In the Studio 22 Character traits

Emma Rice worked with Tom Morris on the adaptation of Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus. This task is one that Tom describes in the programme for the play. 

Once the shape of the story that you’re telling has been defined, tested and refined, compile a list of words to describe each of the characters in your piece.  From those lists, choose just three for each character. Then, choose one and ask a member of your ensemble to dress and improvise as that character, informed by those three attributes.  For example, Tom Morris describes the task when rehearsing Nights at the Circus:

“Lizzie, the adoptive mother of the winged woman in our show, is for our purposes, ‘protective’, ‘volatile’ and ‘ferret-like”. Actor Carl Grose is dressed up in an impromptu costume and required to improvise in character. He draws freely on everyone’s work and the result is an utterly implausible and strangely moving female impersonation.”