hello welcome to organic acting this video is called better ways to learn lines so
whether you've never acted before and you've been given some text to learn that you don't know where
to start or you're a seasoned pro but perhaps your line learning techniques aren't really
working for you this video is really going to help you out the first technique that i use
myself and use a lot with my students is called building blocks and it basically works like you
are using building blocks or using lego you start with one piece at a time and build on from that
and the technique is very straightforward you learn a line or a short selection of lines
once you know that you move on to the next bit and then when you've done that you go back to the
beginning and join those two sections together keep on going and going and going until you've
learned the entire passage so for an example we're going to be using sonnet 37 by william shakespeare
and here you see we are going to learn the first line or the first section of the text so
in this case it will be as a decrepit father takes delight to see his active child do deeds of youth
when i think i know that and i can speak it off book without prompts then i will move on to
the next section in this case so i made lame by fortune's dear respite now what i'm gonna do is
go back to the beginning and try and link those two pieces or those two blocks of text together
so here we have as a decrepit father takes delight to see his active child do deeds of youth
so i made lame by fortune's dear respite and then i'll move on to the next section
and you can keep on going with this technique throughout the text that you're working with
and it really helps reinforce through repetition the text into your memory the next one is walk
and talk yes you might know your lines or think you know them but can you say your lines off
book while walking around the space it's a really strange thing that happens where an actor thinks
they've done their homework and they've learned all the lines the moment they get in a stage space
or performing in front of people or they've got to put simple movements to the lines everything
goes out of the window you just can't remember the lines you thought you knew so practice your lines
while you were walking around the space walking around your bedroom walking around the kitchen
walking around the garden the park wherever and as you are learning them as well it's quite an
interesting phenomenon i find that myself on my students can learn the lines quicker if they
are given that extra task of walking around i had a director once who made me play tennis with him
while we were learning our lines while we were practicing our lines and throwing them
back and forth to each other while hitting the ball back and forth to each other
so walk and talk this one you might know playback i've used it myself it does work and this is where
you take your phone or something else that can record audio and you record the other person or
all the characters lines with enough of a gap for your own lines then when you play back that audio
you can wait until your cue speak your lines and then hear the cues of the other characters
and the lines of the characters it's great because you're using your ears obviously but
this is helping your long term memory it's helping to cement the dialogue in your brain
this mission will take you from the present to the future and back again you will face adversity
but you must triumph for the good of the human race do you understand
yes
this next one is a really interesting one that i only came across in the past couple of years this
is called team delivery you will need a number of people for this but the way it works is to free
you from the confines of the text on the page so let's say you have a dual log you have two
people speaking to each other you will need the two people who are acting the dual log and
two other members maybe other cast members that are in that scene or just friends and those two
people will sit in chairs with their backs to each other and the people in the chairs will read
each part of dialogue now this is where it gets interesting so reader a will read the first line
and actor a will repeat that line but with their own intention with their own inflection
with their own performance reader b will then read the next line and act to be will repeat
that line again adding nuance adding emotion adding adding inflection making it come alive
and as i say what this does is it gets you away from just reading like a robot and trying to learn
your lines parrot fashion you start to discover these moments in a script very early on in the
rehearsal process and through repetition you begin to learn the lines the guys in the chairs they can
just read their lines in a blank fashion just get the words out there it's the actor egg and actor
b who need to take those lines by listening and to bring them to life and it's a really
interesting way of exploring text rather than just sitting at home on your own and trying to learn
lines which can be a bit boring try it yourself it's a really interesting technique i hope you
enjoyed this video and found these techniques interesting and useful if you did drop me a
like a comment i will get back to you subscribe if you haven't hit the bell icon and share this
video it really really does help me out i've been chris and i will see you next time bye bye