Line, Please
by Alice S. Bass
and Sean Gaffney
Your pastor just
approved a sketch for the Sunday service, and it's Thursday. Simply reading
the script over and over will put you to sleep before it forces the words
into your brain. You panic, declaring, "I can't do it!"
A big block to memorizing lines is believing that you can't do it. As
a director, never doubt that all the lines can and will be memorized.
If it doesn't occur to your actors that they should have trouble learning
lines, chances are they won't. You can help by giving them this seven-step
technique for quick, to-the-word memorization.
1. Memorize the story. Outline the script and memorize the order
of events. Once you know the main events in the script, try to get from
one event to another in your own words.
2. Memorize the key words.
Memorize just the key words in the transition lines. Transition lines
are the lines that get you from one event to another. Take a look at this
excerpt from God Rest Ye Merry by Charlie and Ruth Jones of Peculiar
People. (The script can be found at www.DramaMinstry.com.) The key words
are italicized.
LADY
This is quite a surprise! The train isn't nearly as crowded
as I thought it would be, this being the week before Christmas
and everything.
MARK
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But probably most people are
driving into the city because they need to put all that junk
into the trunks of their cars.
Now close your eyes and repeat both characters' key words. Then see if
you can add in the dialogue. How close did you come?
Try to make it through the entire script with just the
outline and the transitional key words. Then highlight and memorize the
key words in each line you have. The outline, the transitional key words
and the key word in each line tell you where you are going and how to
get there. The details of the lines should fill themselves in naturally.
It is important to get the lines letter-perfect. They were written that
way for a reason, and if you memorize them exactly, you cut down on your
nervousness. Paraphrased lines always leave the actor with a nagging sensation
that there is something he forgot. He spends the entire performance thinking
about how he will get from one line to another. Line-perfect memorization
is achievable and a lot less work for the actor in performance.
If, after using the suggestions above, the lines still aren't flowing,
go through the script and circle the trouble spots. Then use these techniques
to get through the places where you go dry. (In the theater, when you
forget a line it's called going dry or going up.)
3. Create word
pictures. Attach in your mind a recognizable image to the words or
phrases you keep forgetting. These images can either directly relate to
the events in the script, or they can be pictures that make sense to only
you. For instance, a soloist kept forgetting the order of the lyrics in
the song "Who Is God?" "He's the ruler of the waves, He's
the rescuer that saves." By thinking of a drowning man crying out
for rescue, he was able to remember that waves came first and rescue second.
4. Ask questions. Another trick is to ask questions. Get with your
scene partner and have her ask questions about the lines. The questions
should be queries that would naturally conclude with your line. Prompting
with questions instead
of cue lines can also help you find more depth in the character.
Let's go back to God Rest Ye Merry:
LADY
This is quite a surprise! The train isn't nearly as crowded as I thought
it would be, this being the week before Christmas and everything.
MARK
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But probably most people are driving
into the city because they need to put all that junk into the trunks of
their cars.
Question: I didn't think I'd be able to get out today, did you?
LADY
No, this is quite a surprise! The train isn't nearly as crowded ...
Question: Did you think you'd get in and out of stores this quickly?
MARK
Probably most people are driving into the city …
The question triggers the proper response. Now that you have the intent
of the line, go back and make sure you have it letter-perfect.
5. Listen. All actors tend to get caught up in their own lines,
without paying attention to the lines immediately preceding their own.
Most dialogue is a natural flow from one line to the next. By concentrating
on understanding the line before, an actor has an automatic cue to what
his line is to be.
6. Give motion to the lines. Many people learn kinesthetically
or physically. Start blocking the scenes right away, and you will associate
lines with where you are onstage, with how you are moving and with your
physical relationship to the other actors. This gives each line a unique
physical memory.
7. Try a speed-through. Okay, you've gone through all the steps,
but there are 15 minutes until you perform, and you just want to make
sure you know it. Try a speed-through. You and your cast speed the lines-with
no emotion and no blocking. Just say the words as quickly as you can,
with no pauses in between the lines. This exercise focuses your nervous
energy and cements the lines.
The lights are up, and you are ready
to go on!
