What is the best way to memorise lines for a play easily?

Question:DO NOT SAY, 'Read it!' cos u will not b funny!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: DO NOT SAY, 'Read it!' cos u will not b funny!

READ IT!

Seriously. The first thing to do, is to read it through, the entire play. This will help you get a feel for what events trigger what, which helps with cues.

My theatre teacher taught us this one, and it worked! What you do is you say your line, and you put the stress on each word. I have a show tonight(Vanities) and this is one of my lines and how I learned it:
"He's got more gifts lined up than I've got parts to give"
"HE'S got more gift lined up..."
"He's GOT more gifts lined up..."
"He's got MORE gifts lined up..."
&c.
A benefit of learning you lines this way is that you find new meanings putting the stress on different words. You find new ways to say it that affect the other actor's reaction and enhance the performance. He made us use this to memorize our monologues. We had our monologues memorized in a half hour.

CUES are an important part of memorizing your lines. Especially if it is a comedy, you need to know your cues because they go so fast. To memorize your cues you could write the word that triggers your next thought. For example in my performance tonight to memorize my cues I had to write:
"School song-Announcement"
"School song-Announcement"
Over and over untill I got it.

Good luck with your play!

Say them out loud in character, over and over again. Read them with others in the show or anyone willing to run lines with you, but always try to say them in character.

Marianne

make it in to a song

When I'm learning lines I usually do it little and often. The best way is to get someone patient to play the other parts and learn your lines in chunks, one at a time. Once you've learnt two lines, go back to the start and go through it from the beginning and so on. Keep doing this until you know them perfectly! Good Luck! =]
Angelbabiiee x x

I agree with the first answer...get someone to help you and you can act in out (aloud and in character.) But what helps me is I do that but before I do that I write my lines down on another sheet of paper and then do it again and try to do it from memory. Then try acting it out once (w/ your lines) then try to do it from memory.
Hope it helps!

Listen to it. Sometimes I rent DVDs of the play I am in and watch and act out my scenes along with it. By listening to my lines being said I find it easier to remember, like by associating the lines with what is being done on screen.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. Also, you can make little flash cards with your line on one side and it's cue line on the other if you don't have anyone to practice with.

take it section by section, and memorize each section as you go along. for monologues especially, take it line by line and make sure you can run it through easily. also make sure you know what you;re talking about; if you dont understand what your character is saying, then it's harder to understand what you're memorizing.

read it then have someone read it to you then try 2 recite it!

reading it out loud is the best way to practice, with your friends or someone you're doing a scene with, even by yourself, before you go to bed, and when you wake up, that's usually when it sticks to your brain. just say them over and over again.