Best 631 quotes in «theatre quotes» category

A stage set should not make a pretty picture of its own. The empty stage should look formal and pleasing, but should seem to be waiting for the action to complete it; it should not hold definite significance in itself.

A theatre, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance.

A theatre receives recognition through its initiative, which is indispensable for first-rate performances.

At the same time, television theatre became more visibly active.

Auctions are bizarre combinations of slave market, trading floor, theatre and burlesque... a lot of people are going to be making a lot of excuses or maintaining that they were never part of this.

A video taped stage performance is just - you know, it's never gonna be the same as it is if you're sitting there live in the theatre.

A young Brit girl with no theatre experience decided to take on an iconic American role on Broadway. Maybe I should have thought that through?

Best performance of the year: Aston Villa v. Milan, September 1994

Because Chicago was to radio what Hollywood was to films and Broadway was to the theatre: it was the hub of radio.

Being another character is more interesting than being yourself.

Belonging to the Dramatists Guild Council where, with my fellow dramatists, I can directly affect (and protect) the professional lives of all American Playwrights has always made me feel that I am returning as much to the theatre as I withdraw. Because only playwrights can ensure the well-being of playwrights. No one else will do it for us.

Charity in the theater begins and ends with those who have a play opening within a week of one's own.

Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view.

Chess and theatre often lead to madness.

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.

But I think theatre in a repressive society is an immensely exciting event and theatre in a luxurious old, affluent old society like ours is an entertaining event.

But, you see, the theatre is not always art in America.

By obtaining a sense of its place in the unfolding drama of life, set in an ecological theatre, so we can understand why it has become one of the leading players.

Choosing to be in the theatre was a way to put my roots down somewhere with other people. It was a way to choose a new family.

Coughing in the theater is not a respiratory ailment. It is a criticism.

Coming from the theatre I have played some fabulous characters where I get to wear gowns and I get to be a princess or someone from the 1920s, or I get to wear showgirl costumes. I'm used to wearing a wardrobe that changes how I feel.

Don't let a single comic moment pass you by; then help the audience get the laughs. Give them permission to laugh by holding for laughter and by letting them know early on what they're in for. In the first few moments, the audience is gathering information, looking at the scenery and costumes. Create a comic moment as soon as you can.

Create an atmosphere in which anything is possible.

'Doctor Who' was my first telly job, and before that I did a lot of theatre in education, children's theatre.

Do you know what makes a movie work? Moments. Give the audience half a dozen moments they can remember, and they'll leave the theatre happy.

Don't write stage directions. If it is not apparent what the character is trying to accomplish by saying the line, tell us how the character said it or whether or not she moved to the couch isn't going to aid the case.

Every character is a part of you and a part of the character that you are going to evolve into that you are not yet.

Drama - what literature does at night.

Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him.

Drama assumes an order. If only so that it might have - by disrupting that order - a way of surprising.

Every play should be 90 minutes. There would be so many more theatre-goers if plays were shorter.

Every place is a goldmine. You have only to give yourself time, sit in a teahouse watching the passers-by, stand in a corner of the market, go for a haircut. You pick up a thread – a word, a meeting, a friend of a friend of someone you have just met – and soon the most insipid, most insignificant place becomes a mirror of the world, a window on life, a theatre of humanity.

Every time I make, I've made a piece of work, I've wanted to get rid of it, obliterate it and do the next thing, because it was never quite what I wanted. I think the moment you think you've arrived is the moment that you should stop.

Every time I listened to Lux Radio Theatre, I wanted to vomit.

Fifteen years before I became a screen actor, I was in the theatre. A lot of my work was comedy, which I loved doing. It's harder.

Every time you watch a performance in the theatre, you know that this is just for you, and will never be the same again. It is quite exciting for me.

Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.

Films take up so much time, and with theatre, you do have to plan a period of time that you can be free.

Film is where I want to end up, but I don't want to let go of theatre.

First there was the theatre of people and animals, then of people and the devil. Now we need the theatre of people and people.

From the viewpoint of analytic psychology, the theatre, aside from any aesthetic value, may be considered as an institution for the treatment of the mass complex.

For me, filmmaking combines everything. That's the reason I've made cinema my life's work. In films, painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.

For my first acting job I played the role of Ensign Pulver in 'Mr. Roberts' at the Manitoba Theatre Centre.

Frankly I don't listen to lyrics (a problem in that I apparently work in musical theatre) I just want a good tune that doesn't require the use of too much grey matter.

For me, making films is like being on vacation, it's a nice walk. But theatre is like mountaineering. You never know whether you're going to fall off or make it to the top.

From the start it has been the theatre's business to entertain people ... it needs no other passport than fun.

Good plays drive bad playgoers crazy.

Getting the call to be in The Goblet of Fire was like being welcomed into the most exclusive upper circle of some elite actors' club. You sit on set with the cream of the National Theatre and the RSC, all clutching wands or wearing witches' hats.

Go to the Martin Beck Theatre and watch Katherine Hepburn run the gamut of emotions from A to B.

Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to.