One of the great theatrical mysteries, from an audience perspective, is how actors remember so many lines. The answer varies from actor to actor and from script to script. Some playwrights’ work is easier to memorize because they write with a rhythm that simply flows more logically. Some actors have better memories. Others use a variety of memory techniques, such as linking the words they speak to the movement they are making at that moment. Finally the rehearsal process itself facilitates memorization, as actors repeat their lines over and over during a period of several weeks. If actors are having difficulty with lines, the director may schedule a script “speed-through” or “line-through” during which the actors focus solely on their lines and nothing else.
Whatever technique does the trick, actors throughout the ages have accomplished the goal of memorization. And throughout the ages, actors of all ages and skill levels have at one time or another forgotten one or more of their lines while onstage. Sometimes the transgression is small and has a minor impact on the play. Sometimes the actor is not so lucky…
Case #1:
The scene is a restaurant, with people sitting at tables enjoying their meals. The role of the waiter is pivotal in this production because the audience can only hear what the waiter hears. As the waiter approaches a table, the conversation at that table becomes audible to the audience. As the waiter retreats from a table, those voices again become mute.
The most critical action takes place at a table that is front and center, where a couple is about to order. The waiter is supposed to approach and ask if they want to hear the specials of the day. When they say “yes”, the waiter reels off the information and the plot moves forward.
Except it didn’t. The waiter approached and said “Would you like to hear today’s specials?” And the male actor (Mark) said… “No.”
To this day, Mark maintains his innocence and claims this was a simple accident. Perhaps. But accident or not, three actors were left squirming onstage until the female actor said “Well, I would!” And the play moved forward.
Most of the time the rest of the cast is caught completely off guard and must quickly improvise a way out of the situation. On rare occasions, however, an actor has a “tell”, some visible indication that he has forgotten his lines and is frantically trying to remember them. It could be something as simple as eyes widening in terror. But sometimes it’s more specific.
Case #2:
The play is a murder-mystery. A key plot point is that one character, the judge, takes pills for a heart condition. The audience discovers this from the judge himself. That is, of course, if the judge (played by Albert) remembers his lines.
The moment approaches when the judge will reveal his heart condition. Suddenly a small but steady sound causes the cast to break into a cold sweat. It is the unmistakable sound of nervous foot tapping. Albert has forgotten his lines, and this is his “tell”.
If you are onstage with someone who has forgotten their lines, your choices are limited. You can continue with the rest of the dialogue and hope the audience doesn’t notice; you can provide the pivotal piece of information yourself (“Say, Judge, you look like a man with a heart condition!”); or you can improvise dialogue to prompt your colleague to remember his lines.
Albert’s fellow cast members chose option C, listening for any reduction in the tapping noise that would indicate Albert was back on track. Mercifully that moment arrived. Albert stopped tapping, said his line, the show went on, and all was right with the world.
An actor occasionally forgetting a line is not grounds for flogging. It happens to everyone at some point, and usually the actor himself feels so bad about it that no other action is necessary. There are, however, occasions when an actor decides he can “improve” on the script and he changes a line intentionally. This is another of the Seven Deadly Sins of theatre and usually leads to some kind of disciplinary action.
Why? Because in theatre every single word matters. Actors are contractually and morally obligated to say all of the words and only those words in the script.
In film, TV, and commercial work, however, faithfulness to the written word is not as strongly emphasized. Actors with a strong commercial background often bring with them the bad habit of paraphrasing their lines, and we are gentle but firm in educating them about the standards in live stage theatre. In all but one case that has been enough to accomplish the goal of fidelity to the script.
Ah, yes, the one case when it wasn’t enough. Well, this is when understudies come in handy. The actor in question had a choice: She could insist her line was better and be replaced by her understudy, or she could live up to the terms of her contract, deliver her lines as written, and continue in the role. She chose option B. Problem solved. But it was a shame it had to get to that point.
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