Making History

In order to better ourselves in our acting skills our teacher decided to give us a crash course in creating objectives and obstacles for our characters. By creating objectives and obstacles, we'll be able to have a better picture of how our character is supposed to act in order to better embody the character so that we're really acting. So an objective is something that can be accomplished within the scope of the performance. For example, if I were to set an objective for having something accomplished by 9 PM, it could be having already eaten dinner. Any obstacles for this objective could be having the time to prepare dinner because I have seventh period. The first step in this process is to create the history for the characters.

When we first got the script it was difficult to determine the situation for our characters. The dialogue seemed very interrogative and somewhat combative as if the two characters were unsure of what the other was saying. And so Noelia and I decided that the relationship between these two would be longtime best friends who hadn't spoken for about two years because of a misunderstanding. Noelia played the role of Piper and I played the role of Cindy. Piper and Cindy had been childhood friends because their mothers were best friends. They enjoyed the same activities and were inseparable until the sixth grade when they both decided to run for class president. They were both equally popular and so Piper had considered sabotaging Cindy's chances of winning by rigging the votes. Piper discussed this with her other friends Sarah and Tammy, but she never actually went through with it. However, Sarah told Cindy about Piper's intentions. At the same time, Tammy rigged the votes and when Piper had received a landslide victory, Cindy assumed that Piper had cheated. As a result, Piper and Cindy's relationship had turned to hatred. So now we come to the present when they finally confronted each other and Piper revealed that she had never followed through with her plans and now wants to be friends again with Cindy.

So here were our objectives and obstacles:
Objectives
Piper: To be friends with Cindy again.
Cindy: To question Piper's motives.

Obstacles
Piper: Piper has two years of pent-up hatred.
Cindy: Cindy doesn't believe Piper.