. The quantity of movement, then, must be determined not only by the character of the play you are producing but also by the quality of the actors you are using. You must learn to judge both with care and objectivity.
Because young directors tend to ignore movement as a tool of illustration, you are encouraged at this point to work as much movement into a scene as you possibly can, and then remove, at a later stage of rehearsal, what you consider excess. Movement can be your most potent tool in helping actors discover the dramatic action. When they move, they feel on the outside the way they should on the inside, and that feeling will give them a strong hint about what they should be doing in the dramatic action. This is an example of organic blocking at work. (Do Exercise 6)
Tasks Assignment
EXERCISES
1. Examine a play by first marking out all the directions in the script that prescribe movement, except for “playwright’s movement,” as described earlier. Now underline all entrances and exits by noting the beginning of units where characters either leave or enter the scene (French scenes). How many are there? What other movement does the playwright formally prescribe in the action? (Look for the use of objects that the playwright has specifically placed and then incorporated in the required visual illustration.) Write it Down in your Director's Journal
2. Select scenes from a play that requires a group, and actually block the entrance of the group with live actors. Who will enter first? How many together? Where will they move to on the groundplan? How will the principal characters adjust to this entrance? Now arrange an exit. What problems does this arrangement involve? Write it Down in your Director's Journal
3. Improvise a living room/dining room scene with six to eight characters. Play an action in the living room, and then move the actors to seated positions around the dining table. Note the extra movements required to bring this change about effectively and efficiently. Improvise the same action, but use the whole groundplan for the first action before moving the group to the table. What problems does this procedure involve?
4. Assign verbs to a student/actor. Have him or her improvise movements to illustrate each verb.
5. Improvise an action involving two actors. Using number dialogue, have them play the action. Did they use much movement? If so, was it meaningful? If not, why not? Now play the same action with the aid of the instructor who urges movement, when necessary, from the sidelines, and who also, with a signal, demands that the actor playing “Cat” start playing “Mouse,” and vice versa.
6. Each student, working alone, blocks the movements in a class study play. In class, one student directs live actors through two or three units, using preconceived movements. Class discussion follows with particular attention given to the relationship between movement and dramatic action in each of the units. Repeat several times.
Write down your observations and discoveries in your Director's Journal. Send it to the Institute.
Make independent research on the topic of movement and creating choreography in performance
Check the Reading list below
Write the essay on the application of the gained knowledge to the practice in regards to the chosen by your play (1000 words)
Deadline: March 13, 2026
If you have any questions, feel free to contact our Teaching team via teachers@nipai.org
Studying Materials
Reading Material:
Complicite Teachers Pack on Devising
Physical Dramaturgy: Perspectives from the Field
Useful Materials:
