ABSTRACT
When faced with a play, a screenplay, or any other text that requires performance, an actor is faced with a swirling mass of impressions: of language, of emotion, of character, of argument, of style, of shape. But the first, all-important and insistent question is: what is the story? What is being told? What is being shown? Actors are taught to confront their work with a series of questions: who, what, where, why, initially, then more complex formulations such as, what does the character want? What is his thrust through the play? What is his purpose in life? And so on. But first, middle, and last is the question of story: what happens to the character during the play? How is he different at the end of the play from the way he was at the beginning?
