How to Memorize a Monologue Fast In Just 10 Easy Steps

Want to know how to memorize a monologue fast? I don’t blame you if your mind is bogged down with questions. When I was preparing to memorize my TEDx Talk, I wasn’t entirely sure how to best approach the task either. Strange, I know, especially given that I was invited to give the talk as a memory expert. All the same, I had the same questions that many people face when approaching a task that involves reciting a lot of text from memory… without any cue lines from other actors to help you out. These questions include: Should you memorize the monologue word for word? Or is there a form of “compression” that allows you to memorize any monologue without having to create a mnemonic association for each and every word? The answer is yes. There is an approach that makes memorizing texts easier and faster. And once you have this technique under your belt, all that stress and anxiety around your auditions will permanently melt away. So if you’re ready to impress every casting agent in the industry for the rest of your career, all you have to do is read this post. Then turn the knowledge and experience I’m about to share into action. Let’s get started. How to Memorize a Monologue Quickly in 10 Steps Most trainings on monologue memorization talk about breaking the piece down and emotionally connecting with the piece. That’s all fine and dandy. But the real magic happens when you have a robust mnemonic strategy that goes beyond your standard memory techniques. The ultimate of these strategies is called a Memory Palace. When using it, you’ll automatically break the monologue down into manageable parts. But to use the technique, you need to actually have a Memory Palace. But developing and using one is not necessarily the first step. I’ll walk you through the Memory Palace technique and give you some examples. First, however, please make sure to consider zooming out for one of the most important memory aids of them all. Step One: Read And Analyze The Entire Piece The Monologue Comes From So much of acting is actually understanding. You need to understand the motivations and the reason characters wind up having them in the first place. Sometimes it’s perfectly okay to read the piece in isolation. Other times, you will benefit from additional research. Your character might live in a different era or area of the world, for example. Or your character might embody a belief system that is different than your own. It can be useful to know more about what the character you’ll be performing holds dear. Textual analysis will also be useful, but not necessarily by reading all kinds of commentary. You’ll want to think reflectively for yourself about what the text means. That will help you adopt the role and let the character (or your message) inhabit your mind more completely. Step Two: Choose A Suitable Memory Palace In case you’re new to the Memory Palace technique, it’s simple to grasp. All you do is select a familiar location, create a mental journey through it and then lay breadcrumbs that help you recall what you want to remember. For example, to remember my TEDx Talk, I chose the apartment I was living in and used the surrounding neighborhood. It was the perfect size for just over thirteen minutes of material. To rapidly create a Memory Palace without turning it into an epic task, I suggest you draw a floor plan based on the location you choose. Keep in mind the amount of material you need to memorize. For a four page monologue, I needed one apartment and the sidewalk space along a couple of short streets. If it helps your imagination, you can pick a location that is thematically related to the topic of your monologue. For example, if it’s about health, you could choose a hospital or a spa. If you’re reciting the speech of a criminal, you could choose the area around a police station, etc. Then, you want to break your text down into individual lines. Rather than try to tackle a “wall of text” in the form of long paragraphs, separate the text into 1-2 lines maximum. That will make it easier for you to focus on matching the lines to the various areas in your Memory Palace. Here’s the Memory Palace I used for the monologue I delivered for the TEDx audience. It’s based on a Brisbane neighborhood I used to live in. The red line indicates the journey I followed. Each of the tritons indicates the “stations” where I assigned the associations that helped me memorize each and every word of the monologue. I’ll explain how you can do this yourself next. Step Three: Assign “Magnetic” Associations When using a Memory Palace, we want to use as few associations as possible for the maximum amount of words without sacrificing accuracy. To show you how this is done, let’s take an example from Shakespeare. This is the opening of Hamlet’s famous monologue: To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous ...

great podcast

As an actor I love the this episode of the podcast. There were a lot of a great tips for monologues