HOW I MEMORIZE MY LINES

I need to speak my lines and repeat them over and over again.

For the past four years or so, I’ve made flashcards of all my lines. On the front, my cue is written, and on the back, my lines are there. It’s a great way to test myself. It’s also great to have written down my lines and to learn them in my own handwriting. I’m sure there are fascinating neurological bits at play with this process. But I won’t get into those because that’s not my realm of expertise.

I also need to be on my feet. I will often walk around in neighborhoods and parks, overtly holding my notecards. One time I was memorizing lines on a nice trail system when a passerby said: “good luck on your test.” I smiled and said thank you, careful not to shatter the illusion. Thank goodness they didn’t hear me say: “There is so hot a summer in my bosom that all my bowels crumble up to dust.”

WHAT I DO BEFORE (AND DURING) MEMORIZING LINES
It doesn’t HAVE to be grunt work. And often, it isn’t.

Just look at that last line again: “There is so hot a summer in my bosom that all my bowels crumble up to dust.”

If you just read that, isn’t the line wonderful? I mean, it’s macabre, but wonderfully so!

Read it aloud a couple times.

There is so hot a summer in my bosom that all my bowels crumble up to dust.

There is so hot a summer in my bosom that all my bowels crumble up to dust.

“Crumble up to dust” is so vivid. “Bowels” is equally funny and disgusting to me. And it’s the second great “B word” in the line (“bosom” being the first).

Even if you don’t know what’s going on, why John is saying what he’s saying, I venture that this line is marvelous. Just on its own. It took me no time at all to memorize. I didn’t have to drill this line over and over.

This is one of many lines that I inherently love in King John. And this happens to us all the time! I’d venture there’s a song or two, dear reader, that you know all of the words to. Or you can quote The Lion King or Monty Python and the Holy Grail because it hooked you at a young age, and you’ve seen it many times. You don’t have to work at it. A few days after Black Panther was released in movie theaters, a video was shared of a little boy acting out some pivotal dialogue from the movie. He had only seen it twice (if I recall correctly). This boy couldn’t have been more than five. He was quoting important scenes from the movie, verbatim. It took no work at all. And it was magical. There’s a meeting of some brilliant writers meeting eager fans at work here. And, thankfully, that often works for me when I’m memorizing. But this is not 24/7 ecstasy work.
​
The tricky thing is I have 360 lines of Shakespeare in King John alone (1 line equals 1 line of verse: iambic pentameter). Billy Shakes wrote some great lines, but they’re not all created equal. So there are certain things I need to do before I do the grunt work of learning all of those lines by rote.

This is where the “what do you do to prepare?” question comes into play. Here are things I do before and during memorizing:

1. I read the play. Sometimes I’m familiar with it. Sometimes I’ve been in the play. And this summer, I’m playing a character I’ve played before. But, like in the case of King John, I need to read the play. And I should try to read it more than once. And then another time after that.
2. Research: reading about the playwright, reading about the context in which the play was written, reading reviews of past productions, reading critical theory, reading actors’ accounts, reading director’s notes. It may mean watching film adaptations (and now, more theatrical productions are available to watch). For King John I watched The Lion in Winter, the 1970s BBC version of King John, episodes of The Devil’s Crown (another 1970s BBC series tracing the reign of Henry II through John), and Disney’s Robin Hood. I’m listening to an audiobook of Marc Morris’s recent King John biography. I purchased the latest Arden edition of King John, which contains loads of background material and footnotes. In past productions of Shakespeare’s histories, I have avoided a lot of historical research because it is totally overwhelming. You can’t stop researching and a lot of the information can be dry and unactable. I can load up on facts, but if I don’t personalize them, it ends up being a waste of time. Plus, Shakespeare took a LOT of liberties with history. For King John, it’s been fun to know what actually happened versus what Shakespeare changes to make the drama happen. Ultimately my method is to inundate myself with information. This way, I’m not leaning too heavily on a single film or review or whatever.
3. Another kind of research I indulge in every now and then is acting/actor research. The Players of Shakespeare series is a collection of essays written by notable British actors. They write, frankly, about their process of working on a particular part. It’s like sharing a bourbon with them in their dressing room. There’s also Oregon Shakespeare Festival Actors Telling the Story--a series of edited interviews from a bunch of OSF actors sharing their secrets and thoughts about acting and memorizing. And they’re all different. I’ll likely give Declan Donnellan’s excellent The Actor and the Target another read soon. Or the classic Backwards and Forwards by David Ball. This step is more of a yearly check-in.
4. Before rehearsals begin, I’m eager for director’s notes. I love to know what the design of the play will be beforehand, if possible. Recently, I had a lovely chat with the King John director about where he was coming from, what questions he wanted to ask, what excites him. And I did the same. It was so much fun and illuminating. And he shared what kind of world the play would take place. This is so helpful to know ahead of time.
5. Sometimes I’ll do some period/production research of photographs and put them on a Pinterest board. Any image that connects me to events, characters, places, emotional states, etc. (whether they be period or not) is up for grabs. It’s a fun way to brainstorm. But I often find that once they’re pinned, I don’t engage with them any longer. I suspect this may be more of a stalling tactic.
6. Inactive/active daydreaming: I can’t quite explain this one, but it’s a little related to the pinning above. I’ll be living my life, visiting with friends or family, reading for fun, listening to music, whatever. And something I witness, overtly or not, attaches itself to the play I’m working on. I may remember it later or not.

ENGAGING WITH THE TEXT

1. Then I return to the text. I need to know what’s going on both on macro and micro levels. I need to know what every single line means. I need to know, for example, that when King John says “Thou hast made me giddy/ with all this ill news” he’s not being ironic. “Giddy” means “dizzy” in this context. I didn’t know that. And, before I looked up the word, I had a hard time with the elation that “giddy” means today. Now, the fun thing is that the audience may not know this when they hear me say the line. But I will do my darndest to think/feel dizzy when I say giddy.
2. I need to know WHY I’m saying the words I’m saying. This means having a careful study of all other words EXCEPT mine. This is easier said than done. In my rush to get off book, it can be easy to disregard anything that I haven’t highlighted. But it’s important to know that the highlighted lines wouldn’t be there without the lines surrounding them.
3. When I make my cue cards, it’s usually sufficient to include the last few words preceding my text. But I may have to jot down other operative phrases that trigger my response. The key to a response may be deep within a long speech.
4. Iambic pentameter and other jargon: Over the years I’ve learned many ins and outs of Shakespeare’s verse. There are lot of terms that give an actor clues to what “key” I’m playing in. What is accented, slurred, staccato, loud, soft, etc. I love playing with these “rules.” Many people (scholars, historians, actors, directors, teachers, etc.) have many thoughts about how Verse Should Be Spoken. I try to recognize these “rules” as tools if I get hung up on a line or phrase. I don’t hold myself to them, and my work of using verse is starting to become automatic.
5. English Class. I use, on a daily basis, elements of each English course I’ve ever taken. Personification? Check. Onomatopoeia? Check. Diagramming sentences? You betcha. All of those poetry/prose explications and dreaded five-paragraph essays have been instrumental in navigating Shakespeare and other playwrights. (Thank you, teachers!) The fun is transferring that book knowledge into acting juice--understanding WHY a character might be using any given rhetorical device. The possibilities are endless and that’s the creative fun of acting.

This is a lot of work. And I’m glossing over many details. But if I invest in steps I’ve mapped out, the memorizing has a solid foundation. And this is done before I walk into the rehearsal room. Once I start to play with the other actors, director, dramaturgs, designers, and stage management, a host of other connections fuse with the words I’ve memorized. The language becomes connected to the collective, collaborative imagination in the room. It becomes connected to actual events happening in the room: the swoop of a cape, the weight of a crown, the fit of my shoes, a wink, a laugh, a growl.

​Some actors don’t like to have their lines memorized before rehearsals start. They don’t like to be set in their ways before meeting the other actors (and no one’s getting paid for working before a contract begins--which is usually day one of rehearsal). I understand that. But for me, it’s more agonizing to act with a script in my hand. That ends up being my scene partner, and it’s such a crutch. I don’t determine how I’ll exactly say a line before it’s memorized. On the other hand, I don’t learn the lines completely neutrally either. It’s nearly impossible when I do all this work. It’s about being prepped enough to bring something to the table, but available enough to be flexible. I can’t do this on my own.

I look forward to reading updates by Regina De Vera. She occasionally blogs about her "Julliard Journey." And this is from the latest reflection:

During my late teens and early twenties, I had bought into the notion that a "leading lady" or an "ingenue" was a soprano. I might have unconsciously forced myself into being a soprano because I wanted to be a "leading lady." Much of my Juilliard journey (which includes my casting and my work in scene study classes) have challenged all these ideas of "leading lady," "ingenue," "character actress" and so on. "All acting is character acting," one of my acting teachers said. I am very happy to have begun letting go of this hold to become of a particular mold and embrace my voice and my self and my soul as IS. I love that I am an alto. I love that I can sing deep notes. And I love that I can sing high notes, nevertheless. Having range is good.

Type is something actors obsess about. I have mixed feelings about it. And I won't go into all of that right now. But I love the "All acting is character acting."

My lines are finally memorized for The Way of the World! This has been a long, tedious process. But I memorized the final bits this morning. This stack of cards has all my cues and lines for the show. It's great for quizzing myself. Come see this and the other shows for the Actors' Renaissance Season at the American Shakespeare Center.

A week or two ago, some of us had a photo shoot with Michael Bailey for marketing with the upcoming 2018 Actors' Renaissance Season. I felt a little bit like a guest host for SNL--it was a lot of fun. I can't wait for you to see the others popping up around Staunton and online.

The Actors' Renaissance Season is a troupe of 12 actors putting together five plays in rotating repertory. We don't have formal directors (though there are instances where a couple actors play a kind of Peter Quince/actor-manager role). We get to costume the plays ourselves! Sometimes all we receive are cue-scripts (instead of having the whole play in our hands, all I have are my lines and the few words that cue those lines).

This will be my third time performing in the Ren Season, and I'm thrilled.
Here's the list of plays and my roles:

Hamlet - Polonius and Fortinbras

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Polonius and Fortinbras

The Way of the World - Mirabell

Richard II - Northumberland

Antonio's Revenge - Alberto


​Stay tuned for more updates.

In the meantime, here's a peek at my cue script for Hamlet. It's just the lines I speak with the few words that precede each line.​

Ali Smith's Autumn is the first of four seasons novels. I understand they are independent novels, but I'm sure they will talk to each other in fascinating ways. Critics have considered it the first major post-Brexit novel. While it does cover some of that territory, it's much more than that. The dread about the results of "The Vote" can be directly applied to America. It's immediate and expansive. No wonder it's shortlisted for the Booker. 

This is a book that has an extremely dense thread count. It's not linear. It read like a long prose poem. I don't know that I've read too many novels that are this "experimental." But Smith is being careful as much as she's being playful. Nothing feels capricious (except when it's inentional). The quotes I've copied below are fairly bleak, but I promise you, there is a pervasive "stop and smell the roses"/"rise above the muck" element that I adored. The autumn here is often hot and humid. Leaves are falling. Winter is coming, but there are wondrous bursts of color and life. Much like the autumn I'm experiencing right now.

The primary story involves the close friendship between Elisabeth, a young art professor and her old, dying neighbor Daniel. There are imagined conversations, dreams, flashbacks, and cringe-funny passport renewal scenes at the post office. We also get to see Elisabeth working on her dissertation on Britain's pop artist Pauline Boty.

I was able to finish this in a couple days. I've never read Smith, but I'm keen to try others.

The opening sentences:
"It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times. Again. That's the thing about things. They fall apart, always have, always will, it's in their nature. So an old man washes up on the shore. He looks like a punctured football with its stitching split, the leather kind that people kicked a hundred years ago."

(Elisabeth frequently reads to Daniel. One of the books is A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens.)


And it continues with lines like these:

"Can you be hungry and dead? Course you can, all those hungry ghosts eating people's hearts and minds."


"Someone killed an MP, she tells Daniel's back as she struggles to keep up. A man shot her dead and came at her with a knife. Like shooting her wouldn't be enough. But it's old news now. Once it would have been a year's worth of news. But news right now is like a flock of speeded-up sheep running off the side of a cliff."


"Anonymous people start to add tweet-sized comments about Daniel beneath Daniel. They are commenting on his ability to change things. The comments get more and more unpleasant. They start to make a sound like a hornet mass and Elisabeth notices what looks like liquid excrement is spreading very close to her bare feet. She tries not to step in any of it."


"The pauses are a precise language, more a language than actual language is, Elisabeth thinks."


"He had a voice off old films where things happen to well-dressed warplane pilots in black and white."

A list of books read in 2017
​(finished titles only--many, many more have been abandoned for a number of reasons)

1. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
2. We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge
3. The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
4. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
5. The Way of the World by William Congreve
6. All That Man Is by David Szalay
7. The Winshaw Legacy by Jonathan Cod
8. Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
9. Peter and the Starcatcher (the play by Rick Elice)
10. Saga Vol. 5
11. Saga Vol. 6
12. Saga Vol. 7
13. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
14. Love's Labour's Lost by Shakespeare
15. King Henry VI part III by Shakespeare
16. The Untouchable by John Banville
17. Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
18. Transit by Rachel Cusk
19. Touch by Courtney Maum
20. The Maker of Swans by Paraic O'Donnell
21. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
22. Autumn by Ali Smith
23. The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller
24. Look At Me by Anita Brookner
25. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
26. Equivocation by Bill Cain
27. The Changeling by Victor LaValle
28. Failure: A Love Story by Philip Dawkins
29. You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
30. The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
31. All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg
32. The Aspern Papers by Henry James
33. You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
    
34. Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
    
35. The Information by Martin Amis
36. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
    

An on-going list of the movies I've watched in 2017

1. My Cousin Vinnie
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. LEGO Batman (in theater)
4. The Nice Guys
5. Keanu
6. Love's Labour's Lost (Globe production)
7. Emma (PBS miniseries)
8. Get Out (in theater)
9. What We Do in the Shadows (twice)
10. And Then There Were None (PBS miniseries)
11. OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies
12. Man Up
13. Dr. No
14. For Your Eyes Only
15. Wonder Woman (in theater)
16. Love's Labour's Lost (Branagh musical)
17. Music and Lyrics
18. The Island
19. Pandorum
20. The Lady Vanishes
21. Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee)
22. Warcraft
23. Night Train to Munich
24. Munich 
25. Blind Date (2015 French comedy)
26. High Society
27. Dunkirk (in theater)
28. The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened
29. The Holiday
30. The Dark Tower (in theater)
31. Some Like It Hot
32. The Dark Crystal
33. Big Night
34. The Constant Gardener
35. Masterminds
36. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
37. Murder by Death
38. Blade Runner (final cut)
39. Gosford Park
40. IT (in theater)
41. Alien Covenant
42. Dragonheart
43. Howards End
44. The Night of the Iguana
45. The Little Hours
46. Colossal
47. Clue
48. Blade Runner 2049 (in theater)
49. The Mummy (w/Tom Cruise)
50. The House
51. Dan in Real Life
52. The Nightmare Before Christmas
53. Thor: Ragnarak (in theater)
54. Murder on the Orient Express (in theater)
55. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
56. A Christmas Horror Story
57. Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (in theater)
58. While You Were Sleeping
59. Pillow Talk
60. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
61. Fear of Fanny
62. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (in theater)

We opened Love's Labour's Lost last week.

Here's an interview with Matt Davies, the director for that play.

"Romantic comedies work best when the audience is playing catch-up, just one step behind the love trysts and the comic shenanigans, and panting in excitement to keep up.  Put on your running shoes, and tune your ears: you’re in for a frantic feast of wit, wisdom, and waggery."



And here's an interview with Jenny Bennett, who directed Much Ado about Nothing.

"Another thing that I love about this play is the notion that since we’re all invented out of nothing, we can reinvent ourselves out of nothing, too.  Several people in this play are confronted with a rebuke of who they are, or how they’ve been behaving – they overhear people talking about them or are directly told they’ve made a terrible error.  The real mettle of a person is revealed by what they choose to do with that information.  Grace is available to those who take action to repair what’s broken, to be available to Love, to be ‘good men, and true.’  Along these lines, I’m quite fond of our 5.3 Tomb scene.  Chris Johnston, Music Director, wrote the most beautiful song.  I won’t spoil it here, but I hope you love it as much as I do."


These are two smart folks with lovely things to say about these Shakespeare comedies.

Both plays are running in rep with Peter and the Starcatcher at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA.

Jay McClure snapped this photo of me in our first rehearsal for Love's Labour's Lost at the American Shakespeare Center.

Whew. I've been busy. For the past six-ish weeks, the Summer/Fall troupe at the ASC has been rehearsing our repertory: three weeks of Peter and the Starcatcher, three weeks for Much Ado about Nothing, and we've just launched into rehearsals for Love's Labour's Lost.

It's hard to devote three weeks to a play and then switch over to another play.

Thankfully, we're opening Starcatcher and Much Ado this weekend. So we'll be flexing those muscles on a more regular basis.

Later, we'll roll in Love's Labour's Lost. In July, we'll start rehearsing 3 Henry VI. The four plays will keep repping together through December.

You dizzy yet? 



All of this is pretty standard for a gig at the ASC. There's this period where things are a bit disorienting. I'm doing what I can to embrace the chaos.

I hope to share more fun along the way.