Advice from you actors out there, please…
November 5, 2008
Do you have any tricks or habits to help you learn your lines?
Do you have any tips for combatting stage fright? Mine is actually late onset stage fright, I didn’t experience it until I was in my 40s.
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November 7, 2008 at 12:43 pm
break everything down into small pieces–beats…sometimes only one or two lines of dialogue at a time…small bits of time…the most i’ll work is maybe 20 minutes tops at a time…seems that’s all my mind can absorb…so over the course of a night i might work for five twenty minute segments…then i go do something else…the important thing is even when i’m taking the breaks i’m still sort of invested in learning the lines…
but the only way i can nail the lines is when i get on stage…it’s a physical memory for me as much as anything…
i also look for patterns…every writer has them…i notice if the playwright depends on action verbs, or tends to write passively…just little hints like that…
hope this helps…
November 17, 2008 at 12:34 am
I am not an actor, but I do perform regularly in a chorale and chamber choir. I try very hard NOT to make eye contact with anyone in the audience, but rather look at the tops of people’s heads or foreheads so I don’t get distracted.