RunlinesGuide
What does "run lines with me" mean, and how do you do it well?
Short answer
"Can you run lines with me?" means: hold my script, read every character except mine out loud, and let me say my lines from memory. You are not being asked to act or to judge. Your job is to feed the cues at a steady pace and, when the actor gets stuck and says "Line," give them the first few words.
Ask before you start whether they want every wrong word corrected or only the big misses, and read plainly. That is most of being a good reader.
What running lines is, and what it is not
Running lines is a memory drill. The actor says their part out loud, without the page, while someone else supplies everything around it: the other characters' lines, in order, at speaking pace. It tests two things at once: does the actor know the words, and do they know when to say them. The line before theirs is their cue, and hearing it in another voice is what makes the drill work.
It is not a rehearsal of the acting. Nobody is blocking the scene or working out the emotion. The pace is quick and the tone is plain, because the point is the words. A stage manager would call a whole cast doing this a line run; theatre people also say "Italian run" when the lines are rattled off at double speed. Both are in the rehearsal terms guide.
The person holding the script is "on book." The actor is trying to be "off book," meaning they no longer need the page. When an actor asks you to run lines, they usually have a date coming: an audition, a first off-book rehearsal, or a class scene.
How to run lines with someone, step by step
Ask what they want from the run
Three questions, ten seconds: Should I stop you for every wrong word, or only when you go blank? How much do you want when you call for a line, the first word or the whole line? Do you want the stage directions read? Different actors want different things, and a week before the date is not the night before.
Get your own copy of the scene
Reading over their shoulder means they can see the page too. Ask them to send you the PDF, or take the printed sides while they stand away from them. Find their character name and pencil a mark beside each of their lines so you never lose your place.
Read only the other parts, and skip the names
Do not say "DEV:" before each line. Just read the words. Skip parentheticals like (beat) or (laughing) unless they asked for them. When you reach their line, stop and wait.
Read plainly, at conversation speed
Clear and steady beats dramatic. You are giving them something to answer, not a performance to compete with. Do not rush to fill a pause; a pause is often the actor finding the line.
When they say "Line," give the first few words
"Line" (or "line, please") is the standard way an actor asks for a prompt. Give the first two or three words of their line and stop. If they still cannot get it, give the whole line once, then carry on with the next cue.
Save corrections for the end of the run
Unless they asked you to stop them, keep going and pencil a mark at every paraphrase or skipped line. At the end, read back what the page actually says: "You said 'about ten-fifteen.' It is 'around ten-fifteen.'" Specific beats general.
Run it again, then run the hard part
One run is rarely enough. Do the whole scene again, then go back to the stretch with the most marks and run just that, two or three times, before one last full run.
An example run, line by line
Here is the six-line sample scene from the Runlines app. The actor is playing MARA, so you read DEV. Their lines are highlighted; you do not say them.
Now suppose the actor says "I said about ten-fifteen," then pauses after "Around is not a time" and says "Line." You give them "Around is the..." and wait. They finish it. On the last line they say "You always wait" and drop "You would wait anyway." You keep reading and keep two pencil marks. At the end you say: "Two notes. First line is 'around,' not 'about.' And the last line starts with 'You would wait anyway.'" Then you run it again. That is a good reader's whole job, done in under two minutes.
Reading for a self tape
A self tape is an audition the actor records at home and sends to casting. If you are the reader, you are still feeding lines, but the camera changes a few things.
- Read the casting instructions first. Some say where the reader should stand or ask that the reader stay off camera. Follow them over anything here.
- Stand beside the camera, close to the lens. The actor looks at you, so where you stand is where their eyes go. Ask them where they want you.
- Speak more quietly than the actor. You are much closer to the phone's microphone, so a normal voice from you can be louder on the tape than they are. Keep it clear but low.
- Give them something real, not a performance. A flat reading gives the actor nothing to react to; a big one pulls attention off them. Mean what the lines say, at a moderate level.
- Do not step on their lines. Wait until they finish, including the pause at the end of a thought. Overlaps are hard to fix in a self tape.
- You do not need to match the character. Any age or gender can read any part. Casting is watching the actor.
- It can be done over a call. If you cannot be in the room, read over FaceTime or Zoom with headphones on your end, and keep your voice low on their speaker.
The line-learning happens before the tape. Running lines in the days before means the actor spends the taping on the scene, not on remembering words.
Common mistakes readers make
- Acting the other part. Accents, crying, big pauses for effect. It slows the run and makes the actor play off a performance they will not get in the room.
- Reading the character names and stage directions. "DEV. Pause. You said the ten-fifteen." The actor has to filter out half of what you say.
- Prompting too soon. Give them a few seconds of silence before you help, unless they say "Line." The effort of remembering is the useful part.
- Prompting too much. Reading the whole line when they only needed the first word means they did not actually recall it.
- Correcting mid-line. Stopping the actor in the middle of a speech breaks the flow and the memory. Mark it and say it at the end, unless they asked to be stopped.
- Letting "close enough" go without saying so. If the scene is for an audition or a show, the exact words matter. Tell them, even if they got the meaning right.
- Losing your place. Pencil marks next to their lines fix this. So does reading from your own copy.
When nobody can run lines with you
If you are the actor and there is nobody to ask, you still need the two things a reader gives you: the cue in a voice that is not in your head, and your line kept out of sight. The guide on how to run lines by yourself compares four ways to get both, from a cover card to a voice-memo cue track, and includes a 20-minute solo session.
Where Runlines fits
Runlines is an iPhone app that does the reader's job from this guide, for the days when there is no reader. You paste the scene or open the PDF and pick your character. It reads every other part out loud with your iPhone's voices, skips the names, stops at your line with the words covered, and waits as long as you need. Tap Reveal when you would have called "Line," and it notes the peek; after each run, each of your lines is marked off book, learning, or shaky, which is the reader's pencil marks kept for you. It does not listen to you, so it cannot catch a paraphrase the way a person can, and it does not record video, so it is for learning the lines before a self tape, not for the tape itself. The free version includes 5 runs a month. How the reading works.
Quick answers
Is running lines the same as rehearsing?
No. Rehearsal works on the acting: movement, intention, how the scene plays. Running lines works only on the words and the cues, usually at a faster pace and with no acting. Actors run lines so that rehearsal time is not spent remembering words.
What should an actor say when they forget a line?
"Line," or "line, please." It is the standard request for a prompt in rehearsal, and the reader answers with the first few words of the line.
Do I need to be an actor to run lines with someone?
No. Anyone who can read clearly and follow a page can do it. A plain, steady reader is often more useful than a dramatic one.
How many times should you run lines?
There is no fixed number. A practical finish line is two full runs in a row without a prompt, at speaking pace. Until then, run the scene, run the weakest stretch on its own, and run the scene again. The full method for learning lines.
Can you run lines over the phone or a video call?
Yes. Send the reader the PDF, and use headphones on at least one end so the voices do not echo. It works well for a final run before an audition.
