memorizing monologues...

[nobizlikeshobiz]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:38pm

does anyone have any tricks or good ways to memorize a monologue? Because I'm trying to memorize this really awesome one right now, for wednesday. I recorded myself reading it, but I don't really want to listen to my voice over and over, you know? :) this is very frustrating!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:40pm

Start at the beginning and read it aloud all the way through. When finished, start at the beginning again and read it all the way through.

By doing it this way, you avoid the gaps that occur when you learn chunks at a time.

[broadway86]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:41pm

My favorite way:

Split the monologue into three or four paragraphs, and type it out in HUGE letters. Memorize it several lines at a time. Have someone quiz you, and if you get it wrong, have the person give you the correct line and start over. That way, you'll never forget it.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:43pm

I love how you both gave completely opposite answers.

If you can act well, go with Boradway's...

Make sure you break it, though, at the natural gaps of the monologue.

[nobizlikeshobiz]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:45pm

Ok! what keeps happening though is I keep trying to say a one part at a time memorized and I'll be like, wait was it "that", or "which" and then I'll look, and I'll be like, ok, I wasn't going to look at it this time! I don't know if you understood that, lol

[broadway86]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:47pm

Yeah, I know how you feel. When you feel comfortable with it, have someone drill you on it. By the time you're done, you won't forget that monologue, even if you wanted to.

[Jon]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:52pm

Make a tape recording of yourself reading the monologue. Play it over and over and over and over and over... eventually, you'll be able to recite it along with the tape.

[nobizlikeshobiz]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:56pm

Ok, I found a perfect way to do it, and it's working! I have the first chunk memorized! I memorize one sentence, and then I say it over and over, while walking around the first floor of my house once. Then I do it with the next sentence. Then I do it putting them together. Then I do the next sentence, and then I put them together. And I did that and the first chunck is done! four more chunks to go! I hope I still remember the firdt one! and thanks for the tips everyone:)

[nobizlikeshobiz]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 10:10pm

two chunks...









done!

[broadway86]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 10:23pm

Congrats!

[wildcat]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 12:38am

Be careful, once you've learned it, that it doesn't all come out on the one level. Remember that there are several different ideas within one long speech. That's what makes it interesting, the number of changes you can ring.

[Joshua488]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 12:39am

For pure memorization: Read it aloud over and over and over again.

Once you've got it down, decide your emotions, etc.

[broadway86]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 12:45am

Do a beat breakdown! They're a pain in the ass, but they work wonders.

[Racetrack]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 12:55am

I agree with what everyone else has said. For my college audition that I had today I had to memorize a monologue the school provided me with, which I already had memorized, so then I just had to memorize a second one and I was planning to do one I had already memorized. Unfortunately I learned yesterday afternoon it had to be two contemporary monologues, but luckily for me I had prepared another contemporary monologue. So my process varies with every monologue. I usually do a mixture of what everone else has said minus the recording myself and listening to it until I go deaf from the sound of my own voice. It really works. Remember memorize first character second. It gets easier with every memorization.

[Adoannie925]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 1:42am

I have a few different ways. For me, just knowing my intentions and what my substitutions are help me memorize most of it. Then I'll write it out once, but I usually walk around the room in circles repeating it, with my substitution in mind, or I kind of do a repetition exercise with someone. (Not the Meisner improv type, but I say a line one way, and they say the line a different way, etc., etc. until someone changes it to the next one. It is sort of like Meisner's repetition, only it's your actual monologue and not improv.) Or, chunking it and writing it over and over. Take the whole thing, write it out once. Get the basic idea of it. Know where you are going with it. Then, take a few lines, write them over about three times, then take those three lines and add the next three to them, etc. It's really helpful, but it is most important to know where you are going with the monologue. I can't stress it enough.

Good luck. Oh, and sometimes it's good to let things sink in. Work for a bit, put it down, and come back to it. That can be helpful.

[WickedCatsontheRoof]

Posted: 3/7/05 at 12:57am

in my acting class at college my professor had as do "bad" acting ... you kind of act out every single word which ends up helping you remember the lines and sometimes you come up with new ideas on how to "paint" pictures

[DBillyP]

Posted: 3/7/05 at 12:51pm

I explore the text first for intention, emotion and all that other actory stuff.

To memorize, I write it out by hand. In the case of long pieces, like Paul's monologue in A CHORUS LINE or Man in LAUGHING WILD (extremely long!), I also type it.

[Sporti2005]

Posted: 3/7/05 at 4:59pm

i write it out right before i go to bed, because then it's the last thing i think of at night and the first one i think of in the morning!! i also write it out in boring/easy classes, because then it looks like i'm taking notes but i'm really not (heehee, i'm a rascal like that :) )

i also go through it in my mind or out loud in the shower, in the car...basically just everywhere!!

i had to do the same thing with a monologue for a college audition, i decided to switch my monologue like 2 days before!! i ended up being so freaked out about it that i actually did really really well!! good luck!!

maggie