Forgetting your lines during an audition or a theatre performance is a sure step toward extended bouts of self-recrimination. It's a horrible feeling, and one that brings with it enough stress that it can compound on itself, causing even the words you were sure you would remember to melt from your mind as you slowly spiral into nose dive that ends with your performance crashing and burning -- sometimes quite impressively. Thankfully, there are techniques that you can apply to help you ingrain those elusive words into your very being.
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The Power of a Simple Highlighter
If your lines stand out from the page, it is easier for your eye to catch them and helps to cut away errant words and sections that could serve to distract you later. After all, how can you memorize something if you spend more time hunting for it than reading it? If you are a visual learner, highlighting your lines may also assist in any amount of photographic memory you might possess. To amplify your visual learning, you might also try highlighting your cues, keeping the page you are reading from covered with another piece of paper until you get to the cue and then trying to remember what comes next. A logical extension of this method is to employ the use of flash cards, with the cue on one side and the line written on the other.
Understand the Material
Before even beginning to focus on your lines, read the script through -- over and over again if need be -- until you fully understand the plot of the play, and your character's part in it. As your understanding deepens, the lines your character speaks will make more sense, and the flow of conversation will become a natural thing, not a point of stress.
Movement Embeds
It's a fun little oxymoron to be sure, but the point is that, while practising, you should move as your character will be moving on the stage. Physical memory is a powerful thing, and science has shown that when you combine movement with speech, you are that much more likely to remember what you need to say next -- as you commit to your next movement. So move... dance, gesture, walk, turn your head and cough -- turn your lines into your very own dance with pacing and rhythm.
Learn By Rote -- or Writ...
A tried and true method of memorization is to handwrite what you want to memorize. Not type -- handwrite. Handwriting is a very strong way to reinforce both words and concepts. You didn't really think that writing lines on the board in school was just a form of acceptable torture, did you? Believe it or not, they were still trying to teach you something -- whether you wanted to learn it or not. If you want to take this method further, try writing out your lines with your non-writing hand.
Audible Learning
Making a recording of your lines, especially when read with the other performers you are working with, can allow you to bring the play with you. You can listen to it while you drive, while you are walking, washing the dishes, or even sleeping. The point is, it can always be with you, even if it is only in the background, and it can be practised against as often as you like. It can also help you to identify the rhythms of the actors giving you your cues, and this can be invaluable during the flow of a theatre performance.
Express Big
As you practise, read your lines in such a way as to burn their words and meaning into your brain. Exaggerate everything. Some people even yell everything, though that might make for some annoyed neighbours. Anything for your craft, though, right?
Any one of these methods, or a combination thereof, should go a long way toward helping you to remember your lines when it counts -- namely in an audition or during a theatre performance. However, as we have previously mentioned in our posts on dealing with stage fright, and improving stage presence, the most important thing you can do other than being prepared is to relax. Breathe. It will help you to maintain focus and not lose your head once the spotlight hits it.
How do you memorize your lines?
Posted on
Tue, March 8, 2011
by Terry Fox Theatre
filed under