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of his fellow actors. The actor must work within exacting constraints, which
dictate the character's every word, choice, and action. In spite of these nar-
row limits, the actor still has ample latitude for individual creativity. In the
words of legendary acting teacher Michael Chekhov (1953):
. . . every role offers an actor the opportunity to improvise, to collabo-
rate and truly co-create with the author and director. This suggestion,
of course, does not imply improvising new lines or substituting busi-
ness for that outlined by the director. On the contrary. The given lines
and the business are the fi rm bases upon which the actor must and can
develop his improvisations.
How
he speaks the lines and
how
he fulfi lls
the business are the open gates to a vast fi eld of improvisation. The
“hows” of his lines and business are the ways in which he can express
himself freely.
The value of limitations in focusing creative activity is recognized in
the theory and practice of theatrical improvisation. Constraints on the
choices and actions of actors improvising characters are probably most ex-
plicit in the tradition of
Commedia dell'arte
. Stock characters and standard
scenarios provide
formal
constraints on the action, in that they affect the ac-
tor's choices through formal causality. Conventionalized costumes for each
character, a collection of scenic elements and properties, and a repertoire of
lazzi
(standard bits of business) provide
material
constraints on the action.
In human-computer interaction, creating and enacting a user- or player-
character is an alchemical dance between designer and interactor. In Aris-
totelean terms, a character is a bundle of patterns of choices and behaviors
that can be described in terms of traits and predispositions. Traits and pre-
dispositions provide materials from which action is formulated. They also
give form to thought, language, and enactment, and they provide the mate-
rial for the plot. Specifi c objectives or motivations on the part of interactors
constrain the action in both games and non-game applications.
For instance, a person interacting with a simulation of a space station
might be trying to redesign it, trying to learn how to operate its controls,
or perhaps to experience the environment under various conditions. There
is the beginning of a “plot” implicit in each of these goals; a well-designed
system assists in bringing that plot to life. When an interactor's objective has
