lines

          Learn the words subject by subject, not line by line. In character forget words, think objective.

          Learning lines.

            actor     rot     memorize     study script

1. Any line can be said a thousand ways.
2. Let others finish their lines.
3. Be aware of key lines: get it out. Don't act each line, find lines to throw away. Keep the lines fluid until pause.
4. Can't keep moving around, don't move on every *@#!!! line, so they can set up shots. Stay together for a while. Cut down on movement to different places.
5. Dialogue: You don't know the lines coming. Deal with each moment.
6. Director never give line reading.
7. Do not move on other person's lines.
8. Don't do line, cue, line, cue, etc.
9. Don't go narrative line, that's how to approach drama.
10. Don't hurry on with next line.
11. Don't let words influence you how you say them.
12. Don't play line to line, it is more about playing difficulty to difficulty.
13. Don't play the lines on the page.
14. Don't practice to says lines.
15. Don't rush it just because there are few lines. It's about behavior, explore the moments. Physicalize each transition, each moment explored.
16. Don't think lines.
17. Don't throw lines away, make all of it valuable.
18. Do things on your line, so camera will stay on you and not cut to other actor.
19. Every line is clearly stated, no matter how frantic. Slower, clearer.
20. Every line is there for a reason.
21. Find out the line, what is it about?
22. Going through moments, just line to line. Wrong.
23. It has no form. In Shakespeare lines of play must be spoken out. No breath. Play of language.
24. It's not about next line.
25. Just don't say lines.
26. Keep the lines fluid until pause.
27. Know what to do with a character even without lines.
28. Learn it, then you don't know what is going to happen: the lines, staging; almost like amnesia. State of disconnected from what is rehearsed. "Between the two trapeze". No recall, everything is unknown after rehearsal. Urgency.
29. Learn line precisely.
30. Learn lines (alone) - cover speech, learn it by rot. Know the words. Then confront one another (plan the house) Where is the bar, etc. draw sketch of floor plan. Go off and do it.
31. Lines are the noises people are making. Mostly lies anyway. Don't take it literally. Each word doesn't have the truth, unless the play is a language play: Shakespeare, Wilder, etc.
32. Make all lines full and meaningful throughout.
33. Memorize.
34. Must play the discoveries, not line to line. (The characters form a bond in steps.) Give the audience time.
35. Don't act each line, find lines to throw away.
36. No punctuation in speech. No commas, no periods. It is idea to idea. PRINCIPLE: Stop anywhere, but not at a period.
37. Not line to line. it is behavior to behavior.
38. Lines are the noises people are making. Mostly lies anyway. Don't take it literally. Each word doesn't have the truth, unless the play is a language play: Shakespeare, Wilder, etc.
39. Snap out Noel Cowards lines.
40. Obligation to the playwright, must be understood.
41. There is no such thing as a monologue. You are talking to another person in a chair, or yourself, in another chair, a ghost, something. Don't talk to a generalization. Absolute reality. They're looking for someone natural. 1. After choice of emotion and objective, then reach for word. Don't know what words are coming up: learn lines, then forget them.
42. Think it through, make choices, plan it in detail. Must play the discoveries, not line to line. (The characters form a bond in steps.) Give the audience time.
43. Lines are trivial.
44. Make all lines full and meaningful throughout.
45. Rhythm of line, did not work clean, justify what they do.
46. Sit on any line. Stand on any line.
47. When studying the lines, how does this relate to the character.
48. Actors have to be resilient as hell. Give you new lines in front of camera or work with new actors you never meet before.
49. Know what to do with a character even without lines.
50. Working in the workshop: just know the god damn lines and do the scene.
51. Scene became dramatic. Don't just do things, what is dramatic? What happens between the lines, complete the silences. Don't do things cerebral.
52. Snap out Noel Cowards lines.
53. Steal scene as a real human being, if you have no lines.
54. "Any line can be said a thousand ways".
55. When studying the lines, how does this relate to the character.
56. Why does playwright put lines in play?
57. You don't know the lines coming. Deal with each moment.

1. Don't try to get a laugh on each word. Simple, simple, simple, until you get to the punch line. Throw a lot of stuff together, then a derailment.
2. Humor is playing out every moment. Humor of each situation.
3. Humor is not waiting for the first lines. Has to be off the wall. Don't do all the punch line with each line.

"In the end, it can't look like acting."