What techniques do you use to memorize your lines ?

Question

I am working on theatrical production right now as stage manager and I also have a very minor role on stage.

Our director gave a deadline to be off book about 1 week and half ago, and there are still two actors who are nowhere NEAR being off book. They are still allowed to call for line, but one actor is calling for almost EVERY line, and the ones he tries on his own are so grossly paraphrased that the other actors have to adjust THEIR lines to co-incide with the paraphrase. The deadline is coming to stop beinag able to call for line.

Our run throughs of a single act are taking up 3 hours because of the "calling for line". I feel like I am actually reading their part s for them.

I have already suggested that they tape the play and listen, and just practice, practice, practice and study. They've had plenty of time to get off book. I'm hearing alot of excuses.

Any other techniques I could suggest to them ?

Answer 1

1. Write down the lines. Over and over again. Try writing them down from memory and then check and if possible highlight the areas of your script that you screw up on in a different color.
2. Tape record the cues, play the tape and then say the lines.
3. Practice lines while going through all of the actions. This will help add kinesthetic memory to the verbal memory and the movement will be an additional reminder.
4. Come up with a reward system for getting off book by sections.
5. Try running lines with someone and whenever you mess up you have to start from the beginning and go through it all again. It's tedious but it works.

Answer 2

Those two should be replaced, regardless of how go they are. IT can only strengthen the show, even if the new actors are not as good as the old. The director is an idiot to let them go on without meeting the requirements of the game. That is what is wrong with society now, no discipline. Acting is a very disciplined activity. Show the director this answer

Answer 3

I work with a repertory theatre company where we can each be learning several scripts in a week to be done in different performances for different organizations. I've HAD to learn how to learn lines.

Stand up, move around, and talk out loud while learning your lines. Just passively reading them isn't going to do it for most folks no matter how long you do that, believe me. If you learn your lines while standing and moving, your brain isn't going to go on overload when suddenly you have blocking to put with your lines.

Take your script out for a walk. Read a line out loud and practice saying it until you can do it WORD PERFECTLY without looking. (It's going to take work anyway, so why settle for second best; learn them right the first time.) When you have that line down, go to the next one. When you have 4 or 5 lines down, take a piece of paper and cover your own lines with it. Read your cue (silently) and respond out loud with your own line. Check yourself and move on to the next one. Get your cue from the middle of the previous line, not the end, so you can come right in with your line without a huge gap between the two. It's a good habit to get into.

Once you know several pages, get another person to hold script for you. She reads the other people's lines and you respond with your own. She SHOULD also correct any paraphrasing on your part. Please be humble enough to be kind to her when she does!

Next, while you're running lines with someone, try doing something else (something mechanical, like washing dishes, peeling carrots, washing the car, sweeping the stage -- anything that needs doing but takes no brain power) at the same time. When you can do two things at once, one of them being getting your lines right, you're ready for rehearsal.

Feel free to email me (click on the name under my avatar for an email link) if you have questions. Like most others here, I enjoy sharing what I've learned.

Answer 4

Keep looking over them every chance you get. Do it by sections and make sure you know what lines come before yours. It takes some time but you will get it soon.

Hope this Helps!!

Answer 5

ok. what i do is read the first paragraph or whatever and read it over and over. then, when im sure i have it down, i go on to the second paragraph or line or whatever and read it over and over and then when im sure ive got THAT down, i go back to the beginning, turn my script over and recite it. then i move on to the third then go bk to the beginning... etc etc. it works really well!!! i learned a monologue that was 3 pages long in 2 hours!!!

Answer 6

another sugestion will be to try to make compozed words from the initials of other words...is good your ideea with tape...they could try to compose firsts letters from each word-or important word and to make with them simple words ...to fochus at the meaning ideea...sorry