Why I hate the "M" word . . .

When was the last time you heard someone tell you they were going to memorize how to drive a car? Or how about: "I better memorize how to kiss, or Margie's gonna drop me!" And then there's: "Boy! Tiger Woods sure memorized how to hit a golf ball."

Getting the point? Memorizing is for things that're done by rote: Dates on a history test, your mother's cell phone, the grocery list, maybe. For things like music, physical skills - and anything that actually has to be assimilated and turned into muscle memory - the proper word for acquiring any of those skills is LEARNING.

We learn to drive a car, ride a bike, hit a golf ball - and the actor LEARNS lines. Many actors have told me that their biggest chore is memorizing lines. Here's what I tell them: If you associate the line with emotion and study the line and emotion together, the line actually learns itself! You cut your study time down by more than half.

But the real point is this. The performance must be organic, real. Remember my definition: "Acting is moving through the fantasy world of the text in a completely natural state." Memorization is a function of the head, conscious thought - performance is all about feeling your way through the world of the play or screenplay, reacting to stimulus from other characters, the environment and your own inner life. That's why I say: LEARNING is an organic process, memorization, for our purposes, is not. More on this later.