I’ve discussed solo dance performances in this blog before, focusing on how they work and the stories we can tell. Today, however, we’re looking more generally at characters in solo performances, whether it be dance, theatre, mime, film, or other performing arts. This is applicable for all kinds of situations, from creating or choosing monologues for acting auditions to developing a stage persona for standup comedy.
Building strong characters that can stand on their own and not rely on a scene partner can be challenging. There are a few things that have helped me, and I’m passing them on here. We’ll start with looking at what kinds of characters work best for solo performances. Then we’ll look at a few tips for how to make them standout from the crowd and be memorable. Finally, we’ll quickly glance at how they might function in a performance setting.
Finding the right character
The biggest challenge about building characters for solo performance is the fact that whatever stories they tell – about others or themselves – has to be done without the aid of another person to compare with, ask questions, or other storytelling devices. This is particularly tough with dance or nonverbal performing arts. If you have two people, for example, we can see through their interaction what their relationship is. If you have a single person, how can you show if that person is in a relationship or not?
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
First: stereotypes are interesting places to start, but not interesting places to end. Iconic or recognizable traits in a character, particularly visual, are a good way to alert the audience as to the context you are working on. However, staying within stereotypes and tropes gets boring quickly, and you’ll lose your audience in short order. For example: I’ve done various performances around “the red dress,” because a woman in a red dress has so many immediate connotations. But those performances always take those ideas and then turn them over.
Second: characters with internal issues are easier to portray solo. Characters that are defined by their relation to someone else are not good for solo performances. People who are struggling to find their own way or identity are a much better option. In the past I’ve often used different styles of clothes and different physical qualities to show a search for identity and belonging.
Third: the character’s story has to progress. I often start and end performances in the same place or position. Because of the progression and story in between, the audience looks at the character differently. Most characters in a story need to be three dimensional, but it is especially true when building characters for solo performance. A story can progress with multiple one dimensional characters; it can’t when there’s only one. Find complexities and contradictions in the character that can become their journey.
Making memorable characters
In order to ensure that the audience remembers your character long after the performance ends, you need to give them something to hold onto. The easiest way to do that is to give them some consistent visual element that says something about them. This could even be used later as you develop content for their story. For example, my lady in red character is always in a red dress – until she isn’t. If she is always in red and at some point she isn’t, it makes a strong statement about what is happening and what she is going through.
This is partly where the nod to stereotypes can help you, though of course you want to be careful to stay appropriate (generally speaking, stay away from characters who are from a different culture or race than you). The element you decide to use could be a posture, a catchphrase, a costume, a gesture, anything.
Characters that defy the tropes are also memorable. In choreography, we learn that you should make patterns to break them, because that’s what makes the audience pay attention. It’s the same with making memorable characters for solo performance. Create a pattern to break it, touch on a stereotype to subvert it.
Finally, characters in solo performances can’t rely on context to make them believable – they have to be believable on their own. Finding an element of relatability is important.
From Page to Stage: Incorporating characters in solo performance
If you’ve done the groundwork above, the contexts or story progression of a performance start to write themselves. Everything I’ve discussed in other blogs about storytelling techniques and choosing stories applies here. However, if the piece is character-focused, you can think of it like this:
The character begins in one state, which is problematic. They investigate ways to get out of the state and find obstacles. They solve the problem, fully or in part. This could lead to another problem, depending on the length of the piece and the complexity of the problem.
In general, I suggest focusing on states rather than situations. This is a tricky difference as situations can work, but what I mean is that rather than try to make up something that requires a set and other situational cues, focus on what the characters wants and what’s stopping them from getting it. That’s the ‘state’ they are in when we meet them. For example, in the video I made “All It Costs Is Everything You Have,” the man in the suit character is trying to get through a door (a metaphor for success) and keeps getting thrown back. How he deals with this and what it makes him do is the journey of the performance. At the beginning, he is in a state of extreme self-confidence and arrogance, which changes over the piece.
At the end of the day, the actual character you create for solo performances in performing arts is not as important. What is important is that they can tell their own story, that their journey is internal, and that they have strong contextual clues in their way of being that help an audience understand who they are and what they want.