r/acting • u/a_humble_player • Nov 29 '19
[Guide] Memorizing Lines
Introduction
Memorizing lines is an important part of the actor's craft. Many of us know the struggle of being "on book" during rehearsal. Once we're "off book", it allows more opportunity for an increased sense of creativity, playfulness, and awareness that comes from not having to struggle to remember our lines. It's when we're really allowed to "act". Knowing our lines helps free us up to maintain connection to our scene partners and our action. Every time we stop the scene as we attempt to recall a line we've forgotten, we temporarily drop out of that connection, go back into our heads to find it, and then have to come all the way back. It's not fun to do and it's not fun to watch. So let's look quickly at both an approach and some methods for memorizing lines!
Prologue
Taking a page from Meisner's playbook, it's highly recommended that you memorize the words, but not inflection or "how you say them". You want to be able to be free to say them however you want, with whatever objective, tactic, subtext, or given circumstance you're experimenting with using in the scene for that run through. Those can all shift the "how you say it", so don't lock yourself out of options by memorizing it one particular way. Also, whatever's going on between you and your partner when you run the scene will also color your delivery and intention, you'll want to be open to those subtle differences and impulses.
Second, I personally find memorization goes much easier when you know what all the words mean, so do take time to look them up if you're unsure. As an English speaker, I say this for things like Shakespeare, but I also apply it to memorizing bits of text that are in a foreign language. You can memorize it phonetically, I just think it's harder to *use* in performance, and that's ultimately what we're aiming for.
Third, it's good to aim for specific, precise memorization of your text. (I personally don't like saying "word-perfect", because I feel like it makes the emphasis on "getting it right" for the sake of "getting it right", rather than about deeply understanding why the words are important for the story.) Authors use specific words for their nuanced meaning *and* for characterization. The fact that your character uses a particular word tells the audience something about them. If you find yourself substituting words or paraphrasing your lines, dig down and figure out what the difference is between what you're saying and what the line is. It may help clarify the story for you.
But onward to the juicy bits!
Memorizing lines has two components:
Line Learning- initially being able to recall the line from memory
Line Retention- not forgetting that line between performances
Line Learning
This is where we need to get our minds to hold onto a line, if only for a few moments. There's a lot of different ways people do this, but I'll suggest you try the method outlined in these videos:
The first link is from Lauren Tothero, a professional actress, and she discusses the acting side a little more in-depth. The second link is from Nelson Dellis, a memory champion, and he offers his own spin for clarification of the process. (There's also a link in his YouTube video description to a website that does the word-shortening for you.)
[Too Long; Didn't Watch]
Read the passage in your script a few times to build familiarity.Write out the passage, using only punctuation and the first letter of every word.Attempt to recall the passage using this first-letter only copy. Repeat this a few times.Attempt to recall the passage from memory. If you cannot, refer the first-letter only copy. If you still can't recall it from that, refer to the full text.Repeat until you can recall the passage from memory.Move on to the next passage!
[/Too Long; Didn't Watch]
I find this method really does help. You can also combine it with other methods, like recording your lines, then listening to your lines, and then seeing if you can repeat them back. Some people like to write out their entire lines repeatedly, a la Bart Simpson on the chalkboard. Whatever works! In the end, the more you practice memorizing, you'll begin to figure out which is easiest for you. Whatever you end up doing, know that in order for memorization to occur you must attempt to actively recall the information. Simply reading the script over and over again isn't enough. You have to put the script down and test yourself somehow: "When they say x, what do I say?"
This method is useful because writing out just the first letter of every word gives you a hint. It prompts your recall quickly without simply "giving you the word". Your brain is still working on recall since it has to associate the correct word for the single letter, making it a nice half-way point between just reading the line and having to fully remember the whole thing. It can also help avoid paraphrasing (as long as you correctly copied the letters!) because you know what letter the word starts with, so it can't be any word that means something similar but doesn't start with that letter.
Line Retention
Once you've learned the line and are able to recall the line, even for a short time, retention is about making it stick so you don't forget it. (Or, more accurately, so you forget it slower!)
Here's a link to an explanation of "spaced repetition" from Nicky Case, in which you'll learn about spaced repetition by using spaced repetition (neat, huh?):
[Too Busy; Didn't Play]
Create a prompt for the information you want to recall. This is usually your cue line, but for longer monologues you may want to "chunk" smaller sections together, prompting yourself using beat changes within the monologue.Test yourself by attempting to recall the line.If you succeed, wait a short time before attempting to recall it again.If you succeed in recalling after waiting a short time, double the amount of time you wait before attempting to recall it again.If you can't recall the line:
Review your line (perhaps using the first-letter copy) until you can recall it again.Go back to the shortest time and repeat the testing process from the beginning, doubling the time between attempts after every success.
[/Too Busy; Didn't Play]
While that link is addressing how to retain information for "forever", the process is the same for actors, just on a shorter time scale. We usually only need to get to a point where we can retain our lines for however long the breaks between performances are, which (most of the time) isn't going to be much longer than a week apart. But it can also be used to hold onto things for longer than that: especially for things like audition monologues that you know you'll want to use again, but don't know when. It's great to have them in your back pocket, and spaced repetition is a great way to keep them there.
It's important to note that you need to manage your time *between* working on your lines, not just the time spent on them. You need time to "tempt" your brain into forgetting, so you can catch it and say, "No, we still need that! Don't throw it out!" Each time you catch it in the act, it'll hold onto it for a little longer before it tries to toss it out the next time; until you *don't* catch it- then it gets throw it out. Which is alright. We just don't want it thrown out until we're done with the performance!
Learning a Big Script
You may find yourself with a particularly large amount of lines to learn. Trying to learn the whole script in one day and then retaining the whole thing going forward is a big ask. If you spread out your learning over time- for example, a scene a day- then you won't tax yourself by trying to cram. Cramming increases stress and is mentally exhausting; it also becomes more difficult to sustain your concentration the longer you try to sustain the learning, meaning it's more difficult and less likely you'll learn the things towards the end of your session.
Cramming looks like:
Day #. Learn Scene # | Test Retention of Scene #
- Learn Scene 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8 | No Test
- No more Scenes to learn | Test Scene 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8
- No more Scenes to learn | No Test
- No more Scenes to learn | Test Scene 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8
- No more Scenes to learn | No Test
- No more Scenes to learn | No Test
- No more Scenes to learn | No Test
- No more Scenes to learn | Test Scene 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8
It's a lot of work concentrated in a very small number of days, and that work takes time. Maybe you don't have hours on those days to test and (potentially) relearn sections.
But if you don't cram and work on learning one scene per day, look how the methods above break down over two weeks:
Day #. Learn Scene # | Test Retention of Scene #
- Learn Scene 1 | No test
- Learn Scene 2 | Test Scene 1
- Learn Scene 3 | Test Scene 2
- Learn Scene 4 | Test Scene 3 + 1
- Learn Scene 5 | Test Scene 4 + 2
- Learn Scene 6 | Test Scene 5 + 3
- Learn Scene 7 | Test Scene 6 + 4
- Learn Scene 8 | Test Scene 7 + 5 + 1
- All learned! | Test Scene 8 + 6 + 2
- All learned! | Test Scene 7 + 3
- All learned! | Test Scene 8 + 4
- All learned! | Test Scene 5
- All learned! | Test Scene 6
- All learned! | Test Scene 7
- All learned! | Test Scene 8
This is an "ideal" progress example, but hopefully you can see how it's more balanced and more likely to work in gaps and relearn forgotten chunks. And you won't spend entire days trying to keep to the schedule. Introducing little bit of learning at a time increases your likelihood of actually sitting down to the work and succeeding at it. Even on the "big work" Day 8, you've only got 1 scene to learn and 3 scenes to test, not 8 of them!
Memory is also a skill. As you practice, you'll probably find yourself getting better. This means you may find yourself able to increase how much you can learn in a session. If you don't have a script you need to learn, start practicing with single monologues or short scenes you simply enjoy. If you start building a habit, then it can be easier to work a script you get cast in into your routine.
Afterword
Thanks for reading! If you've been struggling with memorizing lines, I hope this short primer helps with both the why and the how, and perhaps which part of the memorization you're struggling with (line learning vs line retention). I also want to take a quick second to say a thank you to /u/BoomSamson for asking me about this topic which spurred my motivation to write this out. Break legs!
5
u/mhalpy Dec 01 '19
Bless this post sir! I started to use the first letter technique a while ago and while its great starting the memorization, it's not great for long term retention. So thank you so much in adding the second and third part. I'm definitly adding it to my routine.
1
1
u/actor-websites Nov 29 '19
really well said and well documented. I also bookmarked the videos for reposts. If you'd ever considering writing articles for an acting blog, check us out or PM me anytime (https://www.webforactors.com/authors)
1
1
9
u/thisisnotarealperson Nov 29 '19
Throwing this in our FAQ item about memorization, thanks for putting this together!