"Knowing your text allows you to move away from it, improvise and react to unforeseen circumstances without losing the thread of your story.
Spectacle en couleurs - Jonathan Renoux
In his book Spectacle en couleursJonathan Renoux gives a number of practical methods for creating a real close-up show, including how to learn your lines. We could call this technique the "first letters method", and we'll tell you all about it here!
To illustrate this method, here's an extract from a poem by Jean Cocteau that we invite you to try and learn:
Step 1: Read the text
To learn a text, you need to know what it's about! So start by reading the text aloud 4 or 5 times.
Step 2: First words
Second step: take out a piece of paper, and copy the first letter of each word in the text (respect lower case, upper case and punctuation). For our example, this would look something like this:
The incredible thing about the brain is that it can recognize many words, even though most of the letters have already been erased! You're not far from knowing the text!
Step 3: Read the new text
The last step is to read out the gap-fill text you've just written several times, aloud, using only the first letters of each word. In case of doubt, you can of course refer to the original text.
Finally, recite the text again, but this time without the help of the first letters. Do this several times.
By following these steps, you can now learn any text quickly and easily! You can use it to learn the text for your act, or for a poem, or any speech!
And to discover even more practical tips like this one on staging and creating a magic show, immerse yourself in reading Spectacle en couleurs by Jonathan Renoux!
