My TEDx Wolverhampton talk is quickly approaching – less than 4 weeks away.
My talk is written and approved 🥳. It’s 12 minutes long and more than 1,700 words. We’re not allowed to read our talks and we’re advised not to have notes on the day either.
So now I’m in learning mode. I’m learning my lines.
The first rehearsal is next week
One of the benefits of having worked in a theatre is I know a bunch of trained actors I can call on to ask for advice.
And they’ve been super helpful 🥰.
There’s so much talk online about hacks and “the easy way to…”, it can sometimes feel like failure (at least to me) if a task doesn’t come naturally, or it takes effort.
But none of my friends shied away from the amount of work it takes to learn lines.
Here’re a few of the tips:
Annie Fletcher-Hall, Acting Director at Central Youth Theatre:
- Record yourself and listen to it as if it was a podcast
- Learn the talk little and often. It’s much better than trying to read and read it all in one go
James Collins, Outreach Manager: Creative Learning, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre:
- Read each section over and over again while it’s playing in the background.
- Learn them at various times of the day, but read and listen to sections a few times immediately before you go to sleep… you’ll then start waking them up with them in your head
Lanna Joffrey, Actor, Writer, Spoken Word Performer, Voiceover Artist, Coach, currently performing in Sister Radio:
- Make sure that you know your lines so well that no matter what you’re doing, you’ll be able to remember them. So run those lines while you’re running, or while you’re showering, or while you’re doing some kind of activity that can really test how well you know them.
- A page of text requires at least an hour of rehearsal time. So just keep drilling it and challenge yourself with other activities because there will be things that throw you in the performance.
Mary-Anne Willets, Acting and Stage Combat, East 15 Acting School 2021 Graduate:
- The best piece of advice I can give you is to just practice, practice, practice and learn, learn, learn.
- When we learn our lines, we like to get to a stage where it’s so monotonous and boring. But once it’s in your body and brain you can then continue to practice them but have fun and play around with it. So you go beyond the stage of finding it boring.
Basically, there aren’t any quick fixes. If I want results, I have to put in the work.
And I appreciate the warning.
I’ve got my speech recorded and I’m playing it on repeat. I’ve got pages of my notebook filled with the lines I’m struggling to remember.
And if you see me walking about town, there’s a strong possibility you’ll see me reciting my lines.
I’m putting in the hard work. 💪
What hard thing are you working on this week?
(And in case you need a cheerleader – You’ve got it!)
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