Rita’s Theatre Tips & Tricks – Combatting Breaking Character on Stage

In celebration of World Theatre Day, I wanted to share some helpful exercises for those who struggle with the breaking character when they rehearse or perform.

Some of these exercises have been exceptionally helpful for me while touring my one-woman shows or performing locally. Others have done the trick for the casts I’ve led over the many years I’ve been directing theatre and dinner theatre performances.

Quick Definition: Breaking Character

For those unfamiliar with the term, “breaking character” refers to any time a performing artist stops embodying the role they’re playing and reverts back to themselves while on stage.

You see examples of this a lot on SNL (largely because they put out a show every week and don’t rehearse and memorize like a classic stage performance). You’ll also spot it in many stage performances, particularly when actors are newer to the performing arts or struggle with certain kinds of character embodiments.

Why Breaking Character is Bad

This is an acting error that performing artists should avoid, whether they’re acting, singing, dancing, or otherwise performing. Even when you perform as yourself, you are still putting on a persona for the audience. When you break from your persona or defined character, you distract from the storytelling and quality of the performance.

How to Combat Breaking Character

The best way to deal with this performance error is – as you probably guessed – practice! I will never agree with the adage that “practice makes perfect” – since perfection shouldn’t be your goal, particularly on stage. (When you aim for perfection in performance, you become defined by rules rather than craft and performances become too technical and wooden.)

Instead, practice with your existing skills and talent to improve your performance and delight in the fact that every performance is a bit different, even when you know your lines or lyrics backward.

The best way to practice not breaking character is through a series of exercises. In my years as a stage and audio director, I have collated a collection of several exercises to help with both individuals and groups to meet all your needs. I’ve tossed in a few new-to-me exercises as well, which may also help.

Exercises to Help Prevent Breaking Character

For the following exercises, either choose a character you’re rehearsing currently or choose a character from a show you would love to someday perform.

Crowded Room – For Individual Practice

In a crowded place, like a mall food court, sit down (or stand) somewhere and hold a conversation with yourself. Don’t let anyone interrupt you. Move, if needed, and keep the conversation going. (And if you feel too self-conscious to start, use your phone as a prop.)

Avoid being disruptive but be sure to focus on a character you’re developing. Consider how that character would behave in your setting (even historical characters).

Everyday Interruptions – For Individual Practice

At home, in front of a mirror – ideally full length – perform everyday actions your character would perform. This may be done with props or pantomime. Brew a cup of tea. Bake bread. Play with the dog. Eat ice cream. Lounge and discuss a book with an imaginary friend.

The key is watching yourself in the mirror to understand your movements and facial expressions as you behave like the character outside of their scripted actions. Now, as you run through these exercises, put on a couple of songs that have startling or jolting noises or rises in volume. Practice dramatic scenes while these songs play.

Work to stay in character, no matter how odd the music is in contrast to your scene or how startling the music/sound may be.

The Stoic – For Individual Practice

Find a friend and ask for help with this one. The more likely you are to be embarrassed rehearsing with the friend, the better!

Ask your scene partner to read a moving passage from any story. This could be an online true story of an animal being rescued or a dramatic scene from Shakespeare that moves you – whatever sends you to tears or giggles or any other intense automatic emotive response.

As the person reads the text to you, ideally as dramatically as possible, your goal is to remain stoic. Show no response to the text, no matter how challenging.

Repeat this exercise as often as you can, each time with a different text. As you become more comfortable with the exercise, ask your partner to read unfamiliar works. The less you know a piece, the more challenging it is to avoid breaking character as they read.

Line Up – For Group Practice

Throughout my career in directing, I’ve found this to be the absolute best exercise to help actors not break character on stage. If you’re struggling, I’d recommend asking your director to run this exercise with the whole cast. You’re likely not alone with the issue.

It should be noted that this is an extremely uncomfortable exercise for some and should be treated with intimacy coordination care, if possible.

Line up four to six actors in a straight line on stage or at the front of the room. Choose one to two other individuals to perform as antagonizers. Then, assign one to two other folks to function as distractors.

Run the exercise for three to five minutes per round. Rotate actors through so everyone has a chance to carry each role. Switching things up helps actors avoid breaking character as well as understand better the kinds of things they should ignore while on stage.

Actors:

Those on the stage must remain perfectly still, with as neutral a facial expression as they can muster. They should avoid movement of all types, including shifting weight or swaying.

Throughout the exercise, each actor’s goal is to remain unresponsive to everything happening around them.

Antagonizers:

The antagonizers must approach the various actors on stage and do whatever they can to distract the actors. Establish ahead of time if actors are comfortable being touched appropriately by the antagonizers. If the actors are, the antagonizers may touch the actors on the arms, shoulders, hands, or feet.

Antagonizers should also make faces at the actors (usually silly faces are the best!), speak to them, sing at them, or otherwise engage with as distracting and bizarre motions and actions as they can come up with.

Their goal is to cause the actor to break character.

Distractors:

The role of the distractors is to come in and out of the room as many times as possible, at odd intervals. No pattern should be established in the movements. As the exercise runs, intervals should grow longer between entrances.

The distractors should also walk up and down aisles at odd moments, approach the stage (but not enter), and otherwise move around the house. No distractors should work with one another but rather as separate individuals.

Their goal is to cause the actor to break character or divert attention off-stage where they should not be looking.

Variations:

1. Have both distractors and antagonizers work at the same time.
2. Have distractors work at a different time than the antagonizers.
3. Have actors recite lines while the antagonizers or distractors work.

Character Run – For Group Practice

Note: This exercise likely goes by another name.

To run the exercise, choose four to six actors to start the run. Line these actors up at one stage entry point. Then ask the rest of the cast for character types for the actors to engage with in the exercise. This could be a ballerina or zookeeper, a superhero who can turn invisible, or a lion tamer – any character type works.

Now, as the actors line up, assign one character type for each actor. They must cross the stage as if they are that character type. This improv interpretation is completely up to the actor. As they cross, they must not break character, no matter how silly they feel, or the audience’s response.

Repeat the exercise for the entire cast and return to those who struggle to maintain character as they cross. Repeat as often as needed to help actors break down those barriers.

One Phrase – For Group Practice

Note: This exercise also likely goes by another name.

The director should choose two to five persuasive, short phrases to assign throughout the exercise. Phrases I have most often used for this activity include, “Get out”, “Do you love me?” and “Stay.” Anything similar works.

Now, the director should pair off every cast member with another. Ideally, choose actors who are either struggling with chemistry with each other or actors who do not work together during the show.

Each pair of actors is sent to the stage (one pair at a time) and must use only that assigned phrase to convince both their scene partner and the audience of the phrase. Both actors use the same phrase.

The actors must actively aim to “win” the scene to avoid “giving in” too easily or breaking character. When one scene partner is convinced of the other’s phrase, the scene ends.

How Often Should I Practice These Exercises?

When I’m directing a show, I run at least every exercise one to two times as warm-ups before we get into blocking, scene work, or other tasks. That is, we don’t use them at every rehearsal, but for each production, I use each one at least once to help the cast work together while developing their character solidity.

When I have actors brand new to the stage, I tend to run the exercises more often, particularly the ones that seem to register best with the new cast or those still struggling with this problem.For individual practice, I would recommend running the exercises or variants of them regularly (once or twice a week) until you’re able to rehearse without breaking character. Look for other exercises that explore the same concepts or similar, as well, and just keep working on it. Eventually, you will get there.

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