3 Power Questions for Breaking Down a Scene

Welcome to my first official Know Small Parts newsletter! To get things started, I’ll be sharing the first 3 questions I ask myself when I break down a scene. 

I remember auditioning for the guest starring role of a nurse on Diagnosis Murder back in the 90’s. The casting director loved me but didn’t think I had the right look for the part so she handed me another set of sides (part of a script – around 4 pages in this case) and said to come back in 5 minutes. 

There was no time for memorizing lines. There was barely time to fully digest the story and characters. But I booked it – and got to work with the legendary Dick Van Dyke. Fun fact - he roller skated around the set during downtimes. Seriously.

So how did I use those 5 minutes? I asked myself 3 questions: