A Writer's Guide to Acting: How to Use Setting when Creating a Character, Part I

Setting is the Foundation Upon Which to Build Your Character

Generally, when we think of the setting of a play or movie, we tend to focus on the physical location in which the story is taking place. If you think of it in this way, setting may not seem like a very important part of acting, but when you think about it another way you will come to understand that setting provides the first bricks of the foundation upon which you will build every other part of your character. No matter what else may be lacking, every single scene ever written since the first playwright wrote the first word has taken place somewhere. And no matter what else may be missing from a story, the one thing you can be sure of that is that it will take place somewhere. Now, that doesn’t mean that you will know where the scene is taking place and it doesn’t mean that your character will even be sure he or she knows where that place is, but it still has to have some kind of setting. And it’s good to remember that even if your character doesn’t know where he is, that mystery is important to know. Sometimes not knowing where you are can be a key to understanding your character.

Actors often don’t consider the setting of a scene when they prepare to act it out. After all, it’s the writer who decides the setting of a story, right? The actor has no say in it. For most people, actors included, the word setting means little more than what country or town or time the story takes place. That’s fine for an audience, but those things are not even close to being what setting should mean for an actor. In fact, setting almost seems like the wrong word; a word that the writer would use. As an actor trying to understand how it affects your character, it might be better to consider setting in terms of place or location. How does a place or a location matter to an actor?