Theatre Quotes
For use in newsletters, season or fundraising brochures or emails, presentations--you name it.
Category | Quote | First | Last | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
General |
There are two kinds of theatre, good and bad. Much as I should like to see theatre in America, I would rather have no theatre than bad theatre. What we must strive for is perfection and come as close to it as is humanly possible |
Margot | Jones | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
General |
The truth is that the spectators are always in their senses, and know, from the first act to the last, that the stage is only a stage, and that the players are only players. |
Samuel | Johnson | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Acting |
The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with conjecture and prognostication, as the first actions of a new monarch agitate nations with hope and fear. |
Samuel | Johnson | |
Directing |
One of the issues peculiar to community theater is dealing with inexperienced or outright bad actors who are so unimaginative, so lacking in energy, that no matter what devices you use, you just don't seem to be helping them that much. They will improve. It is your rseponsibility that the actor should ever feel that he or she has failed. |
Ann | Jellicoe | Stage Directions Guide to Directing |
Acting, Directing |
The virtue of dress rehearsals is that they are a free show for a select group of artists and friends of the author, and where for one unique evening the audience is almost expurgated of idiots. |
Alfred | Jarry | http://izquotes.com/ |
Fundraising |
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. |
William | James | http://www.museummarketingtips.com/quotes/giving.html |
Acting |
You'd think is something one would grow out of. But you grow into it. The more you do, the more you realize how painfully easy it is to be lousy and how very difficult to be good. |
Glenda | Jackson | People, March 1985 |
Acting |
Acting is not about dressing up. Acting is about stripping bare. The whole essence of learning lines is to forget them so you can make them sound like you thought of them that instant. |
Glenda | Jackson | |
Playwriting |
I've taught both screenwriting and playwriting, and playwriting is both much harder and much more rewarding. One can teach people how to tell a story in cinematic ways, but theater is a much more elusive craft. |
David | Ives | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/david_ives.html |
Playwriting |
Writing a play, you start with less, so more is demanded of you. It's as if you have to not only write a symphony, but invent the instruments as well. |
David | Ives | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/david_ives.html |
Acting |
You think, you don't just speak. The lines come off the thoughts. |
Jeremy | Irons | American Film magazine |
Playwriting |
I started writing for the theatre because I hated it. |
Eugene | Ionesco | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
General |
Theater is, of course, a reflection of life. Maybe we have to improve life before we can hope to improve theater. |
William | Inge | Saturday Review 22 Feb 64 |
Playwriting |
Before I write down one word, I have to have the character in my mind through and through. I must penetrate into the last wrinkle of his soul. |
Henrik | Ibsen | http://www.notable-quotes.com/p/playwriting_quotes.html |
General, Management |
I've never quite understood the idea of a "season." Whenever an artistic director says to me, 'I have this slot,' I always start to feel we're parking cars or something. |
David Henry | Hwang | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Acting, Shakespeare |
Playing Shakespeare is very tiring. You never get to sit down, unless you're a king. |
Josephine | Hull | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Backstage, Lighting, Set Design |
If I wanted to have people tell me what to do, I would have become an actor. |
Rob | Hudd | http://www.denagy.com/techiejokes/tjokes.html |
Playwriting |
White male playwrights' works continue to dominate production slates. Sometimes it seems easier for them to have the texts of their driver's licenses produced than for the female or non-white playwright to have her best play produced. The reality is, they are more often given that all-important opportunity to fail than the women's play or ethnic play. |
Velina Hasu | Houston | http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/playwriting/quotes.html |
General, Management |
This is a non-commercial theatre. It's got to be run by a person who sees right from the start that the profits won't be money profits. [On the idea of a Federal Theatre Project, 1934] |
Harry | Hopkins | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Acting |
Acting's entertainment. It's not brain surgery. |
Anthony | Hopkins | Hello! Special Edition, 9.6.01. |