Elias Stimas provides useful memorization ideas.
Performers are constantly facing challenges, both creative and career-related, but very few are as difficult as the task of learning lines. In this video article of Career Cues, Elias Stimac provides us with useful memorization ideas.
Here are a few suggestions you will definitely want to “remember”:
1. Use a highlighter to mark your lines in the script. This automatically makes them stand out on the page and in your mind.
2. Copy your lines in your own handwriting on cue cards, or type them out on your computer, to help analyze what you are really saying.
3. Try to paraphrase what the character’s main goals are in each scene, so that you grasp the concept behind each exchange before trying to memorize it word for word.
4. Record the entire script, speaking all of the characters’ lines, and then play it back while driving in rush hour or doing the treadmill at the gym.
5. Try running lines over the phone with your fellow actors, to eliminate distractions and force you to focus on the words and cues.
6. Go completely high-tech and text-message your lines to your scene partner. If nothing else, you will develop your typing skills on those little keypads.
7. Put the script down, and have a friend give you cues and clues to each line.
It’s your career, learn the cues.