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Tips For Good Movement

Moving on the Stage

Move about the stage in relatively straight lines; use the shortest path from point to point. This makes for economy and precision. Shallow curves may of course be required from time to time, as when furniture or other actors bar the most direct path. Wide curves, however, usually suggest weakness or uncertainty, or preoccupation with the movement per se; and wide curves usually consume too much time.

Moving From One Part of the Stage to Another

In moving from one part of the stage to another, step out with the foot nearest the point to which you are going. The general effect of tangled legs and feet that results from failure to observe this rule is decidedly awkward on the stage. If you maintain a balanced normal posture, you will not be caught off guard but will always be ready to shift your weight unobtrusively from one leg to the other so that you can readily start out with the proper foot.

Stand and sit with the foot that is away from the audience advanced slightly; usually give the audience a three-quarters view of your face; if you are turning your body from right to left, or vice versa, usually turn facing the audience. Be sure you are justified before breaking this rule, though do not hesitate to break it when necessary. On the whole, play the play toward the audience.

Timing When You Enter a Scene and When You Exit

Come well onstage as you enter; don’t linger in the entrance. Contrariwise, try to speak the last few words or lines of a scene from somewhere near the exit. If you finish speaking too far from the exit, and the other actors withhold their speeches — as they usually must — until you are gone, there will be an awkward and undramatic pause.

Where to Play the Important Scenes

Try to play most of the important scenes relatively downstage (i.e., near the audience). On the whole, your visual and auditory effectiveness weakens as you play farther away from the audience. On the other hand, never wander so far downstage as to seem “out of the scene.”

Adjusting to Others’ Movements

Learn to compensate for other characters’ necessary movements by readjusting your own position in relation to the group. “Dress the stage” whenever possible; don’t be overly formal about it, but keep the grouping in balance unless some other arrangement is clearly indicated.

Make important crosses downstage of the furniture and of the other actors; in this way you will rightly focus audience attention on your movement. Crosses that are meant to pass relatively unnoticed should be made upstage, where they will have less claim on audience attention.

Note that the dramatically important character in a scene should tend to be slightly upstage, and possibly somewhat nearer the center of the stage, than the other character or characters.

Check List For Good Movement

1. Have you learned to keep your body poised, alert, ready? Have you learned to relax? To concentrate?
2. Have your major patterns of movement been clear, interesting, meaningful?
3. Have your movements been properly controlled, so as to focus the attention of the audience where it belongs? Have they seemed purposeful?
4. In your movement, have you begun to suggest the age of your character? His race, occupation, status, and the like?
5. Has your action been clearly related to the size and contents of the setting? To the other characters in the various scenes?
6. Has your character’s behavior been clearly distinguished from that of the other characters? From your own behavior in ordinary circumstances?

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