Class Review: Sing'Theatre's free masterclass on character creation

The moment I found out about Sing'Theatre's new lockdown offerings, I jumped at the chance. Free musical theatre acting classes? I'm in!

I've been planning on taking a musical theatre class from Sing'Theatre for the longest time. As one of the few places in Singapore specializing in musical theatre, Sing'Theatre has been creating many new course offerings for adult learners who are serious about the craft. The $600 price tag is a little gatekeeper for my broke college student wallet, but I'm getting there! It would be great if my writings had a per word value, then perhaps I'd be able to afford all my theatre tickets and acting classes. But I digress.

Having been through some rudimentary actor training, I was better able to appreciate the content of this lecture-style class which had musical theatre instructor Mina Kaye take us through the art and science of acting and character development. From a brief crash course on the history of Stanislavskian realism to how objectives work, Kaye presented a truly informative and fascinating look into the beginnings of what one may expect from acting classes. Simple but informative flowcharts graced most of her presentation slides as she discussed the differences between the character's overarching goals and trajectory, as well as their objective in a singular scene. 

One of the points that stayed with me was the power of an objective. The "scene objective" - the objective of the character at any present moment in any story - should link into the "super-objective" which is what the character sets out to do. As Konstantin Stanislavski notes in his famed textbook The Actor Prepares, "If all the minor objectives in a part are aimed in different directions it is, of course, impossible to form a solid, unbroken line. Consequently the action is fragmentary, uncoordinated, unrelated to any whole. No matter how excellent each part may be in itself, it has no place in the play on that basis." From this, we can infer that every intention and tactic must link to a scene objective, and every scene objective must in turn link to a larger trajectory for the character who aspires consciously or subconsciously towards something that they value.

Some other tips shared in the masterclass brought back memories of my time in class as well as the scenework I've done since then. Using action verbs to describe intentions within each scene and sentence reminded me of the time my acting instructor told us to find action verbs and physicalize each movement, a technique I later learned originated from Anton Chekhov. I frequently write as my characters to immerse myself in their headspace, something which Kaye brought up as well. She put it in the best way possible - the miracle happens when you lose yourself in your character and let go of all technicality and consciousness.

While the masterclass was probably (and understandably) too short and uninvolved for the uninitiated learner to truly grasp any acting techniques, it serves as a nice refresher for those of us who have already been through an actual class or two. Nevertheless, I'm excited for what Sing'Theatre has to offer in the latter half of 2021 as we hopefully reopen our economy following the Phase 2 Heightened Alert scare.

Verdict: 7/10 - Although it wasn't a "real" technique acting class, it certainly served its purpose and reminded me why I fell in love with the craft in the first place.