Kindle Edition Download from Smashwords (eBook) Amazon Jared Kelner Category:  Drama Publisher: The Infinite Mind Training Group ISBN-10:  0982655835 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 152 Copyright: Oct 16, 2012 ISBN-13: 9780982655832 LINE? teaches creative memorization techniques that helps actors leverage their acting training and imagination to quickly memorize their lines. If you've ever struggled to remember your lines, the creative memorization techniques taught in LINE? will help you break through your mental blocks and accelerate the line memorization process. Author Jared Kelner has applied his experience as an actor and acting teacher and combined that with his expertise as a memory improvement trainer and created an imagination and sensory based process for actors to use when memorizing lines. It’s an innovative approach to line memorization that taps into the actor’s imagination and acting training rather than relying on monotonous rote memorization methods like highlighting, recording and repeating lines over and over. By applying the creative memorization methods presented in LINE? you will instantly recall your lines.

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LINE? The Creative Way for Actors to Quickly Memorize Monologues & Dialogues

One of the definitions of acting is to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances. We as trained actors spend years honing our craft to bring our talents to a point where our imagination aligns with the text and we become one with the character, the relationships, the objectives, the subtext, the moment, the monologue, the scene, the play, and its place in the world. It’s a daunting task to take on, but we do it because we are actors. We push our imagination to deep and dark places in order to find our reality in the imaginary circumstances. We work to strengthen our imagination to help us connect with why our character is fighting for what they want. And to pull it off, it all comes down to one simply thing; have we developed our imagination to a point where we truly believe the imaginary circumstances.

An actor’s imagination and our trust in our imagination is one of our greatest gifts that we bring to the craft. So why do most actors memorize their lines through rote memorization methods like highlighting lines, repeating dialogue incessantly, tape recording the other person’s lines, writing cues on opposite sides of note cards or even listen to the recording of the lines over and over while they are sleeping? Why do well trained actors, with amazing imaginations choose to memorize lines in a way that is in direct conflict with their talent? Yes, using rote memorization methods for remembering lines is in direct conflict with an actor’s imagination. There is nothing creative about repeating your monologue a hundred times until you pound the words into you head. There is no use of your imagination if you highlight your lines, cover them with a piece of paper and guess what you’re supposed to say next. Your imagination is turned off when you listen to a recorded version of your lines and say them over and over exactly the same each and every time.

Why do actors forget every imagination exercise they’ve ever learned when they try to remember their monologue? The short answer is simple. Most actors don’t realize there’s a creative way to leverage their craft to memorize lines. What follows is an example of an imagination based memorization method that has been used successfully for centuries by master story tellers, international memory competition champions, and now is available for actors to apply to the line memorization process.

If you’re like most actors, at one point in your career you've struggled with memorizing your lines. Perhaps you couldn't remember the next part of your monologue, or maybe the next line of dialogue just wasn’t coming to you. To understand why this happens you must first realize that our mind thinks in pictures, not in words, and that is why we struggle to recall the next line in the text. It’s because we are searching for a word, not an image. How often do you painstakingly try to remember the next part of your monologue and then when you call “LINE!!!!!” to the stage manager, the moment they say the first few words, you scream back, “Oh yeah. I got it.” And you continue with the next few lines until you lose it again. What’s happening is that you’re not connecting to the next image or the next thought or the next emotion. But once you grab hold of that next image, you can rattle off the lines quite easily. One of the first creative principles to line memorization taught in the book LINE? The Creative Way for Actors to Quickly Memorize Monologues and Dialogues aligns perfectly with the foundation imagination exploration exercises taught in every acting class. First you read the line you are trying to memorize and then you must turn that line somehow into an image that represents what that line means to you. For example, if the first line of your monologue is “The moon was full and rain poured down like cats and dogs,” perhaps you would turn that line into an image of a full moon. But not a full moon doing nothing in the sky. You must see, in crystal clear pictures, with feeling and action and emotion, the full moon alive. Picture the full moon weeping, breathing deeply and moaning. Tears are pouring out of the moon’s eyes like waterfalls. Now, see the tears turn into sopping wet cats and dogs of all shapes, sizes and breeds and really see the drenched cats and dogs falling from the sky meowing and barking as they plummet to the ground. Why is the moon crying? What are the wet cats and dogs doing as they fall or when they hit the ground? The more vivid your images become, the stronger your connection to the images will be. You would repeat this process for every line in the piece. You’d link the story you create so that the wet dogs and cats would somehow be creatively interacting with the images of the next line. And so on and so on. When you think back to retell yourself the story, you’d first see the image of the full moon and ask yourself, “What was he doing?” Once you see the action of the image of the line, you’ll quickly get back to the line “The moon was full and rain poured down like cats and dogs.”

When applying this imagination technique for line memorization, the actor can either create stories that are linked to the imaginary circumstances of the play or the stories can be unrelated to the play. By leveraging the actor's imaginative instincts and acting training, line memorization organically becomes part of the actor’s process for character and subtext development. The result is faster line memorization with a deeper connection to the material.



















JARED KELNER a Meisner trained actor who has appeared professionally on television and on stage, owned and operated an acting school in San Jose, CA and now teaches the adult acting class at the Playhouse Acting Academy in East Brunswick, NJ. In addition to acting, Jared Kelner has had a 15 year successful career in corporate sales where dynamic public speaking is a critical part of his success. After years of studying and practicing a wide range of memory improvement techniques, Jared started a consulting company in 2006 called The Infinite Mind Training group that offers memory improvement training seminars to sales and management teams. A few companies that Jared has delivered his memory improvement training seminars to are Cisco Systems, SES, Factiva/Dow Jones, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Intermodal Management Systems, Educational Testing Service and The National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses. Jared has combined his expertise as a memory improvement trainer with his passion for acting and teaching to create his new book Line? The Creative Way for Actors to Quickly Memorize Monologues and Dialogues. To read more from Jared’s new book, please visit www.jaredkelner.com.