Memorizing lines is like eating an elephant

The old joke, How do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time relates to the effective way in which I learn my lines and cues in productions in which I appear. Whether my work is Tony worthy or off the mark, I AM known as the person who memorizes lines well. Even I stumble sometimes but it is more likely that I cue in another actor to a line error with an on the mark ad-lib than being helped myself.

First, you read the entire script. This is gazing hungrily at the elephant. Then you tell the story to someone, write it out yourself, or both WITHOUT going back to the script. This is your sous chef readying the product. Check the script to see if you are correct, which is making sure the oven is Elephant Temp.

When you are done read all of your lines and cues. You are learning your recipe for cooking the elephant.

When you have done this you are ready to eat. You need your plate, which is a sheet of paper that you hold over the lines to hide them as if you've got a GIGANTIC CLOCHE to hold your elephant to keep it warm.

I memorize my lines one...word...at...a...time. Even lengthy monologues.

I learn one word, then add the next, and the next, and the next. This means I repeat the lines to myself from the first bite to the end of the meal. I cover the line ahead with the sheet of paper so that I am not tempted to skip to phrase learning. I have found that repetition is the key to memorization, and I am forcing myself to repeat the line a bunch of times in the same sitting.

Do this for about fifteen to twenty minutes at a time. Take a brain break afterwards so you don't over load  yourself. After all, it takes about twenty minutes to digest a meal before you decide you are still hungry.

So...So I... So I learn...so I learn each...so I earn each line...So I earn each line by...adding a word and repeating the line until I can say the entire line.

What does being able to tell the story have to do with this method? It helps when you fail. 

Here's an example. I fed a line challenged co-star with each of his lines in one scene in Oliver. On the closing night, he surprised me by being line perfect at the beginning and middle of the scene. I was so focused on how the prompts I used ran that I totally forgot the exact next line I had memorized. The line was, What do you mean by that? 

But I knew that at this point in the story I asked that question. So I simply said "What?" after a beat. I held my arms out in a help me  understand gesture. My co-star picked up on that immediately and answered the question I hadn't asked. LOL

So, check out your elephant. Tell someone about the meal you are going to have. Eat the elephant one bite at a time, chewing the entire bite through from start to finish.

Then people will look at you as the actor who never forgets!