How to break a scene down into units and objectives
Most actors learn the lines first and work out what they mean later. Doing it the other way round is faster, and it holds up under pressure.
You have a scene, an audition on Thursday, and about forty minutes. The temptation is to start learning lines immediately. Resist it for twenty minutes and you will learn them faster, because lines attached to an intention stick, and lines attached to nothing do not.
Here is the method, in the order it actually works.
Read it once for what happens
Not for your part. For the event. What is different about these two people by the end of the scene compared to the beginning? If nothing is different, you have misread it, because scenes that change nothing get cut.
The test
Say the scene out loud in one sentence, starting with the other character's name. If you can only describe it from your own side, you do not have the scene yet, you have your lines.
Split it into units
A unit ends where the subject changes, where somebody's tactic fails, or where a new piece of information lands. Most short scenes have two or three. If you find nine, you are marking beats, not units, and you will not be able to play them.
- 1
Read for the event
What has changed by the end. One sentence, from the other character's side.
- 2
Mark the turns
Where the subject changes or a tactic stops working. Two or three, not nine.
- 3
Name each unit
Plain words. 'She stops apologising' beats 'Unit 2'.
- 4
Write the objective
What you want from THEM, phrased so it can be played.
Write an objective you can actually play
An objective is something you want from the other person. "To be understood" is a feeling. "To make her admit she was there" is a thing you can chase, fail at, and chase differently.
The reliable shape is to + verb + them. If your objective does not have another person in it, it is not an objective yet.
Choose the action for each line
The action is what you are doing on that specific line to get the thing you want. One transitive verb. Not an adverb, not a mood. You cannot play "angrily", but you can play "to shame her".
The line
“You said you'd be there. You weren't there.”
Unit
She stops apologising
Objective
To make him admit he chose not to come
Action
To corner
Change the action and the same words do something else entirely. Play "to forgive" on that line and it becomes a different scene, with a different actor in it. That is the whole craft, and it is why actioning is worth the twenty minutes.
3 units
is enough for most audition scenes. More than five usually means you are marking beats.
Now learn the lines
By this point you know what every line is for, which is most of the work of remembering it. Run it out loud, with the other part spoken back at you, and stop when you go up rather than pushing through. Pushing through teaches you the wrong version.
Common questions
How many units should a scene have?
Two or three for a typical audition scene, and rarely more than five. A unit ends when the subject changes, when a tactic stops working, or when new information lands. If you are finding nine, you are marking beats rather than units, and you will not be able to play that many distinctly.
What is the difference between an objective and an action?
The objective is what you want from the other character across a whole unit. The action is what you are doing on one specific line to get it. One objective usually carries several actions, because you change tactic when the first one fails.
Should I break the scene down before or after learning the lines?
Before. Lines attached to an intention are much easier to remember than lines attached to nothing, so twenty minutes of breakdown usually saves more than twenty minutes of learning, and the result holds up better under audition pressure.
Can I use adjectives for actions instead of verbs?
No, and this is the most common mistake. You cannot play 'angrily' or 'sadly' because they describe a result rather than something you do. Use a transitive verb that takes the other person as its object: to corner, to shame, to disarm, to reassure.
The short version
Read for the event. Split into two or three units. Write an objective per unit that has the other person in it. Put one transitive verb on each line. Then learn it out loud.
Try it on a scene of your own
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