Robert Cohen’s GOTE: Goal, Obstacle or Other, Tactics, Expectation

Your acting teacher hands back your scene analysis with four letters written in the margin: G, O, T, E. Next to each one is a question mark. You wrote a page about your character’s backstory, her childhood, her favorite color. You didn’t write what she wants from the person in front of her.

That’s what GOTE is for. It’s a four-question checklist that turns a scene from something you describe into something you can play. It’s short enough to fill in on the train to an audition, and it works on a two-line sitcom side as well as on Wilde.

The short version: GOTE stands for Goal, Obstacle (or Other), Tactics, and Expectation. Know what you want, what or who is in your way, how you’ll try to get it, and why you believe you’ll win. Write each answer in a single sentence with an active verb, aimed at your partner. Then play the scene to win, and let the other actor’s answers force you to change tactics. Below is where GOTE comes from, what each letter really asks, and a worked example you can copy for your own sides tonight.

Where GOTE comes from

GOTE is the work of Robert Cohen, the founding chair of the drama department at UC Irvine, who died in November 2024. The university’s obituary from the Claire Trevor School of the Arts describes the system as focusing on Goal, Other, Tactics, and Expectation, and says it reached a global audience through his books Acting One, Acting Power, and Acting in Shakespeare.

If you’ve taken a college acting class, you may have met it there. The Wikipedia article on GOTE notes that Cohen introduced the acronym in Acting One, a textbook widely used in college theater courses, and that GOTE is also often taught as part of Practical Aesthetics.

GOTE asks questions close to ones other teachers ask. Uta Hagen’s famous list ends with three questions close to G, O (as Obstacle), and T: what do I want, what is in my way, and what do I do to get what I want. Hagen’s list stops at three; Cohen adds a fourth, and it changes how a scene feels to watch.

Is the O “Other” or “Obstacle”?

You’ll see both, and both are taught. Wikipedia’s GOTE article gives the O as Obstacle and notes it can also stand for Other, meaning the other characters in the scene. A UC Riverside Gluck Program handout uses Obstacle too, defining it as the thing or person that stands in the way of the goal. Cohen’s university memorials, including the UC Academic Senate memorial, give it as Other.

The two readings ask different questions, and both are useful. The Obstacle reading asks what stands in your way, which can be anything: a locked door, a bad back, your own fear, or the other person. The Other reading asks who you want something from, which pulls your attention off yourself and onto your scene partner.

In practice, you don’t have to choose. Answer both: who you’re playing against, and what about them, or about the situation, is in your way. Our guide to obstacles in acting covers that second question in depth.

G is for Goal: what you want from them, now

The goal is what your character wants in this scene. Wikipedia’s summary puts the weight on the verb: the strong verb is the crucial part of the goal, and beginners who reach for “to be” or “to get” tend to muddy their acting. “To be happy” can’t be played. “To make her laugh” can.

A good goal has three marks. It’s aimed at the other person. It’s something you could win or lose before the scene ends. And you’d know if you’d got it, because the other person would do or say something specific. If you can’t picture the moment of winning, the goal is too vague.

A scene goal should also fit the larger want that runs through the whole play. That’s the super-objective. And if you’re struggling to phrase a scene goal at all, our guide to finding your objective in a scene walks through it step by step.

O is for Obstacle, or Other: what and who is in your way

In the Obstacle reading, the O is whatever makes the goal hard to reach. Wikipedia’s summary adds a warning: pursue the goal rather than play the obstacle. In the Other reading (used by Cohen’s university memorials and the OnStage column), the O is a person. An OnStage Blog column on his VOTE sheet, a version of the same checklist, describes the Other as your acting partner: the person you want the victory from. The column adds that even a monologue needs a clearly defined Other.

That’s a big help in a self-tape or an audition, where your “partner” may be a reader with no expression or a piece of tape beside the lens. Decide who you’re talking to, what they look like, and what they’re doing as you speak. You’re talking to someone who can say yes or no, not to the room.

Whichever reading your class uses, write down one more thing about the person opposite you: what they want. If you know your partner’s goal, you know why they won’t simply give you yours. That’s often your main obstacle.

T is for Tactics: what you do to them

Tactics are the methods you use to pursue the goal. In Cohen’s scheme, as Wikipedia summarizes it, they range from threatening to inducing, and actors should usually use a wide variety. The OnStage column quotes Cohen calling tactics the “guts” of acting.

Write each tactic as a verb you do to the other person: flatter, tease, plead, shame, warn, charm. If a tactic doesn’t do anything to anyone, like “be sad,” it isn’t one. Our list of acting verbs gives you plenty to choose from.

Here’s the rule that makes tactics work: change when the current one stops working, not when the line ends. You only know it’s stopped working by watching your partner, so do your homework on the person opposite you before you pick your tactics. Our guide to tactics in acting has a drill for building a wider range.

E is for Expectation: why you think you’ll win

This is the letter that’s easiest to skip, and it can rescue a flat scene. Expectation is your character’s belief that the next try will work. The OnStage column puts it plainly: the character must expect to win the victory, not just try for it, and that expectation brings energy and enthusiasm to the pursuit.

Think about what happens without it. An actor who knows the character will lose often plays the loss from the first line. The scene goes gray, the tactics go half-hearted, and nobody watching wants the character to win, because the character doesn’t seem to either. Wikipedia’s summary makes the same point: the actor should pursue the goal rather than play the obstacle.

Expectation is usually written as a when/then sentence: “When I get her to say yes, then I can stop hiding.” It doesn’t mean the character wins. It means they believe they can, right up to the moment they don’t. That’s what makes the loss hurt.

A GOTE sheet, worked through on Wilde

Here’s a short stretch from Act I of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Jack Worthing is in love with Gwendolen. She knows him as “Ernest,” a name he made up. A moment earlier she told him her ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest.

JACK: But you don’t really mean to say that you couldn’t love me if my name wasn’t Ernest?

GWENDOLEN: But your name is Ernest.

JACK: Yes, I know it is. But supposing it was something else? Do you mean to say you couldn’t love me then?

GWENDOLEN: [Glibly.] Ah! that is clearly a metaphysical speculation, and like most metaphysical speculations has very little reference at all to the actual facts of real life, as we know them.

JACK: Personally, darling, to speak quite candidly, I don’t much care about the name of Ernest … I don’t think the name suits me at all.

GWENDOLEN: It suits you perfectly. It is a divine name. It has a music of its own. It produces vibrations.

JACK: Well, really, Gwendolen, I must say that I think there are lots of other much nicer names. I think Jack, for instance, a charming name.

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I (public domain; text from Standard Ebooks)

Gwendolen then dismisses “Jack” in one long, devastating speech. Jack’s next line is “Gwendolen, I must get christened at once—I mean we must get married at once.” Here’s Jack’s GOTE for the stretch above, one sentence each:

• Goal: To get Gwendolen to admit she’d love him under another name.
• Obstacle or Other: Gwendolen, who is in love with him and in love with the name, and doesn’t see why those are two things.
• Tactics: He tests her with a simple question, then coaxes her with a hypothetical, then confides that he doesn’t like the name, then sells her on “Jack” as if it’s an idea he just had.
• Expectation: When she agrees a name doesn’t matter, then he can tell her the truth and keep her.

Look at how the sheet plays. Each tactic is a new attempt after the last one bounced off her. Gwendolen’s answers are the obstacle, and they’re delightful because she’s so certain. And the expectation is what makes it funny. If Jack plays the scene knowing he’ll fail, it’s a man sighing. If he plays it believing each new try will work, his line “Jack, for instance, a charming name” is a hopeful pitch, and her long, gleeful demolition of “Jack” lands as a real defeat.

Then watch his next line. The expectation dies, so the goal changes on the spot: if she won’t love the name Jack, he’ll become Ernest. That slip, “christened” for “married,” is the sound of a new goal arriving mid-sentence. You can read the full scene on our page for The Importance of Being Earnest.

How to fill in GOTE for your own sides tonight

You don’t need a worksheet. A margin and a pencil will do. The OnStage columnist makes one VOTE sheet per character; a sentence per letter will do, though the author prefers more detail. Start with a sentence, then work through the scene like this:

1. Read the scene once for the story, then once only for your partner’s lines. Underline what they want from you.
2. Write your Goal as “to make [the Other] [do something],” with a verb you could win or lose.
3. Name the person opposite you in a sentence: who they are to you, and what they want that gets in your way.
4. Mark each place where your tactic might stop working, and write a possible new verb beside it. In the run, switch only when your partner gives you the reason.
5. Write your Expectation as a when/then sentence. Read it aloud before every run.
6. Run the scene out loud and check each tactic change against your partner’s line just before it. If nothing in their line could have made you switch, move the switch.

The last step is the hard one alone, because it needs a partner. With Offbook, you upload your sides, pick your role, and realistic voices read every other part, then wait for your line. If a beat puzzles you, ask Genie, Offbook’s script assistant, what your character wants in that moment, or highlight a line to ask about it directly. Use the answer as a second opinion, not the final word.

When the scene is short

Audition sides are often a page and a half. You still need all four letters, but you’ll usually only have room for two or three tactics. Spend them where your partner says something that blocks you. Our guide to breaking down audition sides shows where to look first.

Why GOTE helps you remember your lines

Knowing why you say a line makes the line easier to find. An APS Observer article on Helga and Tony Noice’s research describes actors breaking a script into logically connected beats or intentions, and feeling the character’s intention in reaction to the other actors so the lines come naturally.

A GOTE sheet is a map of those intentions. Each tactic change is a beat. Each beat starts on something your partner said. So when you go up, the question “what am I doing to her right now?” can bring the words back, because the line grows out of the intention. Run it with partners who wait for your cue, like our free run lines tool for classic scenes.

Questions actors ask

What does GOTE stand for in acting?

Goal, Obstacle (or Other), Tactics, Expectation. It’s Robert Cohen’s checklist for preparing a role: what you want, what or who is in your way, how you’ll try to get it, and why you believe you’ll succeed. Wikipedia and some handouts give the O as Obstacle; Cohen’s university memorials give it as Other.

What is the VOTE sheet?

It’s another version of the same checklist: Victory, Other, Tactics, Expectations. “Victory” replaces “Goal” to stress that you’re playing to win something specific. The questions are otherwise the same.

How is GOTE different from Stanislavski’s objectives?

A Stanislavski objective is close to Cohen’s Goal. GOTE puts it on a short checklist with three more questions to keep in front of you: what or who is in your way, how you’ll try to win, and an Expectation that you will, so you don’t play the loss before it happens.

Do I need a new GOTE for every scene?

Keep one sheet per character, with a GOTE for each scene on it. Your goal and tactics change from scene to scene, and so may the person you’re playing against. Your super-objective stays the same across the play; each scene’s GOTE should serve it.

Can I use GOTE for a monologue?

Yes, and it’s especially useful there. Decide who you’re talking to and what you want from them, even if they never speak. Then let the tactics shift as you imagine how they’re reacting.