Memorize Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s plays can be difficult to act in because the language is so different from our everyday speech. Actors need to learn their lines perfectly, because mistakes sound really obvious in Shakespeare (not many people improvise well in Iambic Pentameter).

And that means actors spend a lot of their time trying all sorts of techniques to try to remember their lines and their cues exactly right. It makes them nervous and shifts their focus to “just remembering” instead of “being in the moment”. The worst feeling an actor can have is being stuck on stage, knowing it is their line, but not recalling it properly, and knowing that they can’t just “wing it” without being laughed at.

ScenePartner was developed from Learning Psychology to provide a foolproof tool for memorizing shakespeare. With actors in mind from the start, we deliver audio, not text or visualization.

And that means actors deliver a perfect line reading every time, right on cue. It frees them up to “really act” and gives them the confidence to excel in every role.

Director

David McCormick has been acting since age 6. He completed studies at the University of Waterloo with a double-major in Psychology and Drama. From the theatre side, he mostly studied directing and was involved in several Shakespeare companies in the region. On the psychology side, he concentrated on Cognitive Psychology, which included research on memory, learning and training.

Recent work with Forward Theatre producing Shakespeare for high-school audiences in Mississauga, David discovered that the major question students asked was “How do you memorize all those lines?” From his research in university, he had developed his own memory system, and knew that some other actors used it, and he has now decided to share this secret with the world.

Email: david.mccormick@memorizeshakespeare.com