Does your child struggle to learn their lines for their Acting, Speaking Verse & Prose or Speaking in Public piece? In this three part blog series, Liane demystifies the line learning process so that your child is word perfect!
This week, Liane explains how she helps her students learn their lines for their LAMDA exam in Acting.
One of my acting teachers (the legendary Andrew Jarvis) once told me that learning the lines is the easy bit, and he’s right! If you’re solid and secure in your memorisation of the lines, then you can allow yourself to be ‘in the moment’ – and that’s where the real magic happens in performance.
I’ve also heard that Anthony Hopkins regards the lines as ‘data’. In learning the data – the content and the words, not the way in which you’ve decided to say something – you’ll avoid forming habits which always leads to wooden performances. An audience will always see wooden performance as ‘rehearsed’ i.e. lacking magic, as if what we’re seeing is not happening for the very first time.
Learn the thoughts, not the lines
GINGER: Black Beauty, is that you?
It’s me. Ginger! I’ve changed a lot.
Firstly, ask your child to break down what their character says into ‘thoughts’. Using a pencil, mark on the script where the first thought begins and ends with a slash, like so:
GINGER: / Black beauty, is that you? /
Then ask them to mark the next thought:
GINGER: / It’s me. Ginger! /
And the next:
GINGER: / I’ve changed a lot /
Now take these thoughts and ask your child to find an object or place in the room which will help them to remember this thought and word order. Ask them why they have chosen this specific object or place to cement the reason in their minds. For instance, a black cushion might prompt them to recall the first thought, “Black beauty, is that you?”
Now that the reason has been cemented in your child’s mind, ask them to point at the object or place and say the thought monosyllabically three times. The reason why we should recite the thought monosyllabically is because we don’t want to learn the way in which we’re saying it. Keep it as data remember!
Continue for every subsequent thought in your child’s Acting piece. This may take a few sessions over a few days depending on the length of your child’s piece, but you’ll eventually end up with a journey around the room with each thought anchored by an object or a place in the room.
After reciting the piece by pointing at the objects or places a few times, get your child to stand still and recite the piece without the pointing. It’s amazing how quickly my students are able to memorise their lines this way!
Be True to the Writer’s Words
When my students are feeling confident that they know their pieces, I always test them by asking them to write their whole piece down. I then ask them to check that what they’ve written is exactly as the writer intended – right down to the punctuation. It’s really important to be true to the writer’s words, so this exercise is great for ensuring that no extra words start to creep in!
Our brains memorise things best when we associate something in relation to something else. That’s why it is so important to ‘anchor’ each thought to an object. When your child recalls their lines, they will be remembering the whole journey of each of the anchored objects around the room.
The Three Day Rule
I often find that it takes 3 days for my lines to be committed to my long-term memory. On the first day, I anchor the thoughts, on the second, I make lots of mistakes and on the third, the lines have been committed correctly to my long-term memory.
There is no quick fix for learning lines. It’s something which needs to be done little and often if your child is to learn their lines accurately. Even when they’ve anchored each thought, allow them a couple of days before their lines are word perfect.
Next week, Liane will explain how she helps her students learn their lines for their Speaking Verse and Prose exam.
