Diploma in Acting and Drama

Memorisation
Summary Notes
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Contents

3 Introduction

3 Lesson outcomes

3 Memorisation techniques

5 Techniques of the stars

6 Techniques for actors

9 Conclusion

9 References
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Lesson outcomes
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Discover different memorisation techniques

• Explore memorisation techniques of the stars
• Experiment with different techniques
• Apply the memorisation technique of your choice

Introduction
“The actor does not live, he plays, he remains cold towards the object of his acting, but his art must be perfection.”
Another wonderful saying by Konstantin Stanislavski, this reminds us also of Sanford Meisner's approach that we are not
to be overtly intellectual about our parts. We do not become the character. We play the character.

Memorisation techniques
Retrieval practice
Defined by William Wadsworth, a Cambridge educated memory psychologist and study coach, who has helped countless
students from all over the world to study smarter, not harder, as he puts it. (Wadsworth, 2020)

Retrieval practice focuses on pulling information from your memory and testing yourself in order to see how much you
know.

Write it down

1. Read through the information several times

2. Write what you know from memory
3. Highlight the missing details in colour when you go over it afterwards
4. Repeat until success is achieved

Draw concept maps

1. Link ideas together visually

2. Box related ideas together
3. Show how they relate, using arrows
4. Use arrows to connect related ideas

Create practise questions

1. Make up quiz questions – a summarising process

2. Answer your questions – to check what you remember

Train with flashcards

1. Make them – a summarising process

2. Practise by using them

This is a very practical and logical system and will definitely show results.
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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

(The Learning Centre)

1. Understand the work

If you don't understand something, it's much harder to memorise it.

2. Link it to something that you know

A hundred degrees Celsius is 212 degrees Fahrenheit and let's say your friend's phone number starts with 212. It would be
a good idea to somehow link your friend with the idea of 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Sleep on it
The brain stores and processes when you sleep and it is even recommended that you try learning just before you go to
sleep.

4. Quiz yourself
This is another way of knowing how much you know.

5. Distribute practise
For a thing to be remembered it must be memorable and it needs to be repeated. Try to space it over several days and
make it memorable by using flash cards.

6. Write it out
This uses another part of your brain and thus adds another layer of brain activity.

7. Create meaningful groups with letters

You can use the first letters of each sentence in a paragraph and let's say they happen to be GRHM, which kind of reminds
one of graham crackers, one could associate what you are learning with graham crackers.

8. Use mnemonics
Mnemonics can be applied in several different ways for example, the order of sharps in key signature notation are F sharp,
C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, A sharp, E sharp and B sharp, and the mnemonic that my music teacher taught me was, Fat
Cows Go Down And Eat Beans. The fact that I still remember it serves as testimony of how well it works.

9. Talk to yourself
You are voicing what you are seeing and in so doing you add both the physical act of speaking to the process as well as
absorbing the information through another sense, namely hearing.

10. Physical exercise

Physical exercise helps create neurons in areas that relate to memory.

11. Interleaving
Switching between vocabulary memorisation, math formula memorisation, and historical place and date memorisation is
an example of interleaving. The switching between different disciplines helps your mind store information better.

Visualisation
1. Physical objects
Most of us know how to use our knuckles to remember which months have 30 days and which ones have 31 days. This is an
example of a visualisation technique to help with memorisation.

2. A memorable visual image

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Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana. You can draw an image of a girl and name her Louise, for example. Then, draw her
carrying a red baton and that will help you to remember Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana.

3. Songs and jingles

It is helpful to sing something to a tune that you know, and the ABC song is a very good example of this.

4. Total physical response method

This is where you create a memorable image and you combine it with a sound, a song and a physical movement for
example. There's a wonderful reading and writing program called Jolly Phonics, which uses exactly this kind of thing. A
phonics sound not only has a sound, but it also has a letter and a physical movement that goes along with it when children
learn to read and write.

5. Lively, unusual metaphors are helpful

Making an interesting visual connection between things for example Jordan, the country, is shaped like a Nike Air Jordan
sneaker. This will help you recognise it on a map.

6. Memory Palace
The memory palace technique is mentioned by more than one memorisation expert.
How it works is that you are to visualise a familiar place like your house, for instance, and then you are to deposit images
that you want to remember around the house. For example, if it's a shopping list, you visualise maybe eggs on the bed or
apples on the couch.

The idea is then that you walk from one room to another in a logical sequence and as you walk from one location to the
next, you then remember what you visualised in each location. And that helps you to remember the list.

The storytelling technique

Most of what actors need to memorise, usually comes in story form. The storytelling technique is very good because a
good character driven narrative releases oxytocin, a hormone that increases empathy with people.

• Create images and include things that you want to memorise

• Connect them in a sequence
• Create a story your brain can follow
• Use images that interest you

In this way, you will greatly improve your memorisation ability.

Techniques of the stars

Bill Nighy
As we just saw, Bill Nighy says that he spends a whole day for several days going over his lines. He repeats the lines several
times and continues to do this over several days. He starts every new day with the lines that he learned the previous day
and therefore, he doesn't stop until he knows them all.

Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson says that it is easy for him to remember his lines. He just reads it through a few times and when he gets
to set the blocking, helps him remember his lines. Just to refresh your memory, blocking is the movements that the
director gives you to do on certain lines. In other words, moving from one place to another on a particular line or word. He
also doesn't feel that a page and a half is a lot to have to remember because mostly when you shoot a movie, you don't
have a lot of dialogue to memorise per day.
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Jim Parsons
Jim Parsons, on the other hand, has a lot more script to memorise since TV series run over a much longer period. I love
how Jim doesn't try to pretend that it's easy for him. He says that he uses a very particular system involving flashcards. His
lines are sparked by the dialogue of the previous character which is written on the front of the flashcard, and his lines are
written on the back. He repeats his lines many times over in order to develop muscle memory for it.

Techniques for actors

General
Things to consider:

Environment

Choose a quiet place if you're going to be learning lines, use noise cancelation headphones, if necessary, to block out
everything and everyone around you and turn off your phone and make sure that you put away everything that can
possibly distract you.

Script

Read your script through several times and make sure that you understand the part and the scene. If possible, talk about
the part and the story to anyone who will listen.

Space

Set the space up, if possible, to resemble the scene. Experiment with blocking as far as you can but change it up frequently
so that you don't get set on one specific way in which you want to say it. The director is going to do it differently and if you
are too set on your blocking, it might throw you off.

Write it down

Another part of your brain is involved and it's another form of repetition.

Mnemonics

Use mnemonics to memorise difficult people or place names or to remember difficult sequences.

Novel memorisation technique

There is a novel memorisation technique which has been doing the rounds lately.

• Start off by reading the script over a few times

• Write down the first letter of each word, including the punctuation
• Read it using only these first letters
• Say it from memory without looking at the letters.

You can use this monologue from the movie High Fidelity (2000), starring John Cusack, to practise this on. This is Rob,
played by John Cusack, speaking.

High Fidelity (2000)

I'm reorganising my records tonight, it's something I do in times of emotional distress. When Laura was here, I had them in
alphabetical order, before that, chronologically. Tonight, though, I'm trying to put them in the order in which I bought
them. That way I can write my own autobiography without picking up a pen. Pull them all off the shelves, look for Revolver
and go from there. I'll be able to see how I got from Deep Purple to The Soft Boys in twenty-five moves. What I really like
about my new system is that it makes me more complicated than I am. To find anything you have to be me, or at the very
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least a doctor in Rob-ology. If you wanna find Landslide by Fleetwood Mac, you have to know that I bought it for someone
in the fall of 1983 and then didn't give it to them, for personal reasons. But you don't know any of that do you?

Now write down the first letter of each word, including the punctuation. Then try to say it while looking at the letters only.

I r m r t. I s i d i t o e d. W L w h I h t i a o, b t, c. T, t, I t t p t i t o i w I b t. T w I c w m o a w p u a p. P t a o t
s, l f R a g f t. I b a t s h I g f D P t T S B I t-f m. W I r l a m n s i t i m m m c t I a. T f a y h t b m, o a t v l a d i
R-o. I y w f L b F M y h t k t I b i f s i t f o 1 a t d g i t t f p r. B y d k a o t, d y?

Now try to say it from memory without looking at the letters.

This system is very useful when you don't have a lot of time and you must memorise something quickly. It is also helpful
when you memorise longer speeches in a script. However, to commit speeches to your long-term memory, you should
incorporate some other memorisation tips, such as repeating it over several days.

Memory Palace technique

Nelson Dellis, a memory champion, shares the following tips in one of his videos. (Dellis, 2017) He says that in preparing
your memory palace, you should:

1. Choose a place that you know well - your house or your parent’s house
2. Choose 10 locations in this place
3. The locations must be in a logical order
4. Write it all down
5. Divide the speech into sections
6. Memorise ideas and phrases - rather than to memorising every single word
7. Break this speech down into phrases
8. Phrases are turned into locations
9. A visual connection is made between the phrase and the location

We will use the same monologue and apply this technique.

I'm reorganising my records tonight.

• Keywords – reorganising and records

I'm going to start in the entrance hall and I'm visualising that I'm taking off my coat and hat to get organised for the visit.
Then I'm visualising myself, putting my records down. I’m taking off my coat and hat and putting my records down. This is
the picture, I'm in the entrance hall: I have a hat and coat and I'm putting my records down and I'm connecting it to the
entrance hall.

It's something I do in times of emotional distress.

• Keywords – emotional distress

I'm imagining that I'm giving my coat and hat to the butler. I'm feeling a little uncertain about where he is going to put
them, and this uncertainty is causing emotional distress. The association I'm making is with the butler, my coat and hat
and a feeling of distress. I am still in the entrance hall but this time I'm visualising the butler and I'm connecting to the
sentence “It's something I do in times of emotional distress”. I'm connecting this to the butler in the entrance hall.

When Laura was here, I had them in alphabetical order, before that, chronologically.

• Keywords – Laura, alphabetical and chronological

I am now visualising that I'm in the living room I am imagining that there is a coffee-table book on the coffee-table, and its
title is Laura. Then, I picture myself picking up the book and as I look at the letters, I'm thinking of alphabetical. Then, I
look at the clock on the wall and this makes me think of chronological. Living room, Laura, the book, the letters and the
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clock are the things that I'm associating with the sentence. I'm in the living room, I see a coffee-table book and I see a
clock.

Tonight, though, I'm trying to put them in the order in which I bought them.

• Keywords – tonight, order and book

I am imagining myself in the living room walking over towards the window. I'm looking out to see that it is night-time
outside, so that connects with “tonight, though”. Then, I see there are books on the windowsill and they are in disarray
and I am going to order them. As I pick them up, I see that they have price tags on and this makes me think of bought. I see
myself still in the living room, but I walk towards the window, the window and the night sky that I see outside triggers
“Tonight, though”. I see the books on the shelf, I pick them up and I see the price tag from when I bought them.

That that way I can write my own autobiography without picking up a pen.

• Keywords – autobiography and pen

Imagine that you are opening the book and you see that it's about you, an autobiography. Then, you see a pen on the
windowsill, but you leave it there, you don't pick it up. Once again, we're in the living room, but we are looking at the
windowsill and on the windowsill is the book that's all about you and the pen that you don't pick up. This all helps you to
remember the sentence.

Pull them all off the shelves, look for a revolver and go from there.

• Keywords – shelves and revolver

Imagine walking into the kitchen and pulling everything off the shelves, and out jumps the revolver from behind the coffee
maker. It's in the kitchen and there are shelves involved and a revolver.

I'll be able to see how I got from Deep Purple to The Soft Boys in twenty-five, moves.

• Keywords – Deep Purple, The Soft Boys and twenty-five

I walk into the bedroom. This time I open the cupboard and I see a deep purple shirt hanging in the cupboard. I look down
to see old soft slippers with a number twenty-five on them and this then evokes the soft boys and twenty-five. I'm
connecting this sentence to the bedroom, the cupboard with a deep purple shirt in and with soft slippers with number
twenty-five on it.

This is how this memory palace system works.

I think it is a useful system but it seems to take a lot more thinking and planning beforehand and is therefore not a quick
system. It also concerns me that it could interfere with the given circumstances of a piece. In the beginning where we
pictured the butler for instance, we talked about feeling a little trepidatious about giving him your coat and hat. That
feeling of being trepidatious could interfere with what you're supposed to be feeling in that moment. Rob says organising
his records is something he does in times of emotional distress and we can deduce that, the fact that he is reordering his
records tonight, means he is in emotional distress right now. However, is this going to come across correctly or are you
going to seem anxious about a butler? This could be confusing. Nevertheless, this system could be good in combination
with other techniques, and I think it's a good technique to adapt to the script as a whole, especially when you are shooting
on camera. It can help you to remember the order of events in the script since movies are usually not shot chronologically.

Delia’s technique
One of the greatest obstacles to overcome when it comes to memorisation is procrastination. Artistic types often struggle
with motivation and discipline and the following tips will help you to overcome this.

• Plan – Set a specific time for memorising your script.

• Set a time-limit – It helps if you have an end in sight, so you know how long you're going to have to hold out for.
Plan to spend three hours, for example, working on memorisation.
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• Schedule breaks – It helps to know that it's not going to be an endurance race, but that there will be breaks in
between.

Environment

Once you know how long you're going to be busy for, prepare your environment in the following way:

• Put a do not disturb sign on your door

• Turn off all your devices
• Arrange with your family and friends that you're going to be unavailable for that period
• Arrange the furniture to resemble the scene, if possible
• Have a notebook ready – I like working with a hardcover because I'm able to write while I walk or stand

Part 1

The first part is the passive part and you will probably sit down on your chair while doing this. You should have done your
research already. You should have applied the data gathering techniques that we discussed in Module one and you should
know all the given circumstances surrounding this moment.

• Break your script down into segments and allocate a particular memorisation timeslot to a particular segment of
the script. Don't try to do it all at once without structure or you'll end up knowing the beginning well and never
really progress to the letter segments.
• Read it through carefully.
• Understand your character – all the information you have been able to collect about the character from the given
circumstances.
• Think about the scene, which means bring into consideration all your research, namely the given circumstances
you have identified. Place yourself in those circumstances and consider how you would think or feel, etc.
• Visualise the scene, apply the magic IF to it and flesh it out in your imagination. Remember to always stay logical
in this process.

Part 2

Now we get to the part where you start becoming a little bit active.

• Copy the script down. I find it's always best to work with hardcopy. These days our agents send us the scripts
digitally, which means I either print it out or copy it down by hand. Either way, will work.
• Cover the lines – take a piece of blank paper and cover only your lines. Read the other character’s lines and then
say your lines from memory, without looking. Of course, if you get stuck you can just pick up the piece of paper
and look at your lines.
• Do one line at a time.
• Do one page at a time.
• Restart the page when you come to the end.
• Only move onto the next one once you know the first one.
• Remember that doing it right once isn't knowing it.
• Repeat it as many times as necessary until you can do it right, several times in a row.

Part 3

This is the part in which you become totally active.

• Start moving around on your lines, as you imagine it would work for the scene
• Remember to change it up regularly
• Repeat until you feel comfortable
• Identify problem areas – for me, it's usually the little words, the ifs, buts, ands and thens that trip me up
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Part 4

Part four is back to the drawing board for:

• Problem areas
• Long speeches
• Use the novel memorisation technique
• Take your scheduled breaks

Conclusion
In conclusion, this is what we learned about memorisation and memorising our lines quickly:

1. Remove all the obstacles that could prevent you from getting started or from staying focused.
2. Plan and set time aside to learn your lines.
3. Do the research and data collection and start out with contemplating your path to gain understanding of it.
4. Use a memorisation technique that works for you. If the memory palace technique, the novel memorisation
technique, my technique, or a combination of all of them works for you, find what works for you and apply that.
Of course, repeat until you can say it in your sleep.

References
• Wadsworth, W., 2020. BEST Memorisation Techniques For Exams: The Secret Science Of How To Remember
What You Study - Exam Study Expert. [online] Exam Study Expert. Available at:
https://examstudyexpert.com/memorisation-techniques-for-exams/
• Foer, J., 2012. Feats Of Memory Anyone Can Do. [online] Ted.com. Available at:
https://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_can_do#t-241793
• Stojanovic, M. and Stojanovic, M., 2020. Memorization Techniques: 9 Ways To Remember More And Learn
Faster. [online] Clockify Blog. Available at: https://clockify.me/blog/productivity/memorization-
techniques/
• Learning Center. n.d. Memorization Strategies – Learning Center. [online] Available at:
https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/enhancing-your-memory/
• Dellis, N., 2017. HOW TO MEMORIZE A SPEECH OR TEXT // RANDOM MEMORY TIPS #010. [online]
Youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuZz9wrpNBw
• Youtube.com. 2016. How Bill Nighy Learns His Lines. [online] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBXVIZr8Osw
• Youtube.com. 2018. Samuel L. Jackson: Memorizing Scripts 'Totally Simple'. [online] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv-8COA7kPI
• Youtube.com. 2012. Jim Parsons On Memorizing His Lines. [online] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_noNLW4H-Q