Hagen's technique; six steps

Hagen's technique; six steps

1. 1) Who am I?

   • Actors should apply this to themselves or their character
   • What is my present state of being? e.g. energized. It is always the result of things that are happening in your life.
   • How do I perceive myself? e.g. do you seee yourself as a victim, or you are ugly, or sexy
   • What am I wearing? Time of day, season of year, and where you are going may influence this

2. 2) What are the circumstances?

   • What time is it? Time rules our lives. Research the era, the decade e.c.t
     • What year is it? What decade? What month of the year? Is it a holiday? Weather? What hour of the day is ut?
     • This given element of time determines the following; Your age, background, social status, elements of your physical surroundings such as whether a room is hot or cold, dark, quiet. Also determine what you wear, hairstyle, your vocabulary, the books you read, the music you listen to,your attitudes towards sex and courtship, the dances you do, relationships, emotional state of being, your future plans, what you have been doing, what you are doing currently.
   • Place is essential : Where am I? What surrounds me?
   • What are the immediate circumstances?
     • What just happened? What do you expect to happen? What is happening?

3. 3) What are my relationships?

   • How do I stand in relationship to the circumstances, the plans, the objects and the people related to my circumstances?

4. 4) What do I want?

   • What is my main objective?
     • Remember when you define an objective you must ask yourself what is at stake if you dont achieve it.

5. 5) What is my obstacle?

   • What stands in the way of what I want? How do I overcome it? Obstacles take many forms...
     • Obstacles within: Your thoughts, habits,obsessions, assumptions,needs, fears, mental,physical or emotional disabilities
     • Obstacles from without: Natural forces,Things you can't control (people,places, things), circumstances you find yourself in.

6. 6)What do I do to get what I want?

   • How can I achieve my objective? What's my behaviour? What are my actions?
     • Action is at the heart of all acting remember. This should become second nature. Instead of thinking "What am i feeling/thinking" replace it with "What am i doing?"