One of the most gut-wrenchingly stressful aspects of being an actor is the fact that so much weighs on your memory. In order to really rise to your full potential in delivering your lines, in order to appear most authentic, and give yourself room to approach your roles with confidence, you must have a tight grip on your lines. Memorization of the material, the tone, the actual lines, and the inflections can take up an astounding amount of time and energy.

Surely you’ve heard all the old-school tricks and you’ve probably heard of hundreds of methods, but here are some of our favorite go-to techniques, courtesy of ContrastCreative:panduan android

Reading Out Loud helps trigger our visual pathways to form memory links. Relying on visual memory alone may leave us with many gaps. Auditory links can aid us because not only do we form the visual link from reading the script, but we remember ourselves saying it out loud.  The words you are reading are now translated into speech. Your brain has the knowledge of producing the dialogue as well as a memory of hearing it.

Repetition is key. There really are no shortcuts to memorization except repetition. Unless you have a photographic memory, repeat, repeat, repeat. Work on a few lines at a time, then start over. Visualize where the lines are on the page and do it again.

Divide and Conquer by breaking your role into small, bite-sized chunks. You don’t have to tackle it all at once. Some actors put their dialogue onto individual index or flash cards. These are easy to take with you anywhere you go, and you can start putting cards aside as soon as you are comfortable with the material.

Listen and react to the other characters in your scenes at all times.  You’d be surprised how many actors vacantly sit and stare, waiting for a break in dialogue to insert their next big line. They are thinking ahead instead of being in the moment. Listening attentively to what the other actors are saying and reacting appropriately will help you absorb the context of what is going on around you. The other person’s lines then act as memory triggers or cues. If you’re consistently struggling to recall your lines in a scene, you probably aren’t being as attentive as you should be to the other actors. Simply talk to the other person and forget everything and everyone around you. It’s all about the connecting to the other people in your scene.

Record your lines and use your iPod or other device to listen to your scenes while going about your workout, doing household chores or driving a car. Reinforcement is good.

Get up and move while memorizing your script. Movement, combined with speech, enhances your ability to recall the next line. Next, join the words with movements and gestures. Take a walk, do laundry, ride a bike; all while saying your lines and acting out your scene. This helps occupy the parts of your brain that you don’t need for memorizing and leaves space for that pesky dialogue.

Stay in character even if you have a long pause or a slight brain lapse. Think it through and get used to working through the fear of forgetting your lines. Don’t immediately give up and peek at your script. Even the most experienced actors will forget dialogue or jumble words, and it’s a good idea to know how to handle that situation as professionally as possible. Often we can edit around your stumble, but not if you’ve inserted a bunch of four letter words!