Acting Student With Problems Remembering Lines

Rosemary7391

I guess there are two parts to this. He should make sure he understands the 'story' of the piece, so he has a larger framework than just this word follows that one. That'll also help with the acting. He could practise improvising parts of the monologue - so he gets the meaning of that part over without stressing about the precise words. As far as literally just memorising the words, I always used to print it out, then read it. Fold over the top and bottom lines, remember/read, fold over the next lines... It meant I was very sure about the start and end, less so about the middle but a minor fluff there is less memorable than at the start or the end .

AnnieO1234

For me, I used to pace up and down reading the lines eventually putting the script down every few sentences and double checking. Like listening to the same song over and over, the words just get stuck. I can still remember whole plays I did 10+ years ago xxx

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Add the physical actions as he does one line, then two, then three - that way, as his body remembers the movements, they trigger the words and emotions.

It's similar to learning to play music - take it one bit at a time and then build to sections (verses, for example, then to the bridge, then chorus, etc). It's fine to pick sections not necessarily in order, but by taking a bit he decides is good to learn first.

Talk about what the character could be thinking or feeling, what his motivations may be - could help him work out similar in real life, too, as well as helping him understand the situation and how to communicate it.

Some of our best Drama students are on the spectrum and it helps a lot of them to appreciate why other people might say certain things, what context a metaphor is used in, etc, I'm sure he will be a great student (and being able to analyse and reason can only help his grades!).

paddyrg

Tough one - learning the words is just about the core skill of being an actor. Stage directors treat scripts as inviolate - they will not change a single word. Film acting may be better as there's more breaks between scenes, so you can rehearse a scene ahead, but there are far fewer film jobs than stage.

belfastgirl23

Agree with PaddyRG - if your DS really is thinking of a career in drama then suggestions that he could improvise from remembering key words are not at all helpful. I've known a few writers in my time and they don't spend months slaving over scripts so that actors can make the words up - not meaning to be precious about it but as PaddyRG says, remembering and delivering the lines to the best of his ability is really of key importance. Your DS will royally hack off fellow professionals if he makes things up. It's obviously problematic in live drama but is also bad news in TV and film as one person messing up can cause a scene to have to be reshot (which is why we all loved 'it'll be alright on the night' of course) - and this costs money.

People forgive an odd fluffed line but if it's clear that someone hasn't learned them then that's a hard thing to forgive, even if there are good reasons. Different if he wants to do drama as a hobby - my DBIL is a member of an amateur acting troop and loves it, I'm pretty sure his group would make allowances for someone who for reasons of disability has trouble learning lines. But if you want to be a professional then you need to achieve professional standards, especially in this profession where there's a hundred people vying for every role. So in your shoes I'd really work with him to get him line perfect as much of the time as possible.

Lunar_Eclipse

My daughter is keen on drama.

Firstly, she reads through the entire script for overall understanding. I think this is key to interpretation and acting accordingly.

Then she highlights her lines.

And then learns them via reading only, building them up. For example: she might start with the first 5 lines or sections of her speech, then learn 5-10, then 1-10, then 10-15, then 1-15 etc etc.

Then she learns prompts so she knows when to say her lines. Sometimes I read other parts to assist.

Eventually she knows most or all of the lines in the play.

She is a visual learner, so if you know what your son's learning preference is, you can adapt techniques accordingly. For example, if he's kinaesthetic, build movement into the learning. If he's auditory, make a recording of it and listen to it over and over.

I would say starting early is the best approach, along with little and often.

pollypenny

Paddy and Belfast girl are correct. Acting is probably the most over-subscribed profession.


I'm not sure that you're doing your son a service by encouraging his professional ambitions. However, amateur drama may well help his disability.

Hermia

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Agree with PaddyRG - if your DS really is thinking of a career in drama then suggestions that he could improvise from remembering key words are not at all helpful. I've known a few writers in my time and they don't spend months slaving over scripts so that actors can make the words up - not meaning to be precious about it but as PaddyRG says, remembering and delivering the lines to the best of his ability is really of key importance. Your DS will royally hack off fellow professionals if he makes things up. It's obviously problematic in live drama but is also bad news in TV and film as one person messing up can cause a scene to have to be reshot (which is why we all loved 'it'll be alright on the night' of course) - and this costs money.

People forgive an odd fluffed line but if it's clear that someone hasn't learned them then that's a hard thing to forgive, even if there are good reasons. Different if he wants to do drama as a hobby - my DBIL is a member of an amateur acting troop and loves it, I'm pretty sure his group would make allowances for someone who for reasons of disability has trouble learning lines. But if you want to be a professional then you need to achieve professional standards, especially in this profession where there's a hundred people vying for every role. So in your shoes I'd really work with him to get him line perfect as much of the time as possible.

Also there are some lines you just can't mess with. A friend's kid went to acting college and had to read out some Shakespeare during the audition workshop. You can't ad lib with that!

Tigsteroonie

deannatrois wrote: »

Actually the white noise suggestion might have other uses. My younger son also has ASD and still struggles with sleep problems. I saw a TV programme where they found a white noise lamp was installed and suddenly the young lad was sleeping through.

ASD daughter of a FB pal wears some special kind of hearing aids that generate white noise as she finds that calming