Studying lines
is probably one of the most boring parts of the acting process but knowing your
lines inside out, backwards, forwards and upside-down gives you a lot of freedom
to explore the piece that you are working on.
I meet many
people who are fascinated by the fact that actors can learn lines. That is
often one of the first questions that I get when I say I am an actor: ‘How to
you manage to learn your lines?’ The truth is that anyone can do it. The
biggest issue with lines is that beginners often underestimate the importance
of how good you have to know your lines.
Everyone has
their own preference when it comes to learning and working with lines. Some
want to rehears with the text in their hand. Some mark places in the text that
they want to stress and some are very good at this. I want to learn my lines
like a robot. I don't want to add emotion to the text until I know it inside
out. I don’t want it to sound like a line reading. I don’t want to decide which
words to stress. I let the emotion take care of that later. Meisner said that
the text is a canoe that floats on a river that is your emotions.
Sometimes you
have to accept that you don't have time to learn your lines that well and you
have to rehears anyway.
The text often
goes out the window when you add the
emotional preparation of your character. It's when you know you text so well
that you don't have to stop and think about what to say next that the magic
happens.
Personally I am
very bad at cold readings, which make auditions very hard, but when I know my
lines my strength is when the emotions kick in.
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