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As someone who acts in their spare time, I think the article is missing three things. First, actors do actually have to mechanistically memorize their lines in
by jjk166 2y ago
As someone who acts in their spare time, I think the article is missing three things.
First, actors do actually have to mechanistically memorize their lines in addition to understanding them. There are plenty of instances where you need to recite a long string of words in precise order because that's what's in the script, not because there is some underlying logic that makes the word choice self-evident. While early in the rehearsal process it doesn't matter, in fact it's a good thing to play around with the script, by the end you need to have everything locked down. There is more to theater than just conveying a character's state of mind - people depend on spoken cues, particularly for blocking, and maintaining timing is critical.
On the flipside of that, theater is inherently a variable thing. No two shows are going to be exactly the same. A prop may not function correctly, someone else may mess up a line, the audience may laugh more or less at a joke, etc. You need to be able to adapt in the moment, which means you can't simply remember your lines, you need to be present in the moment. That's the real reason you need to understand your lines. As an aside, it helps that the audience typically does not have the script memorized, so as long as things on stage are progressing naturally, mistakes tend to go unnoticed.
Finally, I think people grossly overestimate the difficulty of memorizing text. We invented language long before writing, and it is extremely optimized for being easily remembered by illiterate peasants. Think about how many songs you know - there are probably hundreds if not thousands you could easily sing along to even if you haven't heard them in years. Think about how many movie quotes you can recall to interject a random pop culture reference into a conversation on the fly. Crack open a book you read 10 years ago to a random page and see how long it takes you to know exactly where in the story you are. You might mistake a word here and there, perhaps switch the order of some lines, but you'll remember the bulk of it without putting in any effort at all. Actors reread their scripts dozens of times, they put as great deal of effort into practice, and their success depends upon this effort, of course the end result will be more polished than baseline memory, but the difference isn't that big.
- tasty_freeze 2y ago> Think about how many songs you know - there are probably hundreds if not thousands you could easily sing along to even if you haven't heard them in years. If what you said was true, there would be no need for the lyrics display at karoke bars. Years ago (25?) there was a game where you'd draw a card and then have to sing part of that song (I forget the actual game as it was long ago, but that is close enough). Everyone was psyched and it seemed like it was going to be fun. Then we found out none of us actually remembered the lyrics -- we could get part of the chorus and that was it. No doubt there are people who are great at remembering lyrics, but I strongly suspect it is a small minority of people. I think people overestimate their recall ability because they are singing along to the song in their car (or wherever) and so if they have a moment's hesitation or any doubt, the song keeps going and they are quickly back on track. But without that unfailing guide, they'd quickly fall off the rails. I have that experience all the time as a musician of moderate ability in a moderate cover song band. Everyone has the experience of learning a new song, thinking "I have this song wired -- I can play flawlessly along to the original" but then the band gets together and tries the song for the first time and it quickly falls apart. Any little bit of hesitation or doubt quickly grows and infects the other players and soon people start arguing if the drums come in after the 2nd or 4th repetition of some phrase, etc, etc.
- jjk166 2y ago> If what you said was true, there would be no need for the lyrics display at karoke bars. You misunderstand what I'm claiming. That is exactly the issue I was describing - you recall the bulk but you make small mistakes and the skill is in reducing the small mistakes and being able to power through them and get back on track when they do happen. Playing instruments in a band is so much worse, it's not enough to know how the song goes, you need to be in perfect sync with other people, and any mistake is highlighted by the discord. In acting, there isn't another person saying your lines at the same time as you, and mild variation in pacing, intonation, etc from one performance to the next is not only acceptable but desirable. By analogy, you know what the Eiffel Tower looks like, you could probably sketch it accurately enough that someone else would recognize it as the Eiffel Tower, and they would probably be unable to tell you exactly what errors are in your sketch, even though you almost certainly don't know the count, size, and position of every beam.
- runarberg 2y ago> Finally, I think people grossly overestimate the difficulty of memorizing text. This resonates with me. I did a lot of amateur acting in my early 20s, and while I remember memorizing the text having been a lot of work early in the process, by the we were doing daily runs hardly anybody had any problem with memorizing the text. I remember it being kind of nice having memorized the lines though, as holding the script on stage during practice can be kind of annoying some times, so I tried to get the task of memorizing the lines done as early as possible.