Moon Diary – Entry #2

Today I am re-recording Acts 3 and 4 on audio tape. I have been listening to lines when I drive so they will go into my head quicker but I spoke too fast and need to hear them slower.

I learned this trick back in the 90’s when I was doing A Little Night Music (for which I won a Barrymore for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical) at the Arden. I would do the show at night and then drive 2 hours to Cape May, >treatment spend the night and in the morning I would rehearse (with Eric Hissom actually) for The Owl and The Pussycat for Cape May Stage. Then I would drive back to Philly to do Little Night Music that night.

My only free time to learn lines was in the car on that two hour drive back and forth to the shore. So I recorded my lines on tape and discovered they actually got memorized much faster that way.

I record my cue line and then leave space to actually say my line out loud and then I record the actual line so I can sort of correct myself and hear it exactly. This technique has shortened the amount of time I use to get my lines down. I do need to look at them but in doing both techniques I get them in my brain quicker.

Pfeif [Director Matt Pfeiffer] has not yet given us the cuts for Acts I and II so I am not working on that yet- don’t want to memorize stuff he will x out. He says there won’t be much cut from Acts III and IV.

Beautiful lyrical language. A rainy day is the perfect time to listen to them – in between teaching at Arcadia and picking my kid up from After Care.