Once the performance begins, everyone has to know the dialogue. Memorizing the script might just be the most fundamental thing an actor can do besides showing up at the theater. So would it surprise you to know that the actors I spoke with said memorization techniques were not on the curriculum at their theater schools? It is a skill that is individual to each person.
I mainly read the script a lot. I just read it, read it, read it. That sounds … depressing. But it's the same way I learned songs on the piano as a kid. Play it again. And again. Over and over. Waltien begins by reading a script three times. And then he buckles down. Then I'll move the paper down to my next line. The scrap paper method is a common one. But there are ways to juice that process along. Whiteside researched neuroscience on Google "to see if there were things that helped the brain," she said, "because there has to be a smarter way to do this than just drilling, reading it over and over again.
Here's what she found. Because somehow the brain will process the short-term memory and push all of that information you just loaded into a different section of the brain that is better for longer recall. That's part of it? This is great! That doesn't mean it's less difficult, but it means at least you're working with your brain instead of against it.
There's more: "The other tip that scientists recommend is to walk," she said. After a nap, Whiteside might walk around the block without the script to see how much dialogue she can remember. The actors I spoke to talked about striving to be "word perfect," which means in rehearsal they might get notes like: "You usually say 'and' here, but it's really 'but' — it's so specific," said Blake Russell, who co-stars in LiveWire Theatre's "Partners," a rapid-fire comedy about the sometimes fraught business and personal relationships between a gay couple and a straight couple.
In my 15 years reviewing theater, I have no clear memories of an actor noticeably whiffing on a line the term of art when the mind goes blank is to "go up" on a line , but it happens, and fudging through those moments is part of the job as well. Matthew Broderick ran into trouble in when he starred off-Broadway in a new play from Kenneth Lonergan called "Starry Messenger.
Age can be a factor. Angela Lansbury is 88 and has been open about using an earpiece — one that feeds her lines should she need it — for her Tony Award-winning performance in "Blithe Spirit," which she also took to London earlier this year. Her reasoning makes sense: Audiences paying steep ticket prices for a bold-face name expect a first-rate performance, aging brain cells or no.
As UncleZeiv noted, dialogues are much easier to remember - there's a certain pattern to follow. In older dramas, heavier on monologues, you'll often see the same thing - outright rhymes, or other patterns to follow it basically serves as error correction.
It's similar to how it's easier to remember every other line of a song - more connections for the brain to pick up, and more patterns to fill. Human brains are really good at finding and repeating patterns. Remember how much easier it was to learn something you understand , as opposed to just memorizing data that seems random to you? Even when the data is outright random, this still applies. For example, remembering a phone number, you might give yourself hints like "three sixes and a one The same way, with a long monologue with nothing to help you which is often a result of an amateur screenwriter, frankly :P , you'll try to find something to help you keep and link those memories.
There's many approaches to memorizing stuff that doesn't make any sense - it's just a google search away. But basically, you want to split the text into logical pieces partitioning - one of the reasons we use paragraphs , practice each part, and practice the whole thing.
Adding emotions and images helps immensely - memories work best when you have multiple different "paths" to get to the piece of data you're trying to retrieve. So by playing around with the monologue, you'll have the part where you're agitated, and the part where you're angry, and the part where you're affraid Harpagon is one good example of a rather long monologue where this technique helps immensely.
And when something goes wrong and you forget a bit, it's not the end of the world. Most of the time, you'll just ad-lib something to keep the flow, and work your way around it again, works great for dialogues, where your partner can support you, or even outright point out what you were supposed to say - in a smart way, hopefully.
This is especially true when you're not doing classical plays - in fact, when you're playing your own plays, a lot of the material can come from errors , or spur-of-the-moment ideas that just fit the moment. It's the same in amateur-level :P music production - pressing the wrong key isn't necessarily something anyone will notice, just keep playing and don't show your fear :D.
Don't forget that for most of human history, the default way of transmitting stories was play sure, you recited poetry - but adding and expressing emotions is still a huge part of recitation.
We've been doing this for thousands of years, maybe tens of thousands. Even "books" like the Bible were originally mostly spread by spoken word, and the same goes for ancient epics like the Illiad.
Written word was rare and expensive before mass printing. In short, there's three main points: practice, patterns and links emotions, gestures, images There is at least one example of a prominent, A-list actor, Marlon Brando, who did not memorize his lines. Cue cards were printed with his lines and he would read from them. This article discusses some of the tricks used in The Godfather:.
In one photo, a cue card is taped on the wall behind a lamp. In the scene above, they are held just beyond the view of the camera. There is even a picture of Robert Duvall holding cue cards on his torso so that Brando could read them.
Bob Hope was also one who used cue cards, as he had grown used to holding a script when he started out in radio. When he transitioned to television, he used cue cards. Though you may not believe it, top actors are very intelligent and usually have excellent memories.
In an interview 10 years later, Baldwin was asked about remembering lines and he explains he always had an excellent memory and to prove it he recited the sentences in the Russian language from The Hunt for Red October flawlessly. Many actors and actresses are known for their extensive practice and memorization of lines. For example, Meryl Streep was known for working non-stop hour days whenever she worked on movies, and much of that time was spent practicing and memorizing lines.
Jody Foster is known for having similar dedication. I believe that ancient Romans gave long structured speeches by imagining that they are walking through rooms in a familiar building, in a particular order, and recalling what they see in each part of each room.
Although I am not proficient in this technique, perhaps a person today could imagining walking into one room and seeing on the first computer monitor in one room: Friends, Romans, Countrymen each holding bags of ears. A shovel and a grave with Cesar lying in it; a red x painted on a heroic bust of him. A symbol of evil I would use a black cloud with cartoon lighting coming out floating over a closed grave, the word good mixed with bones in a half filled grave.
I no longer have it word for word -- need to refresh my memory -- but I memorized a short story that runs about an hour in performance. Brightly Burning Tiger by Tanith Lee , just because I liked the tale and wanted to be able to tell it. First step is to put it in perspective. A typical non-pop song is three to five minutes. So just in terms of time, this is like learning songs. Admittedly, most songs are less dense, so perhaps double that. True, songs have rhythm and rhyme and repeated phrases and other formalisms which aid in structuring memory But a good script or story often has strong characters who each have their own "voice", and the author has a particular writing style; combining those with the plot and situation, and there are patterns that affect which words sound "right" at any time, which helps to support the learning process.
And I selected this story and it's set of roles because these aspects were clear enough that the tale had stayed with me. In fact, actors are taught to "leave the words on the page", and recreate them based on what they think the character would say in that situation Which is a good thing since it leaves most of heir attention free to play the role.
Looking at it from another perspective, when I retyped the story for study, it came to 12 single-spaced pages. That also sounds much less overwhelming than an hour of speech.
Remember, there's usually plenty of rehearsal time and you don't have to memorize the whole thing at once or immediately. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. As with music, "play through" any mistakes,since you are still building the memories for the rest. Practice makes better. Simply making the time to rehearse is a huge part of the process. My cat at the time way very happy that I was spending an hour most nights sitting with her in my lap, making mostly friendly-human noises.
It didn't take very long to get to the point where I could tell the tale in general outline, forgetting details and having to search for my own words in places. And in longhand, I write out all my lines again and again and again. And on the weekends, I drill them. I walk around with my note cards for each scene and do one scene at a time. Before the performance, there is an aspect to memorizing that involves a variation in sensory inputs.
So, writing up your lines, then reading your lines. Then writing the lines again in a different medium. Most actors might write their lines out once on cue cards but the act of writing them out word for word over and over through cue cards, on pieces of paper, and on your computer will help you to fully remember every word exactly how it was written. Start by memorizing one line. Once you have that down, add another.
You might be surprised at how much your memory can hold — and how quickly you get there. Rather than trying to learn all your lines at once, it can be effective to just learn lines either individually or in small groups.
Then you either take a break and go back to that same scene or move onto the other and return to the first scene later on. In other words, compartmentalization. This can go to an extreme by simply just working on a single line at a time until you can say it perfectly in a variety of ways. I learn the text cold, read it maybe or times. Instead of having a general goal of memorizing, give yourself a number such as a number of times to read a text and stick to it before you take a break.
Another strategy to memorize your lines is simply just saying them as much as you can versus writing them out and reading them. And then I would put it down, and start reading it again. I had about a month prior to the first day of rehearsals and I took my script everywhere and I would spend at least three hours a day reading it. But also, during rehearsals, the lines do change, and it is harder to forget lines and to memorize them again, because I have to try to get rid of the ones that are already in my head and to replace it with a brand new line.
Incorporating the lines in your day-to-day life is another strategy you can use. If you always have your lines around you then it becomes very easy to always read them. Moreover, instead of reading your lines every time you have a spare second, if your lines are always in your back pocket, you can pull them out and say them out loud.
Walking around and alternating between looking at your lines and then saying them out loud throughout the course of a day in micro practices can be very advantageous. Then you can go to the next level by mixing the small little practices with more pronounced and focused longer sessions. In other words, allocating an hour just to read and memorize your lines every day and then, after that hour, throughout the rest of the day, going through bits and pieces whenever you have a moment.
Look for the threes. Additionally, you can notice patterns in the structure of the text as a whole to help you memorize what kind of part should happen next.
I get on a treadmill with my script or I walk around the neighborhood, talking to myself. And I memorize my dialogue. I do probably an hour a day of just walking on a treadmill.
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