Today let’s look at another tool in the actor’s toolkit. Stanislavski, the acting instructor who laid the ground work for Method Acting, coined the term Given Circumstances. It encompasses all of the elements influencing a character at the start of a scene or story.
An actor preparing for a part, and who goes in for method acting, would go through the script and assess everything that feeds into the character’s choices. Where they were born and who they were born to – their class, race, gender, physical location. When they are alive. What they do for a living. Plot elements from before the scene that influence the scene. All of this and more amounts to the given circumstances.
By defining the character’s context – as provided by the text – the actor can identify the conscious and subconscious elements influencing them. A prince behaves different than a pauper. Same for a man in 1300s Persia and a woman in 1900s London. Or as simple as someone who just found a twenty dollar bill or someone who just lost their keys. All of these things impact how they behave.
If it’s important for an actor to know then it’s important for a writer to know. The writer is essentially the first actor to perform a story, just like they’re the first director, first cinematographer, first costumer, etc. By deciding for yourself what these given circumstances are and thinking through how they impact your characters, you can create more compelling and lived in people to fill your story.