Theatre Quotes - Page 40

• It was only in the theatre that I lived

  Oscar Wilde

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.71, GENERAL PRESS

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• The big difference I think between tv and stage is definitely the immediate buzz that you get. And that's not just as an actor, as an audience member you're getting the chance to have this kind of two-way process where the actors and the audience are experiencing the same thing. With tv you often have to wait months and months down the line to actually get the pay-off. Whereas with theatre it's a very immediate thing.

  Colin Morgan

  Thinking, Two, Differences

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• Probably my first memory of theatre, the first one I guess that had an impact on me was when I saw my very first panto with my Primary School. I think just going there and experience that for the first time, being so young, it's something that's actually stuck with me right up until now. And to think back and to sort of remember that magic and that first little hint of it was brilliant.

  Colin Morgan

  Memories, School, Thinking

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• I'm definitely nervous and excited. I feel like I've been playing off-Broadway, not to say that Boston doesn't have a great theatre district or great theatre, but it's not going to Broadway; it's just a different city.

  Todd English

  Boston, Cities, Different

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• Theatre and opera were always the twin kingdoms that I felt I had to conquer, because they were my parents' favorites.

  Diane Paulus

  Parent, Opera, Kingdoms

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

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• Whenever I get a good script, I don't care whether it's telly or theatre or big screen - I'm not bothered.

  Pete Postlethwaite

  Care, Scripts, Bigs

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• For me, it’s like playing the same instrument but in a different context. TV work – it’s really about getting it just right. You have a chance to try again if it’s not. Theatre is like playing a rock show. It doesn’t really matter if you make a tiny mistake. It’s the whole vibe and getting people to feel you. It’s about carrying the moment through all the way with you in an hour and 20 minutes of the narrative.

  Evelyne Brochu

  Mistake, Rocks, People

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• I became an actor by doing school plays and youth theaters, and then National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. And then I did study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. For me that was a good way to enter the field, to work in the theater.

  Chiwetel Ejiofor

  Art, School, Play

  "Talking With Chiwetel Ejiofor". The Washington Post Live Q&As, www.washingtonpost.com. April 1, 2008.

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• I love theatre - it's where I started - and I've directed a play myself. I'm not sure if I want to direct a film, but certainly, as an actress, I'm always thinking, 'Surely this must be my last film.'

  Cate Blanchett

  Thinking, Play, Want

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• I did some theatre. I had some smaller roles in a couple TV shows and films. I used to think I did a lot of acting, but my 'career' started when I started Homeland.

  Morgan Saylor

  Couple, Thinking, Tv Shows

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• There are a few directors around who I have some excitement about spending my $7 at the theatre watching their movies.

  Sean Penn

  Directors, Excitement, Spending

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• Artistic ambition is important. And it seems it would be a great time to do some theatre, like a new extreme.

  Emile Hirsch

  Ambition, Important, Would Be

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• In contrast, the control you have in a theatre is very attractive to me.

  Judi Dench

  Attractive, Contrast

  "Judi Dench Press Conference at the 2004 Taormina BNL Filmfest". www.filmscouts.com. 2004.

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• I did theatre a lot when I was a kid. Then I went to acting school in New York. I did a lot of behind the scenes in college. I wanted to learn while I had the time. I studied theatre and film in different capacities.

  Justin Bartha

  New York, School, Kids

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• I love old movies. The '40s theatre pace is fantastic.

  Yancy Butler

  Pace, Fantastic, Old Movie

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• At best, the relationship between drama critic and playwright is a pretty twiggy affair. When I'm asked whom I write for, after the obligatory, I write only for myself, I realize that I have an imaginary circle of peers - writers and respected or savvy theatre folk, some dramatic writers and some not, some living, some long gone. . . . Often a writer is aware as he works that a certain critic is going to hate this one. . . . You don't let what a critic might say worry you or alter your work; it might even add a spark to the gleeful process of creation.

  Lanford Wilson

  Hate, Drama, Writing

  "The Critic On My Shoulder" by Lanford Wilson, www.nytimes.com. December 29, 1996.

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• I want to seduce the audience. If they can go along for a ride they wouldn't ordinarily take, or don't even know they're taking, then they might see highly charged political issues in a new and unexpected way. . . . The theatre is now so afraid to face its social demons that we've given that responsibility over to film. But it will always be harder to deal with certain issues in the theatre. The live event - being watched by people as we watch - makes it seem all the more dangerous.

  Paula Vogel

  Responsibility, Issues, People

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• Write plays that matter. Raise the stakes. Shout, yell, holler, but make yourself heard. It's time for playwrights to reclaim the theatre. We do that by speaking from the heart about the things that matter most to us. If a play isn't worth dying for, maybe it isn't worth writing.

  Terrence McNally

  Writing, Heart, Play

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• There is a trend in the whole [U.S.] culture toward making things shorter. People have been watching too much television, and they have a television mentality. I think people really are wary of sitting in a theatre too long. They're not used to it.

  Rocco Landesman

  Thinking, Long, People

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• I write in order to understand the images. Being what my agent . . . somewhat ruefully calls a language playwright, is problematic because in production, you have to make the language lift off the page. But a good actor can turn it into human speech. I err sometimes toward having such a compound of images that if an actor lands heavily on each one, you never pull through to a larger idea. That's a problem for the audience. But I come to playwriting from the visual world - I used to be a painter. I also really love novels and that use of language. But it's tricky to ask that of the theatre.

  Ellen McLaughlin

  Writing, Order, Land

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• Broadway remains the closest thing we have to a national theatre, the place where the greatest number of people can potentially see new work. For an American playwright to say it doesn't matter is simply to capitulate to the current situation.

  Tony Kushner

  Numbers, People, New Work

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• I've come to view screenwriting assignments as playwriting grants, because they provide a considerable financial cushion. However, they can also be extremely time-consuming. Film projects tend to drag on and on, which takes me away from the theatre, and then they don't get made. At the same time, the screenplays that have come my way have been quite challenging, for the most part, and even enjoyable.

  Donald Margulies

  Views, Challenges, Crafts

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• . . I have written a couple of screenplays for studios, and each time has been less gratifying than the last. In my experience, they want no real representations of homosexuality, they want no complexity, they are terrified of ambiguity and unanswered questions - they don't know what they want, except that they want to make lots of money. The only freedom I've ever had as an artist has been in the theatre.

  Craig Lucas

  Couple, Real, Artist

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• Theatre, film and television are all modes of storytelling, and many of us are fortunate enough to move freely among them without feeling that we've 'left' or need to 'go back' to one or the other. In fact, if the theatre is to avoid a brain drain, this kind of fluidity is increasingly necessary.

  Theresa Rebeck

  Moving, Feelings, Brain

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• Today, [theatre's] more likely to be consciously not aimed at the public, but at a more sophisticated or educated public. . . . The result is that some of the sheer humanity has leaked out of the enterprise.

  Arthur Miller

  Humanity, Crafts, Today

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