THURSDAY, 6 JULY, 2023
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Recently, I’ve noticed an uptick in actors asking for suggestions to help them gain traction with line learning in a hurry. As with most things, good work takes as long as it takes. But here are six practices and tools I believe in, and have noticed help others. I have outlined them in this order, because I think everything else will go more smoothly if you allow yourself some interpretation time (step one), before you moving on to line learning.

1. First, find the thoughts.

Before you start learning your lines, break down that mountainous task a wee bit. Take a moment to consider the lines through the lens of communication, and character. This is not to make acting choices, rather that you try to discover a journey of thoughts that makes sense for those specific lines that you’re responsible for working with.

For instance, you might notice a thread of thoughts that goes something like:

I have (or if you’d rather, my character has) this question, which results in saying these words.

Which leads to that thought, which results in those words.

Which leads to this idea, which results in that word.

Which leads to…

And so on. Generally, I have found that memorizing thought to thought is a helpful practice.

2. One at a time.

Consider stringing your memorization together one word at a time.

So, “I am amazed and know not what to say…” That’s the line.

Start at the beginning.

I. I, I, I. I! I… I.

Got it. Now let’s add in the second word.

I am. I am. I am, I am, I am.
I am!
I ammmmmmmmmm.

Good. Third word.

I am amazed. I am amazed. I am amaaazed. I am amazed! I am amazed. I am amazed.

Got it. Next?

I am amazed AND. I am amazed and. I am amazed annnd? I am amazed and…

And so on.

3. Do it aloud.

This is important. Do your line learning aloud. It forces you to move your face muscles, which helps get the words in your body. It also makes the exercise partly about listening, which is beneficial.

If you have the luxury of privacy, there’s a lot of subconscious benefit in exploring the sounds the words make, as you go. It is not to decide anything about inflection or speed or any of that. The benefits come from the experiential investigation… The activation of your senses as you dive into the syllables, the vowel sounds, and the noises that go into cobbling a single word together.

But, even if you aren’t completely alone, do your line learning aloud. You can still speak them softly to yourself and not disturb the environment around you.

4. Get physical.

The other thing I can’t emphasize enough: memorize on your feet, doing something physical. Toss a ball, or work around the house doing things you need to do, like dishes, or folding laundry or something like that… Anything physically active, but mentally neutral.

5. Listening is magic.

Listening has big magic in it. Think of moments when you’ve discovered a song you really love, and you begin playing it over and over again. Before long, without even thinking about it, somehow you know the words. You may find yourself singing along to it, or quoting part of a lyric here or there. You didn’t try to learn those words, but it happened, because of listening and repetition. You immersed yourself.

You can benefit from some of that same magic if you use this one, simple strategy:

Record yourself reading your lines, exactly as they are written, double, triple checking your script as you go, so that you have total accuracy.

Then listen to your recording.

Play it over and over, in your car, or as you work out, or as you do housework, etc. Keep it on repeat like you would play your new favorite song. Eventually, you can start speaking the words along with the recording, if you choose.

6. Don’t neglect the cues.

Another useful recording to make is a cue recording.

Record yourself reading the other characters’ lines, as they prompt your character to speak. Put a bit of silence in the recording between each cue. Either enough time for you to press pause so you can speak your line, or enough silence for you to say your whole line.

Use this recording to drill yourself when you can’t work with your scene partners.

Lastly, a gentle reminder.

When in doubt, try to find enthusiasm for the bigger picture. Remember it’s all about communication. Focusing on memorizing for memorization’s own sake can lead to getting caught in the trap of feeling like you’re doing things right or wrong. Memorization feeds into something bigger, so embrace the larger vision. Build it one piece at a time.

Let me know if any of these suggestions are particularly helpful for you.

Be well,

-J.P.

. . .

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