Brennan Lee Mulligan’s Advice on Creating Strong Characters
D&D, UCB, and VAPAPO
I recently listened to an old episode of Adventuring Party, one of Brennan Lee Mulligan’s DropoutTV shows. It’s a talk show where Mulligan and guests discuss tabletop roleplaying games (most commonly Dungeons and Dragons) at length. In the episode, from 2019, Mulligan talks with Critical Role’s Marisha Ray. They cover a lot of ground, but what stood out to me most was a moment around the 31:30 mark. They were discussing their relationships with the characters they play. Mulligan, who spent years teaching and performing improv at UCB LA, describes the experience of embodying a D&D character with a metaphor he learned in his improv studies.
“My favorite metaphor for character playing has always been that characters are translucent and not opaque, where they’re like stained glass. Right? And in this metaphor it's sort of like, you the person are the light behind the stained glass and what the character is is that it's always still you but the colors and shapes and the way things are arranged change and the light shines through differently.” (Mulligan at 31:32)
I don’t know if this is a popular metaphor in the LA scene, but as an Orlando based performer, it was new to me. If it’s not already floating around other improv circles, it certainly should be. I think the metaphor is a great mental framework for diving deep into new characters. Viewing your characters as different colors of glass placed over your own internal light can generate immediate empathy for each character you portray. They stop being a character and they start being a version of ourselves. This can be true even for characters that seem wildly different than us. Mulligan says all you need to do is ask yourself “how would I get here?”
“I played this chaotic evil pirate character and I joked with my brother about it… what if you were born a genius in the lowest class of a society with no class mobility… and the only chance for social mobility was to be a criminal... it’s like, ‘Oh okay.’” (Mulligan at 32:29)
He goes on.
“…I’m taking me and I’m adding this voice and I’m adding this physicality. Let’s bring down compassion by 40%, let’s bring up impulsivity by 75. And you’re just kinda messing with these dials until suddenly you get a character… [then] the reactions are always genuine, they’re just filtered through this stained glass.” (Mulligan at 33:01)
Mulligan’s dial method also allows us to quickly adapt new and interesting characters. Have you ever tried playing a character where your compassion is turned up to one hundred? What about down to zero? What about completely neutral? As a performer on the back wall, ask yourself what sort of dials would best compliment each scene.
For a long time my only guide for creating interesting characters was Jill Bernard’s VAPAPO toolkit (Jill Bernard's Small Cute Book of Improv). VAPAPO is an acronym: Voice, Attitude, Posture/Psychiality, Animal, Prop, Obsession. It’s a list of strategies for creating strong character choices. This was never a bad guide; they work great. VAPAPO has absolutely made my initiations stronger. I just think we need more. Brennan’s stained glass metaphor allows us to find the emotional core of a character. Then, VAPAPO can improve that character’s stage presence. VAPAPO adds the flair. When Brennan says “I’m adding this voice and I’m adding this physicality,” that’s VAPAPO (literally, it’s the V and the first P). When he talks about adjusting the dials, he’s changing the color of the glass.
I was super stoked to stumble onto this discussion. I’m always excited to learn a new way of thinking about improvisation. If you want to continue learning with me, consider subscribing to get notified when I post.
To hear more about stained glass or VAPAPO check out the links below.
“Giving Yourself Permission to Feel (with Marisha Ray)”
Jill Bernard's Small Cute Book of Improv
http://jillbernard3.blogspot.com/2019/06/jill-bernards-small-cute-book-of-improv.html