Oh you tease!

 Ok I left my last blog as a cliffhanger, like a 1930's weekly serial. When last we visited the Actor's Sensei, he was teaching his minions a great method of memorizing lines. But for many actors and speakers, there is an odd occurance. Every time you try to say your lines, you get stuck at exactly the same spot. Time and time again. This is usually the scene...

"To be or.....oh, man what is next? C'mon, I know this, I just looked at it......To be or...argggh! (Looks at script). NOT TO BE, NOT TO BE! I know this oh man seriously, am I a loser or what? To be or not to be...sheesh!  To be or not to be.........OK, here we go. To be or ........no way! Again? Seriously? I am a total failure!".

OK deep breath, we will get through this. First a quick word about why this happens, without getting too technical. When you create a memory, memorize something, you basically create a path in your brain. When you go to recall something, you go down the same path to find it. If you memorize it poorly, don't pay attention, it is hard to find the memory again. And if it is mislearned the first time, or poorly learned, then that is what gets in the way of recalling the line or memory.

Imagine walking down a memory path. At one point as you walk along, a giant monster leaps out and yells, "FORGET!". Unless you adjust, then every time you go down that path, that monster is still there.That's why we forget the same line over and over, or get to one part of our speech for a Rotary Club and go blank. The same spot, because we have taught ourselves to go blank there.




Now some actors do the totally wrong thing. Somewhere along the line, someone told them that negative  reinforcement when you forget something helps. So when they forget, they yell at themselves, jump up and down, curse, snap their fingers and try  in general to create an unpleasant moment so they won't repeat the mistake. THIS DOES NOT WORK.

In fact it just reinforces the forgetful moment, as you are making a new, bold memory around it. Its like the Forget Monster jumps out, you buy it dinner and take it to a movie. So first rule, when you get stuck, don't berate yourself. Just correct and go on if you can.If you are at a rehearsal and forget a line, just ask for it, without a 20 minute scene of apology.

So how to correct? When memorizing, go back to a bit before the spot you have gone wrong, and try running that section 5 times quickly the right way, looking at the lines. 5 times, no fewer. Still a problem? Create a mental image that will help you for that section. If I always forget "...not to be.", then I create a silly mental picture. 2 bumblebees with a big X through them. When I get stuck, I leave the old path of memory, and instead picture.....NOT 2 BEE. Goofy? yes, but goofy visuals work, they create strong memories.

Here is a personal example. I tour doing a show about William Shakespeare called Shakespeare's Ghost. It's a one man show, so it it just me talking for an hour and a half, complete with 20 or so soliloquies from Shakespeare. In rehearsal I always went blank at the same spot, a transition from talking about the death of Shakespeare's son to talking about John Barrymore playing Hamlet. Every time I got there, I forgot what came next. So I repaired it in my mind, by picturing Shakespeare standing at his son's grave, and a drunken John Barrymore staggering up to console him. Odd picture, and yet it worked, I never lost that transition again.

Try forming a new memory for those tough lines. The stronger and odder the visual picture you can conjur up, the better the replaced memory will be. It truly can work!

J.T. Turner
The Actor's Sensei

Coaching and classes available for all ages, contact me at jtactor@aol.com


(Thanks to Mary Rodgers for the photo).