Help! I'm stuttering during play rehearsals! Any vocal exercises I could try

Question:In 3 and a half weeks I am playing the lead in my second-ever play, and it's a much bigger and more popular production than my first. The director felt I had a real knack for acting, had good vocal quality on stage, and that I would be dedicated enough to play the lead in a Shakespeare play.

As far as dedication goes, I practice for hours every day, I even write my lines on notecards and practice them at work. According to a friend of mine, I was saying my lines in my sleep last week.
I still don't know them all. I know about 2/3 or more of them, and a lot of the stuff is just not sticking; especially long scenes where I need to memorize a lot of cues (respond to several different characters).
Furthermore, during rehearsals - and even just readings - I find myself stuttering quite often, during many lines - flubbing the words and tripping over pronunciations, and this is something I was good at to start. Are there any exercises I could try to loosen myself up so I stutter less?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: In 3 and a half weeks I am playing the lead in my second-ever play, and it's a much bigger and more popular production than my first. The director felt I had a real knack for acting, had good vocal quality on stage, and that I would be dedicated enough to play the lead in a Shakespeare play.

As far as dedication goes, I practice for hours every day, I even write my lines on notecards and practice them at work. According to a friend of mine, I was saying my lines in my sleep last week.
I still don't know them all. I know about 2/3 or more of them, and a lot of the stuff is just not sticking; especially long scenes where I need to memorize a lot of cues (respond to several different characters).
Furthermore, during rehearsals - and even just readings - I find myself stuttering quite often, during many lines - flubbing the words and tripping over pronunciations, and this is something I was good at to start. Are there any exercises I could try to loosen myself up so I stutter less?

Here are some memorization tips. Once you have your lines completely and totally memorized you will no longer stutter. You will be able to focus on the acting rather than worrying about forgetting.

Carry your script or speech with you at all times and read the full text when you get a chance to get a strong emotional "feel" for it.

Get to know your character. Understand why you say and do what you do.

Act out your lines as you say them, even if this is an unemotional speech. You can exaggerate your words with dramatic gestures. Of course, you don't want to do this during your actual speech, but you will be thinking about it.

Learn to think like your character (get a feel for him or her). This can save you if you forget your lines on stage. Simply think like the character and say what he would say as close to the real lines as possible.

Visualize other actors' faces saying your cues.

Draw a series of pictures that represent your speech or your lines. Remember picture stories from preschool? Be very creative and think of a picture story to go along with your lines. After you've created your picture story, go back and say your lines as you look at the pictures.

Say your lines in front of a mirror and move your face or your arms a special way to emphasize specific words or passages.

Not exercises per se; just work on your breath. Breathe slowly between and before lines. If you flub, just stop and take a breath.

Relax. Follow the punctuation as you read, it helps your breathing and the meaning. comma, short pause, semicolo, little bit longer pause, colon, question mark, period, exclamation point, full stop, (breathe). I have a two page article on how to learn lines. let me know if you want a copy. You will stop stuttering when you have the lines learned. Take them one scene at a time and one line at a time and nail them down.

I don't know how long a rehearsal period you are having, but with three weeks to go, you have a long time left to practice. How are the other actors doing? Sometimes it is easier for things to stick when you are getting the correct cues from other actors, and can link some of your lines to certain moves. Try taking a breath and listen to the cue being given and think about what you are saying in response.
Your director has confidence in you - it will stick. Try not to worry too much as this might make it worse.

Hope all goes well on the night.

Sometimes you can get in a rut - you will be realizing in the back of your mind what lines you are having trouble with and automatically hitting a wall when you get to them.
Do it different. Go outside and far away from people and just scream your lines out. Go overboard - dont think, just do, and do it as wild and as out of character as possible. One of my directors called this "negating the negation".
Get one of the other actors and run dialouge, reading right out of the book, but playing it all over the top, and totally differnt from what you would in the play - odd character voices, whatever.
That may just break the logjam (and maybe there will be some quirk that you will pick up that works for the character).

Tequila always worked for me.