It was David Mamet who said “acting is simple,” and while finding a character can come easily, the harder part is often learning your lines.
Every actor needs a solid method for how to memorise a script. Whether you’ve been given a last-minute audition, you’ve just been sent 10 pages of sides for a recall you want to nail, or you’ve been cast in a script-heavy play with a short rehearsal window, you’ll need to juggle line memorisation with being free, spontaneous, and authentic in your acting.
So, how do actors remember their lines? While every person has their own methods, here are some tried and tested ways for learning lines fast.
1. Prepare your script.
“Know what you need to put yourself in the best position for success,” says actor Brendan Murphy (Sonic Hedgehog 3, Man vs. Bee). If printing your script in a larger font size, or highlighting your lines in one colour and your cues (whatever happens directly before you speak) in another is going to help you absorb the lines quicker, then that should be the first thing you do.
2. Read the script.
The first stage of any line-learning process should be to read the script – or the sides – that you have been given. Actor Georgie Henley (The Diplomat, Partygate) advises “reading [the script] whenever you can – when you’re commuting, waiting for something or someone, any spare five minutes – read the lines.” This helps you to get clarity on exactly what is happening in the scene, and you’re likely to absorb the dialogue “by osmosis.”
3. Review your lines word by word.
Seyan Sarvan (The Baby, It’s a Sin) tells us that she uses the Gonsalves Method for line learning. This involves learning your lines word by word, sentence by sentence, through repetition. The key to this, however, is “uninflected line learning” – memorising them in a flat, robotic voice without any inflection or emotion. The reason, says acting coach Aileen Gonsalves (who developed the method), is that “if you learn the lines in any other way, you can’t escape that pattern,” which may prove a problem if the director wants you to say them differently. “Line learning is a thing that can really transform how you act…[it has to be] uninflected.”
4. Say your lines aloud.
Acting coach Joseph Pearlman has similar advice, saying: “A good process of memorisation allows you to absorb the words so that you don’t hesitate or have to think about what comes next…[and so] you don’t have a preselected emotional reaction or line delivery…. Your lines need to be down cold and flow unfettered, still allowing you to respond organically and freely to the very real, yet imagined circumstances of the script.” He advises a method of memorisation based on reading all the lines aloud in “neutral” over and over again, until you have memorised all of your lines “cold.”
5. Repetition is your friend.
Once you have the lines down in a flat, robotic voice, the next step in the Gonsalves Method is to repeat the lines going up and down the scale of your voice – high to low and back – to change the pattern again. Henley adds that “repetition with different voices – higher, lower, silly voices – helps to learn the words without getting too attached to delivery.”
6. Physicalise the words.
Pearlman, Gonsalves, and Sarvan recommend doing something physical as you say the lines as a way of testing whether you have them memorised and can recite them (still without inflection) under pressure. This could be anything, from juggling to pushups, or from throwing and catching a ball.
7. Write your lines out.
Murphy, like many actors, uses good old-fashioned pen and paper to “write the scene out by hand.” The act of writing connects your mind to your body and can therefore help the lines sink in more easily.
8. Use mnemonic devices.
A fancy word for simple memorisation tools, mnemonic devices include “chunking” (breaking the text down into bite-sized chunks), association (linking the lines to an image of something you already know well), and creating a song out of the lines as a memory-boosting tool.
9. Run your lines with someone.
It’s important to learn your cues as well as what you say in the script, and running your lines with someone can help. Ask a friend to run the lines with you, and consider asking your scene partner to also deliver their lines in a neutral or robotic voice to prevent you from learning your cues with any pattern of inflection. This can help you to stay present in the audition or on set, listening to your scene partner on the day and reacting authentically to that delivery, not to an inflection or emotion you are expecting because of how you learnt them at home.
If you don’t have someone to run lines with you, there are a number of apps, such as coldRead (which naturally delivers the lines in a robotic voice). Murphy adds that “generally on set, if you have access to your scene partner, be sure to ask them if they’d be happy to run lines together before you shoot.”
10. Give yourself processing time.
Go over your lines last thing at night. Sleep promotes memory consolidation and is therefore key to locking in new things you’ve learnt that day. Ensuring you get enough sleep while you’re memorising your lines will likely speed up the process of being able to instinctively recall them.
With patience, practice, and the tools above, learning lines will quickly become not only achievable, but second nature, leaving you free to focus on delivering a playful, authentic, and organic performance.