Use It…Or Lose It?

Irecently closed a show that was part of the first-ever Harrisburg Fringe Festival (I sincerely hope you were able to sample some of the smorgasbord that was on offer). It was so much fun – the cast, the crew, the show itself. It had been four years since I’d been onstage in Harrisburg, and, since we performed at Gamut Theatre, a company I worked for, it felt like coming home. I left the theatre feeling very warm and fuzzy indeed.

But I was also troubled. Something had happened to me that hadn’t happened in years (we’re talking maybe a decade or more). I had real trouble memorizing my lines.

When I was a Core Company member of Gamut Theatre, we performed regularly for school groups, both in-house and on tour. Those shows were always followed by Q&A sessions with the students. A question that we were almost guaranteed to hear is that old chestnut:

How do you memorize all those lines?

I think back now: how did I memorize all those lines? I had the privilege of playing Marc Antony in a touring production of Julius Caesar while suffering from pregnancy brain, and “Friends, Romans, countrymen” would trip off my tongue so darn easily. That’s not to say there weren’t hiccups – an inverted phrase here or there, but honestly, I never straight-up forgot what to say or where I was in the midst of that monster speech. Nothing occurred that left me unsettled afterward.

Memorization is tricky. I mean that literally. Actors have tricks aplenty in order to get their lines to reside in that special fold of gray matter where they can call on them at exactly the right time. Did I mention that you also need to have your cue lines up there as well? Plus, blocking, and stage business, and don’t forget a realistic (or absurd!) physical and emotional life for your character. Whew. I’m starting to feel a little more forgiving of myself now that I see it all in print.

Let’s get back to the tricks of this particular trade. I’m fairly certain that if you surveyed 100 actors, you would get 100 different answers as to what works.

Some actors rely on repetition (that’s my goto). My thinking is that if you hear a song often enough, even a song you don’t like, you’re going to learn the lyrics. Rehearsals supply enough repetition to get me about a third of the way to the goal. If repetition is also your go-to, you know that making the rest of the trip to Off-Booktown is contingent on finding enough free time to drill, baby, drill.

Other methods that I’ve learned from my fellow actors are recording lines and listening to them whenever time allows (e.g. on the drive to rehearsals); mnemonic devices (sidebar: a surprisingly effective trick when memorizing Shakespearean text, especially text in verse form, is reducing the lines to the first letter of each line, and testing your memory by filling in the blanks); one actor uses a complex system of visual cues in his mind that lead him from one line to another.

Memorization, no matter what method an actor uses, hinges on the actor being able to carve out free time in order to do their homework. It is also up to the actor to budget that free time wisely. I’m a procrastinator (she types, knowing that this column is due within 24 hours), and that’s its own issue, but certainly doesn’t make memorizing lines any easier.

If you’re also feeling frustrated about memorizing lines (for myself, I’m staring down a large role headed my way in the fall), reread the part about all the stuff that we have to pack into our brains. Plan your free time accordingly. And then grant yourself a little grace.

Tara Herweg (she/her) is a native of Camp Hill, a former Core Company member of Gamut Theatre Group, and a huge fan of the Harrisburg theatre scene. Now she gets to call herself a writer, too (her 8-year-old self, Care Bears fanfic in hand, can hardly believe it)! She keeps herself busy working on her novel, watching horror movies, and raising her small human.