Tips for learning a play script..?

Question

Hey! x

I've been cast a big part in a school play and I wanna know if there's any helpful tips for learning a script. It's a Shakespearean play so as you can imagine it is kind of confusing and I have 5 weeks to learn it in! Please if you know any let me know (; Thanks x

Answer 1

Hello there! Well done on getting your big part!

Learning a script is hard work and learning shakespeare is harder yet, there's alot more focus on you learning it word for word! (It's very hard to ad lib or improvise in Shakespeare as this is often hugely obvious to the audience)

Since i have quite a bit of experience under my belt then i will tell you some of the things that have helped me over the years =]

. Simply reading the script aloud over and over again will help you to drive it into your brain. Make sure you learn your Que lines!

. Sometimes i learnt my scripts simply through rehearsal, so make sure your in the zone when you rehearse with script. It will help

.Practicing in the mirror, in the car, walking down the street, sat bored, in class. Everywhere you can try and bring the script and the words to the front of your head and test yourself mentally.

.If you have large paragraphs to learn, learn it in sections, for example highlight a part, and label it section one. Then highlight a different part and label it section two and so on. This way you can learn each section one at a time instead of the whole thing at once, i did this for a monologue and managed to learn it all in one night, it's very effective.

There are different ways that alot of actors like to learn lines, but those are the hardcore basics, you may want to try all of the above or even try some of your own!

But sometimes, learning lines can be as simple as reading it, covering it up and saying it and then seeing how far down the script you can go =]

It can get quite tedious, but line learning is usually droll, it's almost always a wash and repeat task where you'll find yourself doing the same thing over and over!

Good luck on your role! And if you have anymore difficulties feel free to email me =]

Answer 2

Well, what I did was read it over several times then start memorizing little parts. Bit by Bit you'll get it. But you just really need to find your own way of memorizing things.