Memorization Technique

Today we started with a memorization technique that Nan taught us. It was awesome! 

First we had to free write a story we recalled from our childhood. Something about family. I wrote about my crazy grandmother! I love the freedom of free writing and not having the chance to edit yourself. I think it’s so important for an actor to do.

After that we read the pieces out loud. After that we paired up with a partner and assigned a specific imagery picture to each word. Nan told us, when actors forget their lines, it is because they don’t have an image for the word. How cool! I didn’t know that. It totally make sense. Assigning imagery to each word added so much color to the work. I wonder how that works when an actor is really enthralled with their character. My first reaction would be to think that the imagery would work against deeply emotional character development. I guess it ties the actor’s life and experiences in with the life of the character…helping to blend the two. Very interesting! Either way… it really did help me memorize my piece. I was able to perform off book! Crazy!