For some odd reason I agreed to be in a play. I haven’t acted in a real play in many years. It’s less than 2 weeks to go before we open in Look Back in Anger at the Ferndale Repertory Theatre and I am still working on my lines! I am only in one scene. But I have a lot of lines in that scene. It’s been a real struggle for me. It may be age. It may be lack of practice with the specific skill of line memorization. But it may be that I rely on external sources to store and and provide instant retrieval of information so that the muscle of memorization of has atrophies.
I rely on my IPhone to remind me of tasks, appointments, birthdays, anniversaries. I have Google and Wikipedia to provide near instant facts and information that my old brain cannot possibly hold on to.
I’m getting there, with lots of extra work and help from friends and family. But you never know. My brain still freezes at moments and lines I know simply disappear in the ether. So, you could come to the play just to see if I will crash and burn. Kind of like going to a NASCAR race. I may get by with a little paraphrase here and there but you wouldn’t know unless you have memorized the lines yourself. I might pull it off without a hitch. In which case, you might even enjoy the play for it’s own value. You’ll recognize me. I play the old guy.