Hamlet Production

This post is reserved for my experience acting this semester in a group production of Hamlet for my Shakespeare Lit class.

I will discuss line memorization, public speaking, actor to actor repsonse, as well as character developement.  All of this will center around information from this class and how the memory techniques we discussed have impacted this project. 

A quick note: it is interesting that in this class we speak so much about remembering words but not movements.

The most important thing I learned from this production was that memorizing lines is just like constructing a musey-room.  But, instead of having to imagine all the props in your head, you get to build them and put them in your hands or within eye sight.  I found that the stage directions and set for each scene had a huge impact on my ability to remember my lines.  Interestingly, in the absence of props I had to imagine them in order to remember some lines, and in other instances I had to have the previous characters line in order to remember my next line.

While I was impressed with my ability to remember everything in the play, I find it problematic that there existed a rigid structure or sequence that was necessary for my memory to function effectively.  I further endeavor to examine if this is a commonality in memory or if there is a more flexible strategy for memorization.