Theatre Quotes
For use in newsletters, season or fundraising brochures or emails, presentations--you name it.
Category | Quote | First | Last | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
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 |
Acting, Set Design |
I started off as a theatre designer, and by some extraordinary circumstance I saw something in Stratford-upon-Avon, and realized that that's the kind of design I want, but also that that's the kind of designer I'll never be. |
Judi | Dench | http://www.brainyquote.com |
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 |
Lighting |
Oftentimes the quality of the light tells the story: the time of day, the weather, whether sun is streaming through the window. It can also help you appreciate what the actor is feeling, what the playwright wants you to feel. Any engineer can put a spot on someone. |
Jules | Fisher | It Happened On Broadway |
Lighting |
Lighting is not about function. It's much more about the mood and the emotion that the playwright and the director are trying to create. Our job is to support their poetic direction. |
Jules | Fisher | It Happened On Broadway |
Acting, General |
God comes to us in theater [in] the way we communicate with each other, whether it be a symphony orchestra, or a wonderful ballet, or a beautiful painting, or a play. It's a way of expressing our humanity. |
Julie | Harris | Christian Science Monitor 15 May 79 |
Set Design |
Theatrical design is different from many other art forms in that it is a collaborative art. No one theatre artist works independently to create a performance. |
Kaoime | Malloy | The Art of Theatrical Design |
Costumes |
The moment an actor walks on stage, an impression is made. The audience immediately gains crucial information, both about the production as a whole and the character. A costume is a transformation garment, one that assists an actor to beomce, for a time, someone else. |
Kaoime | Malloy | The Art of Theatrical Design |
Acting |
Acting is not being emotional, but being able to express emotion. |
Kate | Reid | http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/acting |
Backstage |
Beat to fit, paint to match. |
Kate | Bolgrien | http://www.denagy.com/techiejokes/tjokes.html |
Acting |
What acting means is that you've got to get out of your own skin. |
Katherine | Hepburn | Friendly Advice by Jon Winokur |
Acting |
Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four. |
Katherine | Hepburn | http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/acting |
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 |
Volunteers |
Volunteers will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no volunteers. |
Ken | Wyman | |
Acting, Directing, General, Playwriting |
You need three things in the theatre -- the play, the actors and the audience, and each must give something. |
Kenneth | Haigh | http://www.satheatre.com/quotes.htm |
Playwriting |
Show me a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts of a Peeping Tom and I will show you the making of a dramatist. |
Kenneth | Tynan | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Critics |
A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car. |
Kenneth | Tynan | New York Times Magazine, Jan 9. 1966 |
General |
No theater could sanely flourish until there was an umbilical connection between what was happening on the stage and what was happening in the world. |
Kenneth | Tynan | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/k/kenneth_tynan.html |
Critics, Playwriting |
The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic. |
Kenneth | Tynan | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/k/kenneth_tynan.html |
General |
In is down, down is front. Out is up, up is back. Off is out, on is in. And of course, left is right and right is left. A drop shouldn't and a 'block and fall' does neither. A prop doesn't and a cove has no water. Tripping is okay. A running crew rarely gets anywhere . A purchase line buys you nothing. A trap will not catch anything. A gridiron has nothing to do with football. Strike is work (in fact, a lot of work). And a green room, thank God, usually isn't. Now that you're fully versed in theatrical terms, break a leg. But not really. |
Kerry | Chafin | https://suite.io/kerry-chafin/2nhw2w1 |
Acting, Shakespeare |
Playing Shakespeare requires technique. You don't play a Bach toccata by getting in the mood. |
Kevin | Kline | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
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 |
Acting |
Play well, or play badly, but play truly. |
Konstantin | Stanislavsky | Friendly Advice by Jon Winokur |
Acting |
The main difference between the art of the actor and all other arts is that every other [non-performing] artist may create whenever he is in the mood of inspiration. But the artist of the stage must be the master of his own inspiration, and must know how to call it forth at the hour announced on the posters of the theatre. This is the chief secret of our art. |
Konstantin | Stanislavsky | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Acting |
There are no small parts, there are only small actors. |
Konstantin | Stanislavksy | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Lighting |
In a circle of light on the stage in the midst of darkness, you have the sensation of being entirely alone. . . . This is called solitude in public. . . . You can always enclose yourself in this circle, like a snail in its shell. |
Konstantin | Stanislavsky | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
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, Musical Theatre, Playwriting |
If Hitler's still alive, I hope he's out of town with a musical. [variously attributed] |
Larry | Gelbart | http://povonline.com/Hitler%20Line.htm |
Acting |
Have a very good reason for everything you do. |
Laurence | Olivier | Friendly Advice by Jon Winokur |
Acting |
Use your weaknesses; aspire to the strength. |
Laurence | Olivier | Friendly Advice by Jon Winokur |
Acting |
Lead the audience by the nose to the thought. |
Laurence | Olivier | Friendly Advice by Jon Winokur |
Acting |
I have to act to live. |
Laurence | Olivier | http://theatre.usc.edu/whatistheatre |
Acting |
What is the main problem of the actor? It is to keep the audience awake, and not let them go to sleep, then wake up and go home feeling they've wasted their money. |
Laurence | Olivier | |
Acting |
When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part. |
Laurence | Olivier | Theatre Arts May 58 |
Acting |
Acting is an everlasting search for truth. |
Laurence | Olivier | http://www.curtainup.com/quotepro.html |
General |
The cast, staff, and crew of a live theater work together toward a common goal: a good performance. Thus, theater is necessarily a group effort. However, it is never a group effort of vague fellow committee members, but of associated autocrats--a playwright, a producer, a director, a stage manager, designers, and, above all, actors. Each accommodates the others, and may overlap others in function when necessary. But each autocrat assumes distinct responsibilities and accepts them completely. |
Lawrence | Stern | Stage Management |
Backstage |
There is no definitive list of the duties of a stage manager that is applicable to all theaters and staging environments. Regardless of specific duties, however, the stage manager is the individual who accepts responsibility for the smooth running of rehearsals and performances, on stage and backstage. |
Lawrence | Stern | Stage Management |
Acting, Directing, General |
You can't make theater happen without actors. The actor is the central ingredient in making theater happen. Audiences may come to theaters to see the work of stage managers, directors and producers, but the only people who can communicate theater magic to audiences, through ideas and emotions, are the actors. They are the only ones who can communicate this by themselves, and if necessary, they can get along without you. But you can't make theater without the actor. |
Lawrence | Stern | Stage Management |
Acting, Backstage, Directing, General |
The director is responsible for interpreting the playwright's work through the cast with the help of the staff. It is the director's artistic concept of the play that the cast, staff, and crew work to obtain. |
Lawrence | Stern | Stage Management |
Backstage |
An interesting difference between new and experienced stage managers is that the new stage manager thinks of running the show as the most difficult and most demanding part of the job, whereas the experienced stage manager thinks of it as the most relaxing part. Perhaps the reason is that experienced stage managers have built up work habits that make then so thoroughly prepared for the production phase that they [can] sit back during performances to watch that preparation pay off. |
Lawrence | Stern | Stage Management |