So, as it so happens I am spearheading a group entry in a local short play competition. It’s all in an extremely difficult dialect of Japanese and only foreigners are allowed to participate. It’s great fun.
Or it will be, once things start coming together and we are sure we can put on a quality production. Sadly, it has taken longer than expected to write the script and assemble a cast, sooo we are all looking at only 2 weeks to memorize our parts, which for me is about 10 paragraphs and just as many one-liners. It would be a mild challenge in English, but in this gosh-darn dialect it’s taking forever to memorize things.
And thus I turn to you, the [del]Derp[/del] Dope. Besides the tried-and-true method of repeating the lines a gazillion times, do you have any tips and tricks for aiding memorization? If you do, I’d be forever in your debt.
Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto,
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Are you good with music? Try singing them. Also maybe try flash cards with the line right before yours on one side, and your line on the other–at least for the one liners. I have to admit I’ve never actually done the latter, but I do know flashcards always help me memorize anything.
EDIT: Another way would be how we memorized Scriptures in Bible Quiz (aka bible quiz bowl). Try writing the first letter of every word and using that to read off of.
Seriously, and especially in a foreign language, there is no way other than practice, practice, and then go practice some more. Did I mention practice? Because, you should get a lot of practice in. You should say your lines. A lot.
You should say them in the mirror to yourself and you should say them to people on the street. You should practice your lines to the ceiling of your bedroom at night, when your bedroom is dark. After which you should let out a jovial belly laugh, even though nothing is funny. You should solicit ad-lib rehersals with every person you are friendly with in your company.
You should ask yourself. How do I get to Carnegie Hall?
I tried to memorize a simple Shakespearean poem to recite aloud for extra credit in my English class. It was horrible. I had it down pat at home and even to my parents, but once I stood up in class I turned red and stammered and it all *immediately *flew out of my head. I came an inch away from crying, it was really embarrassing. The only thing that would have helped me was a cue-card. You might consider that if you have some actors who are having last-minute trouble remembering it all.
All great advice, but it will also help to immediately begin rehearsing with the group and doing blocking (movements) while going over your dialogue. Even if everyone has not learned their lines, nor even come close to learning them, if often helps you to remember when you know what you are doing when you are supposed to say something.
You step forward on that line, you look down and to the left on that line. Then you walk to the side and turn before you say that line. All of these are extra cues to help you remember what to say when you are in that specific location doing that specific activity. You can start to envision yourself on stage doing things and speaking.
You can even add extra cues for yourself. Scratch the side of your head if you are about to say a profound line, straighten out your costume before making an important statement. All of these little movements and subtle hints will keep you focused on what you have to say.
Try to really get in character and listen to what the other actors are saying. Don’t just spew your lines, look at the other actor(s) and pretend this is all very real.
I have had some directors even practice flubbing lines…intentionally have someone give the wrong line and make the other actor(s) compensate. Be ready for that to happen.
And yes, practice, practice and practice again. I like the idea of thinking of your foreign dialogue as lyrics to a song - “sing” this part, wait until your next dialog and “sing” the next one. That way you are not learning a single set of dialog, you are learning many little songs to sing using odd words and different tones.
What sort of learner are you? Most of us have a predominant method of learning, although there’s lots of overlap. You can see that by the advice already given: kinesthetic learners learn their lines best when they have their blocking (movement) or when they add movement to the lines. Verbal learners learn their lines best by saying them out loud over and over and over.
Auditory learners learn their lines not by saying them, but by hearing them. Record your lines (even better if you can record a read through, so you have your cues, too) and play them over and over and over. I did this a lot, back in the old days of tape, and played it on my Walkman while doing chores or running around town. Today I guess it would be a little MP3 recorder, or whatever you kids are into these days.
I’m not sure whether this is visual or kinesthetic, probably both, but some people learn their lines by *writing *them over and over, like the old “write your spelling words 20 times each” technique.
“Over and over” is the common theme here. Sadly, that neural implant that allows for download and done hasn’t been perfected yet. Repetition is required for 99% of actors.
What I suggest to my debate team kids is to read through it several times right before bed- literally the last thing you do before you go to bed. Finish reading, turn off the light, pass out.
I’ve heard your brain will better retain the information this way, though I’m no expert.
This is a great suggestion! And not only because it is what I was going to suggest!
When I’ve had to memorize long lines of dialogue in my language classes, singing them is what makes them stick in my memory the best. Then you move from singing them to speaking them in a sing-song voice, and then you move to speaking them.
Your brain codes music in a different way from speech. You may know or know of people who have had strokes and can’t speak but can still sing (I have an uncle in this boat). You may yourself have had the experience of hearing a song you haven’t heard in 20 years and finding you still remembered all the words.
If you are spending lots of time with your whole cast (hopefully you can), you might find it helpful to run through the entire script as fast as you can, with no pauses between lines. Some directors do this to deal with sluggish pacing, but IME it also often helps the actors to memorize their lines. I have no idea why it works, but it’s a relatively common technique called an Italian Run. If nothing else, it will allow you to get through the lines more times when you are rehearsing! Just don’t forget your blocking while you’re doing it!
You may also want to find someone who can sit backstage with a script during the performance and prompt you if necessary (you just say ‘line’ when you’re lost and they feed you the beginning of your line). I know it sounds lame, and it is a bit, but it beats standing there like a moron if you completely forget your lines. Also, it’s like a safety net - knowing it’s there can relieve some of your fears and make such large-scale forgetfulness less likely.
This is me! (Aided by music training I did as a kid.) I’ve done basically the same thing (learn a long poem in a foreign language) by listening to it over and over again. I also listened to other stuff in the foreign language to help me with the accent and dialect.
Back in the day when I was memorizing lines for performance, it was by repetition, adding one new sentence on at a time. Memorize first sentence. Recite first sentence and second sentence. Then add third sentence.
It was actually easiest for me to memorize EVERYONE’S lines in the whole scene, rather than just my own lines and their cues. That way, if someone else blew a line, I’d still know where we were in the scene, I would be waiting for one particular phrase to tell me when I was next supposed to speak.
Understanding the entire scene beyond my own lines also gave me the ability to help cover when another actor missed a bit, by helping direct the dialogue back on course.
I don’t know if the musical suggestions are a good idea in this situation. The OP will be forming associations between the words and musical cues but when it’s time to recite the lines for the play, he won’t have the musical cues to aid him in remembering the words.
I think DMark’s and WhyNot’s suggestion is better. Practice the lines on the stage and work on forming associations between the words and movement cues. Then you can use those movement cues during the play.
Hey guys! Thanks to everyone’s great suggestions, I have all my lines down pat. In the end, the old-fashioned forced recall along with a boatload of group practices did the trick.
Now, the big showtime is in 2 days, and I find my biggest problem at the moment is nerves. It’s strange. I am not actively thinking any nervous thoughts like “oh no, I’m gonna F up” or “Oh shit look at all those people,” but it’s more like my body tenses up all by itself and nothing I really tell myself seems to relax it. I know my lines well enough to avoid blanking but it’s caused me to skip a few lines during practices and I’m really trying to prevent this from happening on the big day, especially since we only have one shot at it.
So, TLDR, how do y’all deal with nerves and/or stage fright?
Now that you’ve got everything down pat, keep practicing, right up until you go onstage. Particularly if you find you tend to skip the same few lines during practices, spend a little extra time them, along with the section immediately preceding them. That is, if you’re skipping line F, practice just lines E and F a few times. When you say the last words of line E, the first words of line F will start to just come out automatically.
If you get freaked out by doing it in front of a lot of people, remember that each one of them is just one person. Think of one person in the audience, and perform for that one person.
Know, going in, that you’re going to make at least one mistake, and decide how you’re going to handle that. Maybe if you mispronounce something, you’ll repeat it correctly, but if you skip a whole line, you’ll let it go. Or whatever. Then, when you do make a mistake, you won’t panic, because you’ve prepared for it. It just becomes part of the performance.
If you find you’re still tense and nervous when the actual performance starts, try to just acknowledge and accept it: “Huh, I’m tense and nervous. And that’s only natural, because this is fun and exciting, and I want it to go well. But I also know that I’ve prepared as much as I can, and I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, and regardless of what happens, I will have a great story to tell.”
Do you have your lines on your computer? Try color-coding them. One color for key words, another color for other words that you keep forgetting, etc. Then, as you start to learn them, try reciting the lines with your eyes closed, imagining seeing them on your monitor, with the different colors.
Nerves are a good thing!
The only time you should be nervous is when you AREN’T nervous!
Ask any famous actor/public speaker/singer when they fucked up and they will say it was that time they stepped out on stage with great confidence and without feeling a bit nervous. You would be surprised at how many famous people still feel like throwing up before going out on stage and are a nervous wreck until the very second they get out there and then - magic happens. Everything clicks.
Use that nervous energy to your advantage. Psych yourself up for the big moment! Envision yourself doing really well. You might think you are shaking like the proverbial leaf, but nobody else can see it. Embrace it - your performance is going to be 100% better because of that excitement and nervous energy. Once you are out there, you are going to go into “stage-mode” and do just fine! Adrenaline is a wonderful thing!
