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

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?

Let’s say that you’re doing a scene that takes place at a nightclub. You’re loose, you’re comfortable, and you’re grooving to the music. A nightclub has an atmosphere all its own, it’s not like anywhere else. It’s got a certain kind of lighting, it’s got a very definite psychological feeling to it and, speaking of grooving to the music, you probably have to raise your voice to be heard. You just don’t behave in a nightclub like you do practically anywhere else. Even though your idea of a nightclub atmosphere may be different from another person’s, chances are they still have a lot in common. So even though no two nightclubs are exactly the same, you should still have a good enough idea in your head that you know what it would be like to act in a scene taking place there. So, now that we’ve got the location down, let’s make the scene very simple. Let’s say the scene involves your significant other suddenly confessing that he or she recently had a romantic fling.

That’s the kind of scene that you’ve probably seen in at least a dozen or so movies, right? One character finds out that the other has been unfaithful. But now you are the actor. You are the one finding out this horrible bit of news. How are you going to react? More importantly, how would finding out this news in a nightclub make any difference? How does setting matter in this scene? For that matter, does setting matter at all? Let’s see.

Think about how you would play this scene. Now, let’s take the exact same situation and place it somewhere else. What if you received this bad news not in a loud, crowded nightclub, but in a church? Would you react in the exact same way? Probably not. Your reaction to this news is probably going to be significantly different if you heard it in a nightclub than if you heard it in a church, right?

Of course, that’s an extreme example of how location and place can shape your performance, but really it’s just a matter of degrees. There may be a huge difference between how you react in a nightclub and how you react in a church, but the idea holds true even when discussing the difference between your house and your neighbor’s house. The simple fact that you must always be aware of is that people all behave differently in different places. Think about when you go out with your friends. Maybe to a restaurant or a club or the mall or even just over to their apartment. How do you behave differently at these locations? What little changes in behavior do you make? And why? It’s not enough to simply change behavior, you must also learn why. When you are out with your friends, chances are your language is much more informal. Maybe even a little more, shall we say, colorful? You might not keep such a tight lid on your four-letter words. You certainly don’t worry about impressing people with proper grammar. Beyond that, it’s likely that you and your friends use various types of verbal shorthand with each other. You can refer to incidents from your past that you all remember without having to explain them. You’ve got lots of little inside jokes that would be meaningless to other people. Remember what I said about people speaking in code? When you are with people you’ve known a long time and shared a lot with, you often speak in a code that other people won’t get.

Now, let’s say you’re with those exact same friends, but you’re with them at the house of one of their parents. Do you talk the same way? Are you just as informal and loose, or do you watch what you say a little bit closer? Do you refer to the same incidents, or are some of the things that took place in your past supposed to be kept from parents? Now let’s move the conversation to a workplace and let’s say their boss is present. Or your boss. How has the tone of the conversation changed now? If you have two friends who work at the same place and you go to visit them, is your conversation with them as free as when you’re out on the town or at their house? Probably not.

So, obviously that means that the conversation will always be the same no matter where you are when you’re with the same people right? Trick question. A place, location, or setting-whatever you want to call-may remain stable, but how you react to it doesn’t. Probably the most important thing about incorporating the setting of a scene into your performance revolves around determining how it affects your behavior. Really, behavior is the single most essential factor to understand when determining the importance of setting.

Whether we like it or not, our behavior is very often shaped and molded by where we are. This is something that most of us learn at a very early age. In fact, some children have it drilled into them. How often were you told, or have you watched, as a parent disciplines a child after telling them not to behave that way in public? Manners and etiquette may not be what they once were, but even today children all over the world are taught that people don’t act in public the way you act at home. You simply don’t behave in the same way everywhere and neither should your character. Your behavior in a house of worship probably differs from your behavior at school. And your behavior at school probably differs from your behavior at work. And so on. If in real life people alter their behavior depending on where they are, why shouldn’t characters in a play or movie?

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. There are some writers who insist on having their characters act no differently no matter where they are. Action heroes are especially prone to consistent behavior no matter where they are. That may be one reason why action hero characters rarely win their actors any awards. A consistent character is a boring character. Maybe one of the reasons why action heroes are always getting themselves into such exciting predicaments is to take attention away from how boring they are as people. Allow the location to inform how you would behave. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that your character is a rebel who doesn’t care how he acts. Acting the same way no matter where you are isn’t rebelliousness. It’s just boring and repetitive and, worst of all, unimaginative.

Too many actors refuse to adjust their behavior according to the environment around them. Letting the setting or location guide you doesn’t mean that you have to act in a certain way no matter where you are. Just because the scene takes place in a church doesn’t mean that you have to act quiet and reverential. And just because the scene takes place at work doesn’t mean you have to be afraid of losing your job. Setting should be used as a clue in determining behavior. But behavior isn’t determined by a cold, objective structure. As an actor, setting is really about environment. Environment doesn’t mean air quality and pollution. In this case, environment means the overall ambience of a place. How it makes you feel. How it makes other people feel. And how you react to how other people feel. And those feelings change according to time. They change according to mental states. Setting is an important tool for an actor if he knows how to use it properly.

Remember that setting can be a very useful tool if you know how to use it properly. For an actor, setting isn’t just about geography, it’s about environment. The environment of a location can mean many things. It can be about memory. It can be about atmosphere. It can be about a mental state. The important thing to understand is that setting needs to mean so more than mere physical space and structure if you are to use it meaningfully.

Remember the example of the scene where you are told bad news and how you would react differently upon hearing it in either a nightclub or a church? That was a very simple example that focused upon the difference between geographical locations. But learning to incorporate setting can be far more complex. The reason that behavior is the single most essential factor to understand when determining the importance of setting is because setting has emotional resonance. Behavior is a reaction to emotion. In real life, this reaction is often unconscious or is not understood. Unfortunately, that’s not good enough for an actor. The actor must always understand the behavior of the character. Although it is certainly acceptable, even desirable, for an actor to tap his subconscious mind during the rehearsal process when building a character, a good actor should never remain unaware of why his character behaves in a certain way. And one of the easiest causes of behavior to understand is setting.