Tactics in Acting: How to Change Tactics When the First One Fails

You know what your character wants. You wrote it at the top of the page, in a good strong verb. And still the scene sits there. You play the first speech with heat, the second with the same heat, and by the third your scene partner has stopped listening, because you have too. The director’s note is kind and vague: “It’s all one color.”

That note is almost never about the objective. It’s about what you’re doing to get it. You found one way to go after what you want, and you kept doing it after it had obviously stopped working. Real people don’t do that. When the first approach fails, they try another one, often without noticing they’ve switched.

The short version: a tactic is how your character goes after what they want from the other person, right now. The objective stays the same for the scene; the tactics change. A tactic changes when it fails or when something new happens, and the cue for the change is your partner’s reaction, not a pencil mark in your script. Below is what that looks like line by line in one of the great persuasion scenes in Shakespeare, plus a drill for building a range of tactics you can reach for.

A tactic is what you do to get what you want

Uta Hagen’s famous nine questions from Respect for Acting end with three that build a scene: what do I want, what is in my way, and what do I do to get what I want. That last question is about tactics. It asks for the things you actually do, with your words and your body, to get it.

Robert Cohen’s GOTE, from his book Acting One, puts the same idea in four letters: Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, Expectation. In that scheme, tactics are the methods a character uses to reach the goal, and they can run anywhere from threatening to inducing. The obstacle often decides which tactics are worth trying. You don’t flatter a locked door.

The simplest way to tell an objective from a tactic: the objective is the destination, the tactic is the route. “I want him to stay” is an objective. Charming him, guilting him, blocking the door, and laughing it off are four tactics for the same objective. Our guide to finding your objective in a scene covers the first half; this guide is about the second.

Name tactics as things you do to someone

A tactic is only playable if it’s aimed at your partner. Theo Black, a senior lecturer in performing and media arts at Cornell, tells actors in his handout on actions and tactics to name each one as a transitive verb: something you do to another character to get a specific response out of them. Praise, plead, taunt, soothe, coax.

That rules out moods. “Be angry” and “be sad” aren’t tactics, because they don’t do anything to anyone. Black warns against playing an emotional state, and suggests turning it into an action: if a line reads as sarcastic, ask what the sarcasm is doing to the other person. Maybe you’re mocking them. Maybe you’re belittling them. Those you can play. Our list of acting verbs is a good place to find the right word.

Black also splits tactics into two rough families. Carrots say “do what I want and you’ll be happier”: charm, flatter, reassure, tempt. Sticks say “do what I want or you’ll be miserable”: shame, threaten, taunt, belittle. Black tells actors to seek contrast, so a character who moves between the two is easier to watch. That’s the same range Cohen describes, from threatening to inducing.

Lady Macbeth changes tactics, line by line

In Act 1, Scene 7 of Macbeth, Macbeth has decided not to kill the king. Lady Macbeth wants him to do it tonight. Her objective doesn’t change once in the scene. Her tactics change every time he answers. Read it once for the story:

MACBETH: We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honour’d me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.

LADY MACBETH: Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress’d yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire?

MACBETH: Pr’ythee, peace!
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.

LADY MACBETH: What beast was’t, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man.

MACBETH: If we should fail?

LADY MACBETH: We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.

William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7 (public domain; her speeches shortened here, so read the full scene)

Now mark her tactics. Each one is a verb aimed at him, and each major switch comes right after something he says. Inside her first speech she runs through three verbs without a word from him; she’s watching his face, and nothing she sees tells her she’s won yet:

• He gives reasons (the honors, the “golden opinions”). She doesn’t argue with the reasons. She mocks him: was the hope drunk? Then she questions his love, then dares him: are you afraid?
• He fights back on her ground, manhood: he dares do all that may become a man. So she turns his words on him. If daring more makes him no man, what beast proposed this? When he dared, he was a man.
• His next line changes everything: “If we should fail?” He’s no longer asking whether. He’s asking how. So she drops the attack and steadies him, then, in the lines that follow, lays out the plan. The stick becomes a carrot.

That last switch is the lesson. The shaming worked, so she stops shaming. If she kept attacking after “If we should fail?”, she’d be fighting a man who has already given in, and the scene would go dead. Cohen’s scheme has a word for what keeps her going: expectation. She plays every tactic believing it will work.

Change tactics on their reaction, not on a plan

Marking tactics in your script is good homework. Playing the marks is where it goes wrong. If you decide at home that you’ll switch from “mock” to “steady” on line 40, you’ll switch on line 40 whether or not your partner gave you a reason. The audience feels it as a gear change with nothing driving it.

So treat the marks as a menu, not a schedule. Black’s advice is to come up with lots of possible tactics and test them in rehearsal, then commit to the best ones in performance. In performance, the trigger for a change should be something you see or hear: your partner laughs it off, goes quiet, gives in, pushes back, or gives you a new fact. That’s when the old tactic stops working, and that’s when you reach for a new one.

Notice what Lady Macbeth’s switch depends on. “If we should fail?” is a line, but how Macbeth says it is a choice. If he says it as a challenge, she might need one more attack. If he says it like a man stepping off a cliff, she softens. You can only play that if you’re actually listening, which is why the change belongs to the moment and not to the pencil mark. Our guide to beats in acting covers how these turns divide a scene.

Make the switch visible

A new tactic should change something the audience can see or hear. You might move closer or step away, drop your voice, go fast or go slow, look at them or look away. You don’t have to plan the outward change. If the new tactic is truly different (from shaming to steadying, say), your body tends to follow. If nothing changes, the new tactic probably isn’t different enough from the old one.

Build a range before you need it

Many actors have a favorite tactic or two they reach for in every scene, often the ones that suit their personality. If you’re warm, you charm. If you’re intense, you push. A scene where your favorite tactic is wrong for the moment exposes you fast. Black’s handout tells actors to seek contrast in tactics, and Wikipedia’s summary of GOTE says actors should usually use a wide variety.

Here’s a drill that builds that range. It works with a partner, or with one person reading the other part:

• Pick a short scene and write your objective at the top in one sentence.
• List ten tactics you could use on your partner: five carrots and five sticks. Use verbs, not moods.
• Play the first speech with the first tactic. Your partner’s only job is to resist, in the lines as written.
• Run the speech again with a new tactic each time. Don’t plan the delivery. Just commit to the verb and watch what it does to them.
• Circle the two or three that got the biggest reaction. Those are your real options for that moment.
• Run the whole scene once more without looking at your list, switching only when the current tactic stops working.

The point isn’t to use all ten. It’s that when your first choice fails in performance, there’s something else in your hands.

Three ways tactic work goes wrong

Every tactic is the same tactic. “Persuade,” “convince,” and “get him to agree” are all the same thing wearing different hats. Look for verbs that pull in different directions: tease versus warn, flatter versus shame.

Playing the result. You know the script, so you know whether your character wins. If you know your character wins, it’s tempting to play them as already sure of it. If you know they lose, it’s tempting to play the defeat early. Don’t. Cohen’s expectation idea covers this: play as if you believe you can succeed, even when the script says your character fails. That way the loss lands.

Switching so often nothing lands. There’s no right number of tactics for a scene. Some scenes have two, some have ten. But a tactic needs time to work or fail. If you change on every line, your partner never has a chance to react, and you lose the trigger for the next change.

Rehearse the switches with a partner who answers

Tactic work needs someone to play against. Without a partner, you end up rehearsing tactics in a vacuum, which is exactly how they turn into a plan. If you’re preparing on your own, you can use Offbook: upload your scene, pick your part, and realistic voices read every other character. Offbook listens through your microphone and plays the next cue when you finish your line, so you’re always answering someone.

To work one switch at a time, set line detection to Manual, so the scene never moves on until you’re ready, then try each tactic on the same speech. When you’re not sure what a character wants in a particular moment, ask Genie, Offbook’s script assistant. You can highlight a line and ask what’s driving it, or why the character changes approach right there, and get an answer that fits your scene.

Then take it into a room with a real partner. Your tactics will change again, because a live person reacts differently every time. That’s the point.

Questions actors ask

What are tactics in acting?

A tactic is what your character does to the other person to get what they want: charm, shame, plead, threaten, reassure. It’s always a verb aimed at someone, never a mood. When one tactic stops working, the character tries another.

What’s the difference between an objective and a tactic?

The objective is what you want from the other person in the scene, and it usually stays the same from start to finish. Tactics are the different ways you go after it, and they change as the other person responds.

How many tactics should a scene have?

There’s no fixed number. Change tactics when the current one fails or when something new happens, and give each one time to work. A short scene might have two; a long fight might have ten.

Should I write tactics in my script?

Yes, as homework. Mark the options you found in rehearsal, but don’t treat them as a schedule. In performance, switch on what your partner actually does, not on where the pencil mark is.