This is the first of what I’m sure will be many notes about creating physical characters. Not too much literature has been written on the matter, and so I will apply theatre techniques I’ve learned over the years to physical character development in an attempt to create a guide for myself. Think of what I post here as potential “tools”– they will not work every time, for every character, for every person.

Here are the techniques I used for creating “Monsieur Croque-Monsieur”, an amorous stereotypical french gentleman, self-centered and be-moustached as he is.

Anatomical Lead Exercise

Define the space in which you will be working. Work for yourself and by yourself. Bring your body to a neutral relaxed position. With breath, start walking at an average pace at random around the room. Keep your body in neutral and take into account any sensations or tenseness you may feel. Do not pass judgement and do not attempt to correct anything, but take note of where you are as you begin the exercise. Begin to slowly increase your pace until you reach your fastest walk. Note how this affects your emotional and physical being, but do not add “character”. Decrease your speed to a snails pace, and take inventory of yourself again.
Pick a body part (shoulders, hands, belly button, knees, right elbow, left ear, etc) and begin to think of yourself as leading from that body part. Exaggerate the lead as you walk around the room. Take inventory of how leading with this body part makes you feel. If you lead with your heart, do you feel lighthearted? Have you been leading with your kneecaps? What kind of person leads with their kneecaps? Feel free to increase and decrease your pace as you walk around the room, and note if this changes your emotions any. Now add original character, based on what you have felt leading with this body part. Continue to walk around the space with the character being fueled by your leading part. Repeat this process with different body parts, taking note of which ones seem right for your ultimate character and which did not speak to you. Note in your journal anything you learned or discovered in the process.

Monsieur is a sucker for pleasure. He follows his feet, which are constantly pointed toward a good time. As a result, his body often stood at an incline with his feet at the forward most point. This allowed him to look right down his nose at everyone. When he discovers a new interest, his feet are the first to attack.

Gesture List
Gesture: 1.a movement or position of the hand, arm, body, head, or face that is expressive of an idea, opinion, emotion, etc. 2. the use of such movements to express thought, emotion,etc.

The purpose of this exercise is to create a numbered list of gestures that are unique to your character, and can be used in performance for momentary expression. The way I did this was to first decide on a “resting gesture”, or a kind of stance that the character falls into when he’s not doing anything. From this resting position, use a mirror to explore physical gesture–movements of specific or all body parts–that convey an emotion or thought your character has. What does he do when he’s exasperated? When he’s jealous? When he’s proud? When things get awkward? Ask yourself these questions and any others your can come up with, and answer yourself only with physical movement. When you come across a gesture that feels sincere to your character, break it down into parts and complete the gesture again and again. Do it fast. Slow it down and isolate each movement. Record the gesture in your journal. Repeat the process until you have a list of say, 10 gestures that are entirely unique to your character. Give them names that you understand, and consider giving them name-phrases that have a similar musicality to the movement. Here are mine for Monsieur.

1. Approving lip twitch
2. Cigarette draw
3. Foot bounce
4. Seductive shoulder shimmy
5. “You! You! You!”
6. Disgusted face fan
7. Heart flutter
8. The kiss blow
9. Lick finger/moustache pet
10. Wrist flexed arm extension