It’s said that “acting is reacting.” It means that the key to being a good actor or improviser is mostly about how well you react emotionally to each thing another performer says or does.
When a line is delivered well by an actor, it makes an impact on an audience. But when it is delivered well, and then other performers deliver a strong and believable reaction, the original line becomes far more powerful.
Imagine a character, Joe, walking into a bar and sitting down. He doesn’t speak.
On its own, this is nothing. Joe feels neutral. We don’t know anything about him.
Let’s add a table of other characters to the scene. They notice Joe as he enters. Their reaction is one of amusement. They point and giggle as he sits. Now it seems as if Joe is a lonely nerd.
Or maybe it’s a different reaction. Three women are sitting at the table talking and laughing. But when Joe enters, their conversation stops. Their reaction is love and lust. They can’t keep their eyes off him. Now Joe is a “strong, silent type.”
We can change it again. We start with a group of tough men at the bar. Joe enters. The reaction of these tough men is one of fear. Joe ignores them, walks to the bar and they step back to let him through. They eye him nervously as he sits down. The reactions have turned Joe into a powerful, dangerous man.
I’ve done this exercise a few times in workshops, and it’s interesting to see how powerfully each variation seems to change the sort of character Joe is, even though I know most of the work is being done by the reacting characters.
These techniques are used all the time in film and TV. Much of James Bond’s charisma comes from the way other characters react to him.
Reactions don’t have to be on such a large scale. In ordinary dialogue, reacting to another player’s lines with a shift in emotion keeps the dialogue interesting and compelling.
There are a number of good “emotion” games, and most of them can produce good scenes. One of my favourites is Emotional Options, where character change emotions in response to a caller, but Emotional Transfer (players swap emotions through the scene) and Emotional Transition (a player undergoes a big emotional shift in the course of the scene) are also interesting to watch.