Tip: Running Lines Without a Partner

One of the necessary evils of acting is taking the time to go about the laborious process of memorizing a script. Some actors are blessed (and cursed) with photographic memories and can get off book in no time at all. I am not one of those actors. I think of myself as a slow memorizer, but that's probably because I drag my nails the whole time I'm trying to learn my lines. If movies like "The Matrix" didn't exist, I probably wouldn't be so wrapped up in the possibility of learning a lot of information immediately with little to no effort. But, I am hopelessly tied to that being a possibility, and have created a few different systems to assist me in that regard.

Flash Cards
Take your scene and write down each line on its own cue-card (you can condense lines that come before yours). Be sure to write sequential numbers in the corner of all the cards so that if you ever drop the stack you can reconstruct the scene. Then just wrap them in a rubber band and take it with you wherever you go.

iPod
This is my new favorite. I record all of the lines in a scene using my computer microphone. I do grotesque impersonations of other actors and a very flat even delivery for my own lines. The flat delivery allows me to learn the lines in a semi-neutral fashion. I then copy this file onto my iPod and play it back. Just as it is my character's turn to speak, I press pause, say the line as far as I know it, and then press play to check my work. This is probably the best method I've found for running lines on my own. You can even do it while you're driving, but make sure you aren't wearing both headphones.