Crossed Lines

Many actors have a facility for making up lines that sound a lot like the playwright's lines - but aren't. It's a valuable skill.

When you're rehearsing
and someone forgets a line
you can't just start cursing.
You have to go on like it's fine.

Sometimes you even have to make something up. Suppose the dialog is like this:

A: Did you shoot him?
B: No.

Suppose A forgets his line. What is B to do? Probably something like this:

A: (uncomfortable pause)
B: I suppose you're wondering if I shot him. No!

It pays to be glib
when you need to ad lib.