Today take the time to exercise something that will help you in your acting, your memories. Memories are basically images that have been collected throughout our life. Mnemonics is the idea that we store memories and images great. These memories will be associated with certain words. Those memories can help us connect to our characters later, because of association. That is what we are going to focus on, human memory.
Exploring memories with Mnemonics
Steps:
- The first part of this will require a pen and paper. Write down 10-30 unrelated words. Words like, “grass”, “pizza”, and “blue”.
- Once you have your list of words, you are now going to read through each one several times. Take the time to read through the words slowly. You will want to allow time for your mind to associate a memory or image to each word.
- After every following word or image, the next word should have some connections to the previous word
- The results could be the next title for a new play!
Here’s an example:
If the words that are written down are “grass”, “pizza”, and “blue”. You may think of sitting in the grass then a pizza is delivered and when you check it the pizza is blue!
While the results can be funny, the association of words plays back into using your memories to your advantage. This will allow you to reference memories in order to connect more with a character. You can also try with different words or even phrases and see what images or memories they bring up.
For more information on this exercise and more, check out:
“15 Games & Exercises to Improve Acting Skills”- https://actinginlondon.co.uk/exercises-improve-acting-skills/