Tips for Memorization

Most actors will tell you that memorization is their least favorite part of their job.  However, if you ask directors, most will tell you that it is also one of the most important to be done first.  Some production companies will require you to have your script memorized before you even come to the first rehearsal on a production.  So, how do you memorize?  There are several ways that are taught in schools and by different directors.  Not every method will work for everyone but these are some of the more common (or at least more commonly touted) methods for memorizing:

Read the scene(s) repeatedly.  If you have ever tried to memorize a piece on a musical instrument, this is probably the method you've used.  More commonly, if you've ever tried to memorize a phone number because you didn't have a place to write it down, this is probably the method you've used too.  Repetition OVER TIME is what eventually moves information from short-term to long-term memory.

Write the scene(s) or your lines in your own handwriting.  Muscle memory and the concept of involving several different senses is a theme that you will see throughout this list.  Writing (not typing) your lines out can help you to learn them because you are involving a second sense...that of touch...and muscle memory.  Of course, if you have an especially big part, you may also experience class writer's cramp too.

Read the scene(s) right before bed at night and immediately upon waking up in the morning.  This really does help because your mind is relaxed at these times and can more easily focus on the words you are learning.

Memorize backwards starting with your last line and finishing with the first line.

Record your lines and/or your scene partner(s)' lines into a tape recorder.  This incorporates the sense of hearing when you listen to it.  Think about it: how do you learn most songs that you know?  By listening to them or hearing them repeatedly.  By just recording the lines that are not yours, and leaving space on the tape for your lines, you can practice what the scene should feel and sound like even outside of corporate rehearsals.

Have someone help you by reading your cues to you and you responding with your lines.  Another trick related to this one is have someone else read your lines while you go through the other lines in the scene.  Remember that sense of hearing in learning your lines.  Most people will recall that play where the leading actor knew all of the lines...for everyone else in the play...but didn't know their own.  That's because they've HEARD all of the other lines but have only read and said their own.

Repeat your lines while your doing something unrelated...i.e. washing dishes, cleaning your house, etc.

Repeat your lines while doing your blocking and physical actions.  There we go again with that muscle memory.

As I said, not all methods will work for everyone.  If you have a method that works particularly well for you that is not here, let us know so we can pass it on to others.

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