Rehearsal: The Value of "Speed Throughs?" (A lot) less than you might think.

What is a speed though?

The actorswebsource explains what it is and why is useful:

Most actors are familiar with speed-throughs: speaking the lines very fast, much faster than a person would usually say them. This helps lock the words into our memories, and also highlights any areas in which we don't have the words down - as when a stream or rapid dialogue comes to a screeching or stumbling halt.

To see a speed though in action, check out the video below:

Making allowances for the poor audio quality, you'll still notice one thing -- you can't follow a thing: you have a no idea about what they're talking about, not really.

Now it's true that you don't know the "context," i.e., you don't know what the scene is about, and if you did, knowing the context would help, but that misses the point. While it's an open question about when and how "context" effects come into play during discourse comprehension (if you're really interested, you can try and plow through Christina Hellman's Ph.D Thesis on the topic: Implicitness in Discourse), it is widely accepted that you can usually rapidly acquire the "context" from a conversation, as long as it's coherent.

Listen to the above speed though again. Even with the benefit of listening to it twice, it's still tough -- if not impossible -- to follow. Yet if you were to overhear a conversation in public, you'd probably have little difficulty understanding what they're talking about.

So why the difference?

It has much to do with the discussion contained in this post: when the actors skim the text, they blow through the natural rhythms and structure inherent in the play's language and they largely obliterate it's meaning.

(Note that "speed taking" is about as useful as "speed reading," i.e., speed reading tends to lower one's comprehension of what one is reading. The relationship here shouldn't be surprising -- in both cases, the brain is taking in information, either auditorially or visually, and our brains can think and process information only so fast).

So what's really going on in a speed though? The actors really aren't listening & responding to each other -- they can't because there's little to listen to. About the only thing actors can really do is wait until they "detect" their cue, and then "spout" their line. While the exercise is useful for learning and perhaps over-learning one's cues (a good thing obviously), the question we need to ask is -- is this really the best way to learn one's cues, and what are the possible downsides to using speed thoughs in rehearsals?

I'll try to make the case that this isn't the best way and that speed thoughs may be a waste of time, at best, and harmful to the rehearsal process at worst.

While the study of human memory is far from complete, there are a couple of theories that have withstood the test of experimental refutation and time:

Levels Of Processing Theory of Long-Term-Memory & Learning. The depth with which incoming information is analyzed and encoded ranges from (1) superficial processing of sensory features to (2) semantic and conceptual processing. The theory is that this semantic and conceptual processing is a deeper level of processing, and it leads to longer-lasting memories. According to this theory, early sensory analyses are relatively automatic and effortless and the later deeper analyses requiring attention and effort. (ANDREW M. COLMAN from A Dictionary of Psychology)

Environmental Context—Dependent Memory. Having lived most of his life in St Louis, Missouri, except for two years at the University of Texas at Austin and four years in the military service during the Second World War, my father returned to Texas after 42 long years of forgetting. Although previously certain that he could recall only a few disembodied fragments of memories of his college days, he became increasingly amazed, upon his return, at the freshness and detail of his newly remembered experiences. Strolling excitedly along the streets of Austin, my father suddenly stopped and animatedly described the house in which he had lived in a location now occupied by a parking lot. He recalled in vivid detail, for example, how an armadillo had climbed up the drain pipe one night and become his pet, and how the woman who had cooked for the residents of his house had informed them of the attack on Pearl Harbor, abruptly ending his college career. Not until he returned to the setting in which those long past events had occurred did my father remember the specifics of those events.

This is an example of environmental context (EC)-dependent memory, a class of phenomena in which cognitive processing is affected in subtle, profound, and sometimes important ways by the coincidental background EC in which experiences are set. This particular case is an example of an environmental reinstatement effect, where reinstatement of a previously experienced EC cues memories of events which occurred in that EC.Environmental context (EC) dependent memory is a class of phenomena in which cognitive processing is affected in subtle, profound, and sometimes important ways by the coincidental background EC in which experiences are set. (Steven M. Smith, Department of Psychology, Texas A&M)

The implications for "Levels Of Processing Theory of Long-Term-Memory & Learning" for speed through's are that if what the actor is learning (i.e., the scene, the dialogue) is processed at a shallow, superficial level, anything that the actors "learn" is likely not to last.

Environmental Context—Dependent Memory explains something most actors, stage managers and directors have seen and experienced: For example, if actors have rehearsed in one place for quite a while (e.g., a rental rehearsal room) and then are brought into another place (e.g., the theatre), initially the actors will be "off" their lines. This is because the "context" has suddenly changed. It usually takes a couple of real (not speed ) run thoughs to get the actors connected and the scene back up to pace. It also happens when you suddenly add lights and costumes (e.g., tech and dress): again, initially, the actors are likely to be "off" some of their lines because the brain will automatically start integrating new environmental features into what the actor is trying to learn.

The implication for speed through's, especially those done standing around, sitting in chairs, out of the context of the scene, e.g., outside of the blocking and other environmental based cues that are present when actually doing a scene, is probably a waste a time.

So, what's the best way to learn one's lines and pick up one's cues?

I think acting is like baseball -- it's a simple game of fundamentals. The difficulty, the challenge, is in mastering those simple fundamentals, and those fundamentals are breathing, listening, and responding.

I think most directors will agree that the best way to pick up one's cues is to really listen as the other actor is talking and breathe while they're talking. If one is not really listening and paying attention, or not breathing while the other person is talking, one will probably be too slow in picking up your cues.

The solution, however, is decidedly NOT to focus one's attention primarily on detecting one's cue and then spouting one's line as quickly as one can, as speed thoughs often force the actor to do. While one will get good at this with practice, it's not acting, it's not listening, it's not responding. Speed through's are a missed opportunity to practice the fundamentals that will serve one will in performance and that will make one a stronger actor. 

I need, badly, to become a stronger actor -- and I hate missed opportunities . . . 

So, in sum then, the best way to learn dialogue and pick up your cues is to really pay attention to and listen to your partner(s) and when it is your turn to respond, simply mean what you say.

Rote learning works well, but it’s rigid. It doesn't’t allow creative solutions to bubble up through the magma on the spur of the moment. When a skill becomes automatic, the swampy path that led to it disappears, and it’s hard to make adjustments that might improve one’s gait or route. A theater director I know advises his actors to prepare lavishly through study and practice, then put habitual thought aside, risk spontaneity, and see what happens. (Diane Ackerman, author of An Alchemy of Mind, a tour de force with an electrifying poetic touch about the molecular biology of the brain according to the latest reports from the world’s leading neuroscience laboratories)