Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.
When I did plays in high school and college, I never remember memorizing my lines, but once I had blocking, I had all my lines memorized. Once I had movement associated with words, it was fine. Before I had blocking, it was just text on a page. Once it became embodied, it was much easier.