Have your script memorized but always hold your copy. That’s your professional responsibility; it’s your best take and you want to sell it. If you go up on a line, you have to retrieve it. They will not cue you. But go after it in character.

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You want your eyes up because you don’t want the casting director staring at the top of your head When the reader is speaking, do NOT look down at your script for your line. You must listen. If the camera is only on you, it will show that you are not paying attention and connecting to the reader/character. If you’re not listening, your impulses are cut off. Don’t stare blankly at the reader. Breathe and take the moments to feel and connect. Listen and react. If you need to look down for a line, stay in character. Actors become flustered when they need to find a line and completely drop out—their energy and their character go out the window. Here’s a method to help:

• Wait until the reader stops speaking…
• Have a reaction as the character to what the reader said, and then:
• If necessary, pick up the line from the page in character,
• Look up at the reader and then deliver your next line. It’s better to look down as your character, at the beginning of your line and then come up to make contact with the reader for the end of your line. The connection/meaning/response comes at the end of the line.

Remember: you want to create chemistry and life with the reader/casting director. You want to make eye contact as much as possible; you want them to see you react as much as possible

Memorizing: The Grunt Work!!!

• Take a letter-size envelope and go down the page covering and then revealing YOUR lines. Do each page 10 times then return to the page after learning the NEXT page and repeat

Use a small tape recorder or smartphone to record both YOUR lines and the OTHER character’s lines. Listen and repeat 10X

• Have someone cue you-over and over and over again
• When you have lists (“I baked it, I packaged it, I sent it as a gift, and it was returned”) –use the first letters of each noun or verb B-baked,P-packaged,S-sent…as BPSR etc to help you remember.
• If you are memorizing a monologue—break it down into the “points” you want to make to tell the story. Memorize each point then go on to the next. Then put them all together

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