Theatre Quotes - Page 2

• I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn't dare to make an enemy should get out of the business.

  Bette Davis

  Regret, Apology, Enemy

  Bette Davis (1962). “The lonely life: an autobiography”, Putnam's

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life.

  Arthur Miller

  Theater, Fascinating

  The New York Times, May 9, 1984.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Make them laugh, make them cry, and hack to laughter. What do people go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise. I am a servant of the people. I have never forgotten that.

  Mary Pickford

  Happiness, Laughter, Exercise

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  33 Copy quote

  Show source

• Theatre takes place all the time - wherever one is - and art simply facilitates persuading one this is the case.

  John Cage

  Art, Cases, Persuading

  John Cage (1961). “Silence: Lectures and Writings”, p.174, Wesleyan University Press

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good theatre draws the energies out of the place where it is and gives it back as joie de vivre.

  Joan Littlewood

  Giving, Joy, Energy

  62 Copy quote

• All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

  William Shakespeare

  Birthday, Time, Player

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

  98 Copy quote

  Show source

• Consider the public. Never fear it nor despise it. Coax it, charm it, interest it, stimulate it, shock it now and then if you must, make it laugh, make it cry, but above all never, never, never bore the living hell out of it.

  Noel Coward

  Laughing, Cry, Hell

  Noel Coward, Barry Day (2009). “The Essential Noël Coward Compendium: The Very Best of His Work, Life and Times”, p.73, A&C Black

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Feelings, Historical, Needs

  Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (1964). “Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic”

  83 Copy quote

  Show source

• Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.

  Ralph Richardson

  Witty, Art, People

  New York Herald Tribune 19 May 1946, pt. 5, p. 1

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• You can throw away the privilege of acting, but that would be such a shame. The tribe has elected you to tell its story. You are the shaman/healer, that's what the storyteller is, and I think it's important for actors to appreciate that. Too often actors think it's all about them, when in reality it's all about the audience being able to recognize themselves in you. The more you pull away from the public, the less power you have on screen.

  Ben Kingsley

  Reality, Thinking, Appreciate

  21 Copy quote

• Theater is, of course, a reflection of life. Maybe we have to improve life before we can hope to improve theater.

  William Ralph Inge

  Reflection, Theater, Courses

  58 Copy quote

• Don't be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value.

  Arthur Miller

  Motivational, Money, Thinking

  "Finding Your Bipolar Muse : How to Master Depressive Droughts and Manic Depression". Book by Lana R. Castle, p. 258, 2006.

  46 Copy quote

  Show source

• A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.

  Alfred Hitchcock

  Movie, Art, Gambling

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  94 Copy quote

  Show source

• I love acting. It is so much more real than life.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Funny, Life

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.55, Oxford University Press on Demand

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• The theater, which is in no thing, but makes use of everything - gestures, sounds, words, screams, light, darkness - rediscovers itself at precisely the point where the mind requires a language to express its manifestations.... To break through language in order to touch life is to create or recreate the theatre.

  Antonin Artaud

  Light, Order, Break Through

  "The Theatre and Its Double". Book by Antonin Artaud, 1938.

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• Theatre, in which actors take on changing roles, has among its many functions the examination of identity. For the individual, theatre is a kind of identity laboratory in which social roles can be examined vicariously.

  Richard Hornby

  Acting, Identity, Roles

  Richard Hornby (1986). “Drama, Metadrama and Perception”, p.71, Associated University Presse

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Drama is exposure; it is confrontation; it is contradiction and it leads to analysis, construction, recognition and eventually to an awakening of understanding.

  Peter Brook

  Drama, Understanding, Analysis

  160 Copy quote

• A play is a painting that moves. Instead of it holding still, and you are looking at it, you hold still and it scrolls by.

  Patricia Zipprodt

  Moving, Play, Painting

  6 Copy quote

• I haven't really written my plays and books - I've heard them. The stories are there already, singing in your genes and in your blood.

  Sebastian Barry

  Book, Blood, Play

  8 Copy quote

• The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.

  Arthur Miller

  Home, Writing, Editing

  Harper's, Aug. 1958

  46 Copy quote

  Show source

• The theatre, for all its artifices, depicts life in a sense more truly than history, because the medium has a kindred movement to that of real life, though an artificial setting and form.

  George Santayana

  Real, History, Movement

  George Santayana, Martin A. Coleman (2009). “The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings”, p.84, Indiana University Press

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Theatre is not supposed to represent psychology but passions, which is totally different. Its role is to represent the soul's different emotional states, and those of the mind, the world history.

  Ariane Mnouchkine

  Passion, Emotional, Psychology

  27 Copy quote

• I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.

  Laurence Olivier

  Knowledge, Heart, Actors

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Never meddle with play-actors, for they're a favoured race.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Race, Play, Actors

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1954). “Don Quixote”, London ; Montreal : Penguin Books

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• The world has never before had as much drama as today. Radio, films, television and video inundate us with drama. But while these forms can engage or even enrage the audience, in none of them can the viewer’s response alter the artistic event itselfThat is why theatre is signing its own death warrant when it tries to play too safe. On the other hand, that is also the reason why, although its future often seems bleak, theatre will continue to live and to provoke.

  Girish Karnad

  Drama, Hands, Play

  40 Copy quote