New Idea, Old Idea

Every once in a while in a script you’ll see a word or phrase repeated.

 

 You may ask, “Donald, if it’s an action verb, shouldn’t I use it every time?”

 

Nope.

 

Using the same word repeatedly is like hitting the same note on a piano over and over again. If you hit the same note on a piano consecutively, it would not be effective. You have to change things up in order to create the musicality that’s needed for acting.

 

If you have a verb that is repeating like this:

 

            Let’s run to the store and then let’s run to the movies.

 

You wouldn’t want to say, “Let’s run to the store and then let’s run to the movies,” because the second time that you say ‘run’ it’s an old idea - it’s already been said.  You can throw away the second ‘run’ in the sentence.

 

You would say, “Let’s run to the store and then let’s run to the movies,” because the word ‘movies’ is the new idea in that line.

 

Anytime something is repeated – a thought, a phrase, a word – you don’t want to use it every time the same that you did when it was a new idea because it becomes ineffective.

 

You don’t want to do ANYTHING that’s ineffective with your acting.

 

By using New Idea, Old Idea when you’re cold reading, it’s going to give the impression that you’ve read the script before and that you really know what you’re doing.