Theatre Quotes
For use in newsletters, season or fundraising brochures or emails, presentations--you name it.
Category | Quote | First | Last | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
Acting |
Acting is mostly about listening. If you just focus in on what the other person is saying, acting takes care of itself to quite a large extent. |
Alan | Rickman | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alanrickma251358.html |
Acting |
Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over. |
Alan | Rickman | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alanrickma251360.html |
Directing |
Directing takes such a big lump out of your life. |
Alan | Rickman | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alanrickma251372.html |
Acting |
Acted drama requires surrender of one's self, sympathetic absorption in the play as it develops. |
George P. | Baker | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgepba199310.html |
Acting |
Acting is a very limited form of expression and those who take it seriously are very limited people. I take it seriously. |
Judy | Holliday | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/judyhollid227986.html |
Musical Theatre |
In musical theater you have to be very big and very animated, while film and television are more toned down. |
Kevin | Richardson | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/k/kevinricha292397.html |
General |
A nation that does not support and encourage its theater is -- if not dead -- dying; just as a theater that does not capture with laughter and tears the social and historical pulse, the drama of its people, the genuine color of the spiritual and natural landscape, has no right to call itself theater; but only a place for amusement. |
Federico | Garcia Lorca | http://www.cfa.ilstu.edu/pguithe/THE344/quotes.html |
Playwriting |
As a writer you're holding a dog. You let the dog run about. But you finally can pull him back. Finally, I'm in control. But the great excitement is to see what happens if you let the whole thing go. And the dog or the character really runs about, bites everyone in sight, jumps up trees, falls into lakes, gets wet, and you let that happen. That's the excitement of writing plays--to allow the thing to be free but still hold the final leash. |
Harold | Pinter | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
Acting |
Acting is an everlasting search for truth. |
Laurence | Olivier | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
Acting |
There's a certain secret every actor must have in his work. If you reveal it, you're letting the audience in on the wrinkles and convolutions of your brain. All I want them to do is to see the effect. |
Frank | Langella | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
General |
If no single reason can fully account for the lack of great work on Broadway these days, there is a factor in the discussion that is rarely mentioned but which has a bearing on what gets produced: the audience. . . It's not audience intelligence that has waned; it's audience passion -- the pro forma Broadway standing ovation now springs from duty not desire.... If that passion exists more in the audience for The Lord of the Rings than for contemporary Broadway musicals, well, at least it is alive somewhere. (2003) |
Brendan | Lemon | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
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 |
Playwriting |
Playwrights must be allowed to be at less than their best sometimes, without meeting an all-out critical assault. |
Peter | Hall | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
Critics |
People have pointed out evidences of personal feeling in my notices as if they were accusing me of a misdemeanor, not knowing that criticism written without personal feeling is not worth reading. It is the capacity for making good or bad art a personal matter that makes a man a critic. |
George Bernard | Shaw | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
Acting |
An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents |
Alec | Guinness | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
Directing, General, Playwriting |
The stage play is a trial, not a deed of violence. The soul is opened, like the combination of a safe, by means of a word. You don't require an acetylene torch. |
Jean | Giradoux | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
Playwriting |
People often ask me how long it takes me to write a play, and I tell them 'all of my life.' |
Edward | Albee | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
Playwriting |
A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage. |
Edward | Albee | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
Musical Theatre |
I don't see that many plays, and for me, musicals are rarely pleasing. I feel the actors are being put through a kind of nightmarish labor. They're like animals being forced to pull heavy carts of vegetables at incredible speeds. |
Wallace | Shawn | http://www.curtainup.com/timelyquotes.html |
General |
If no single reason can fully account for the lack of great work on Broadway these days, there is a factor in the discussion that is rarely mentioned but which has a bearing on what gets produced: the audience. . . It's not audience intelligence that has waned; it's audience passion -- the pro forma Broadway standing ovation now springs from duty not desire. . . If that passion exists more in the audience for The Lord of the Rings than for contemporary Broadway musicals, well, at least it is alive somewhere. |
Brendan | Lemon | http://www.curtainup.com/timelyquotes.html |
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 |
Backstage |
If we could read minds, we wouldn't need headsets. |
Tommy | Kendrick | http://www.denagy.com/techiejokes/tjokes.html |
Backstage |
Beat to fit, paint to match. |
Kate | Bolgrien | http://www.denagy.com/techiejokes/tjokes.html |
Acting, Backstage, Directing |
An actor without techies is a naked person standing in the dark trying to emote. A techie without actors is a person with marketable skills. |
Mark | Leslie | http://www.denagy.com/techiejokes/tjokes.html |
Set Design |
A ground plan is important in terms of its rigor. If your plan is soggy and weak, your production will be soggy and weak. |
David | Hays | http://www.emerson.edu/emersontoday/index.cfm?action=3&articleID=678&editionID=45 |
Acting |
A fool cannot be an actor, though an actor may act a fool's part. |
Sophocles | http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/topics/acting_t003.htm | |
Acting |
Young actors, fear your admirers! Learn in time, from your first steps, to hear, understand and love the cruel truth about yourselves. Find out who can tell you that truth and talk of your art only with those who can tell you the truth. |
Konstantin | Stanislavsky | http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/topics/acting_t004.htm |
General |
Theatre is like a virus: once you get it you can't get rid of it. |
Robin | Boisseau | http://www.hamptonu.edu/academics/schools/libarts/fparts/facultyandstaff.htm |
Acting, Shakespeare |
In Shakespeare, keep it simple. Don't over-inflect. The speech needs to be naturalistic and simple and accessible as much as possible. |
Ralph | Fiennes | http://www.ifc.com/fix/2011/12/ralph-fiennes-coriolanus-interview |
Set Design |
I've always tended to work with the set as another character in the play. |
George | Pinney | http://www.iu.edu/~rcapub/v29n1/sets.shtml |
Lighting |
The stage designer quickly learns that things are not always what they appear to be. A director who asks for 'more light' on an actor, probably doesn't mean that at all. Instead he really just wants 'to see the actor better'. The designer might chose to reduce the lighting contrast around the actor, or simply ask the actor to tip his head up a bit. Both solutions solve the problem without 'adding more light'. So the lighting designer also has to be a good listener, a careful interpreter and a skilled crafts person. |
Bill | Williams | http://www.mts.net/%7Ewilliam5/sld/sld-100.htm |
Lighting |
Stage lighting is no longer a matter of simple illumination as it was less than 100 years ago. Today, the lighting designer is expected to be a master of art, science, history, psychology, communications, politics and sometimes even mind reading. |
Bill | Williams | http://www.mts.net/%7Ewilliam5/sld/sld-100.htm |
Lighting |
The lighting designer will never stop learning. Every production or project will present new challenges, new obstacles, new human dynamics and new problems to solve. There can and should be many failures along the way. This is part of the artistic process. The lighting designer shouldn't hesitate to make as many mistakes as possible - just don't make the same mistake twice. |
Bill | Williams | http://www.mts.net/%7Ewilliam5/sld/sld-100.htm |
Lighting |
Stage lighting is no longer a matter of simple illumination as it was less than 100 years ago. Today, the lighting designer is expected to be a master of art, science, history, psychology, communications, politics, and sometimes even mind reading. |
Bill | Williams | http://www.mts.net/%7Ewilliam5/sld/sld-100.htm |
Fundraising |
Donors don't give to institutions. They invest in ideas and people in whom they believe. |
G.T. | Smith | http://www.museummarketingtips.com/quotes/giving.html |
Fundraising |
Appreciation can make a day--even change a life, Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. |
Margaret | Cousins | http://www.museummarketingtips.com/quotes/giving.html |
Fundraising |
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. |
William | James | http://www.museummarketingtips.com/quotes/giving.html |
Fundraising |
In good times and bad, we know that people give because you meet needs, not because you have needs. |
Kay | Grace | http://www.museummarketingtips.com/quotes/giving.html |
Fundraising |
Fundraising is the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving. |
Hank | Russo | |
Fundraising |
Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. |
Oprah | Winfrey | http://www.museummarketingtips.com/quotes/giving.html |