Theatre Quotes:

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

source: "Why Not Have Our Own World?". Interview with Renata Murawska, sensesofcinema.com. July, 2005.

topic: Reality, Years, Theatre

It was progressively more difficult to find work in the theatre, as well.

source: "'Why Not Have Our Own World?' Interview with Andrzej Wajda". Interview with Renata Murawska, sensesofcinema.com. July 2005.

topic: Theatre, Television, Active

Television theatre, as is implied in its name, should rely on adaptations of scripts written for the theatre.

source: "'Why Not Have Our Own World?' Interview with Andrzej Wajda". Interview with Renata Murawska, sensesofcinema.com. July 2005.

topic: Theatre, Difficult, Wells

On the one hand, young theatre directors were coming to television theatre, because they wanted to get closer to the cinema, despite having studied and worked for the theatre.

topic: Names, Theatre, Television, Implied

The difference between a theatre with and without an audience is enormous. There is a palpable, critical energy created by the presence of the audience.

source: "'Why Not Have Our Own World?' Interview with Andrzej Wajda". Interview with Renata Murawska, sensesofcinema.com. July 2005.

topic: Hands, Theatre, Directors, Theatre Directors

- Andy Goldsworthy

topic: Differences, Theatre, Energy

I'd like to think that we strive in film and theatre to tell great stories, and I believe in the power of storytelling in our culture.

- Andy Serkis

topic: Believe, Thinking, Theatre

I grew up overseas in Indonesia, and my school had a great art, music, and theatre program.

- Angela Kinsey

topic: Art, School, Theatre, Indonesia

I listened to a lot of tapes of British theatre actresses and tried to learn from them. As Americans, we don't have such a gift with language.

- Angelina Jolie

topic: Theatre, Tape, Actresses

I have to say my background was mostly theatre, which I love, and it took a long time to feel comfortable there. That's probably true of anyone's career.

- Ann Dowd

source: "Interview with Ann Dowd, Star of ‘Compliance’". www.indiewire.com. August 17, 2012.

topic: Careers, Long, Theatre

In the theatre, if you say 'Macbeth', all the actors will start looking very anxious. I'm so well-trained not to say it in the theatre that I can hardly say it in normal life.

- Anna Chancellor

topic: Theatre, Actors, Normal

I was never the class clown or anything like that. When I was growing up and doing theatre in Seattle I was always doing very dramatic work. Now I can't get a dramatic role to save my life!

- Anna Faris

source: "Scary Movie 4 - Anna Faris interview". Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

topic: Growing Up, Class, Theatre

When I play, I feel like in a theatre, why should I look ugly then, because I'm a tennis player?

- Anna Kournikova

topic: Player, Tennis, Theatre, Tennis Player

In the theatre we reach out and touch the past through literature, history and memory so that we might receive and relive significant and relevant human qualities in the present and then pass them on to future generations.

- Anne Bogart

topic: Memories, Past, Theatre, Literature History, History And Memory

The object is freedom.

- Anne Bogart

source: Anne Bogart (2003). “A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre”, p.72, Routledge

topic: Theatre

In theatre, there's the director, the writer, and below them the actor. In film, it's the actors who are most important. That goes against the grain for me.

- Anne-Marie Duff

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

topic: Important, Theatre, Directors

Without class differences, England would cease to be the living theatre it is.

- Anthony Burgess

topic: Class, Differences, Theatre, Class Differences

Acting's entertainment. It's not brain surgery.

- Anthony Hopkins

topic: Brain, Theatre, Acting, Brain Surgery

I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage.

- Anton Chekhov

topic: Theatre, Conventions, Stage

The Theatre of Cruelty has been created in order to restore to the theatre a passionate and convulsive conception of life, and it is in this sense of violent rigour and extreme condensation of scenic elements that the cruelty on which it is based must be understood. This cruelty, which will be bloody when necessary but not systematically so, can thus be identified with a kind of severe moral purity which is not afraid to pay life the price it must be paid.

Artaud sought to remove aesthetic distance, bringing the audience into direct contact with the dangers of life. By turning theatre into a place where the spectator is exposed rather than protected, Artaud was committing an act of cruelty upon them.

topic: Order, Theatre, Passionate, Moral Purity, Rigour

Before our eyes is fought a battle of symbols... for there can be theatre only from the moment when the impossible really begins and when the poetry that occurs on the stage sustains and superheats the realized symbols.

topic: Distance, Theatre, Danger, Artaud

Cruelty in the theatre is unrelenting decisiveness, diligence, strictness.

topic: Eye, Theatre, Battle

There are those who go to the theatre as they would go to a brothel.

topic: Theatre, Diligence, Cruelty

Im now projecting my career in a totally different direction. I am going to work less-way less. And I want to work better. I want to direct again, I want to do more theatre, and I want to do exactly those movies that I want to do.

topic: Theatre, Brothels

- Antonio Banderas

topic: Careers, Theatre, Different

I feel so sorry for younger actors who aren't able to have the opportunities that I had, starting out in repertory theatre. It's really tough on young actors now.

- Antony Sher

source: "Antony Sher, actor - portrait of the artist". Interview with Laura Barnett, www.theguardian.com. February 12, 2013.

topic: Sorry, Opportunity, Theatre, Young Actors

I hate the word 'production'. It's a ceremony, a ritual - you should go out of the theatre more human than when you went in.

- Ariane Mnouchkine

topic: Hate, Theatre, Should

Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it.

- Aristotle

topic: Character, Soul, Theatre

Nearly all bookish people are snobs, and especially the more enlightened among them. They are apt to assume that if a writer has immense circulation, if he is enjoyed by plain persons, and if he can fill several theatres at once, he cannont possibly be worth reading and merits only indifference and disdain.

- Arnold Bennett

topic: Reading, People, Theatre, Immense

Any smoothly functioning technology will have the appearance of magic.

- Arthur C. Clarke

topic: Technology, Magic, Theatre

When I was young, my mum was part of a brilliant puppet theatre that toured all over the world.

- Arthur Darvill

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

topic: Theatre, World, Puppets

The Globe' is one of the most terrifying theatres in London. It's that mob element - everyone packed in and staring up at you.

- Arthur Darvill

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

topic: Theatre, Elements, London

We have a desperate need for producers in the [commercial Broadway] theatre, and it is very hard for them to get money and find investors for new plays.

- Arthur Laurents

topic: Play, Theatre, Needs, Broadway Theatre

The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life.

I regard the theatre as a serious business, one that makes or should make man more human, which is to say, less alone.

topic: Theatre, Theater

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.

topic: Men, Theatre, Serious, Serious Business

I think now that the great thing is not so much the formulation of an answer for myself, for the theatre, or the play - but rather the most accurate possible statement of the problem.

topic: Humanity, Theatre, Crafts

In our early youth we sit before the life that lies ahead of us like children sitting before the curtain in a theatre, in happy and tense anticipation of whatever is going to appear. Luckily we do not know what really will appear.

topic: Thinking, Play, Theatre

- Arthur Schopenhauer

topic: Children, Lying, Theatre

As fascinated as I was by words on paper, it was matched by my fascination with words in people's mouths. The spoken word. And that is the world of theatre.

- Athol Fugard

topic: People, Theatre, Fascination, Words On Paper

If the nature of human experience changes with the color of a man's skin, then the racists have been right all along.

- Athol Fugard

topic: Men, Color, Theatre

I see the playwright as a lay preacher peddling the ideas of his time in popular form.

- August Strindberg

topic: Ideas, Theatre, Form, Peddling

I believe in the American theatre. I believe in its power to inform about the human condition, its power to heal ... its power to uncover the truths we wrestle from uncertain and sometimes unyielding realities.

- August Wilson

topic: Believe, Reality, Theatre

Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.

The Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of the word. In this usage, all human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!).

source: "Games for Actors and non-Actors". Book by Augusto Boal, p. xxxi, 1992.

topic: Mean, Waiting, Theatre, Transforming Society

The poetics of the oppressed is essentially the poetics of liberation: the spectator no longer delegates power to the characters either to think or to act in his place. The spectator frees himself; he thinks and acts for himself! Theatre is action!

source: Augusto Boal (2005). “Games for Actors and Non-Actors”, p.15, Routledge

topic: Theatre, Actors, Usage

When does a session of The Theatre of the Oppressed end? Never â€“ since the objective is not to close a cycle, to generate a catharsis, or to end a development. On the contrary, its objective is to encourage autonomous activity, to set a process in motion, to stimulate transformative creativity, to change spectators into protagonists. And it is precisely for these reasons that the Theatre of the Oppressed should be the initiator of changes the culmination of which is not the aesthetic phenomenon but real life.

topic: Character, Thinking, Theatre, Delegates

Theatre is a weapon. For that reason it must be fought for.

topic: Real, Creativity, Theatre

Theatre is the art of looking at ourselves.

topic: Theatre, Weapons, Reason

Theatre is the most perfect artistic form of coercion.

source: Augusto Boal (2005). “Games for Actors and Non-Actors”, p.15, Routledge

topic: Art, Theatre

In the theater, I've found that, in general, reaction and laughter come easier at an evening performance, when the audience is more inclined to forget its troubles. Matinee customers must enter the theatre in a more matter-of-fact frame of mind, hanging on tightly before they let themselves go.

source: Augusto Boal (2000). “Theater of the Oppressed”, p.39, Pluto Press

topic: Perfect, Theatre, Coercion

- Beatrice Lillie

topic: Laughter, Mind, Theatre, Matter Of Fact

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

- Beatrice Wood

topic: Art, America, Theatre

Theatre is where my passion lies - I just love it. I love watching it, and I love doing it.

- Ben Daniels

topic: Lying, Passion, Theatre

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.

- Ben Kingsley

topic: Years, Theatre, Actors, Fifteen Years

I have mainly come from a theatre background, I did 'Oliver' here I played the Artful Dodger and I did 'The Sound of Music.

- Ben Nicholas

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

topic: Theatre, Sound, Sound Of Music

I coach young people. I have a group called BTP - Broadway Theatre Project.

- Ben Vereen

source: "Ben Vereen: Usher’s Godfather Continues to Evolve". Interview with Greg Archer, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 13, 2012.

topic: People, Theatre, Groups, Broadway Theatre

One of the things I find very difficult about theatre is the repetition - that something can slide away from your original intentions.

- Ben Whishaw

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

topic: Theatre, Slides, Intention

I trained as a theatre actor and you had a bare stage and you had to pretend, one prop and you are in the middle of 8th Ave. and traffic is just going by.

- Benicio Del Toro

topic: Theatre, Actors, Middle, Theatre Actors

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

- Bertolt Brecht

topic: Fun, People, Theatre

We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.

- Bertolt Brecht

topic: Feelings, Historical, Theatre

Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster. Psychologically the situation is analogous to that of people trampled to death when there is a panic in a theatre caused by a cry of `Fire!'.

- Bertrand Russell

topic: Fire, People, Theatre

I tried to start a theatre in LA and failed miserably, but I was probably not meant to raise money

- Beth Henley

topic: Theatre, Raises

Pray to God and say the lines.

- Bette Davis

topic: Theatre, Lines, Praying

I went to the Glasgow Youth Theatre and they just let me in. But I was so shy that I was there for about six weeks without actually introducing myself.

- Bill Forsyth

topic: Theatre, Shy, Six, Glasgow, Youth Theatre

I think in the old days, everybody used to act really quickly because Hollywood was built by theatre people.

- Bill Nighy

topic: Thinking, People, Theatre

You learn more discipline in the theatre than you do in movies or TV. You're on stage every night and you have to sustain your energy level tor several hours.

- Blythe Danner

topic: Night, Discipline, Theatre, Energy Levels

When I see someone filming me, I don't usually think, 'No, man, don't put this up online!' I'd think, 'Hey man, you don't get to go to shows very often, put down the camera and enjoy it!' I love going to theatre and to shows so much.

- Bo Burnham

topic: Men, Thinking, Theatre

There's a great charm in theatre; I enjoyed doing it for twelve years and did lots of plays. At this chapter of my life, I am a cinema actor, and I would like to continue to be so, and at some point I would return to the theatre.

- Boman Irani

topic: Years, Play, Theatre

We can compare classical chess and rapid chess with theatre and cinema - some actors don't like the latter and prefer to work in the theatre.

- Boris Spassky

topic: Theatre, Cinema, Actors

I've done a lot of costume drama and theatre - the National Theatre and In fact, most of my work at the theatre, at the National Theatre anyway, was period.

- Brenda Blethyn

topic: Drama, Theatre, Done

Everyone the world over talks about British actors and British talent and I think thats because we were trained - until now - in theatre.

- Brenda Blethyn

source: "I think I'm quite good at my job' by Gareth McLean, www.theguardian.com. July 26, 2002.

topic: Thinking, Theatre, Actors

I almost failed drama at school. I hated it. It was all about the history of theatre.

- Brenton Thwaites

topic: Drama, School, Theatre

The idea of doing theatre always terrified me because I get terrible stage fright. In the early 1970s I was offered a panto but the thought of going on stage was just too mortifying.

- Britt Ekland

topic: Ideas, Theatre, Stage

Good plays drive bad playgoers crazy.

- Brooks Atkinson

topic: Crazy, Play, Theatre

Although the theater is not life, it is composed of fragments or imitations of life, and people on both sides of the footlight have to unite to make the fragments whole and the imitations genuine.

- Brooks Atkinson

topic: People, Theatre, Sides, Imitation Of Life

Cricket is first and foremost a dramatic spectacle. It belongs with theatre, ballet, opera and the dance.

- C. L. R. James

topic: Ballet, Theatre, Opera

I've never been a really big fan of theatre. I don't know why. It's so much for effort. It's much more difficult for me than stage acting just because of the pressure that's piled on you and you have to learn the entire performance by heart.

- Callan McAuliffe

topic: Heart, Effort, Theatre, Stage Acting

With theatre especially, you don't want to do it unless you love it - there's no way you can pull it off, making people happy, making yourself happy for 12 weeks or whatever.

- Carey Mulligan

topic: People, Theatre, Want

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.

- Carl Jung

topic: Psychology, Theatre, Viewpoints

I feel like I've been marinated in Australian theatre.

- Cate Blanchett

topic: Theatre, Feels, Sense Of Entitlement

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

topic: Thinking, Play, Theatre

Being a film actor is very different from a theatre actor.

- Catherine Deneuve

topic: Theatre, Different, Actors, Film Actors, Theatre Actors

Nothing is forever in the theatre. Whatever it is, it's here, it flares up, burns hot, and then it's gone.

- Celeste Holm

source: "Fictional character: Karen". "All About Eve", www.imdb.com. 1950.

topic: Forever, Theatre, Hot, Flare Up, Flare

What I have always found most beautiful in the theatre, in my childhood, and still today, is lustre--a beautiful object, luminous, crystalline, complex, circular, symmetrical. However, I do not absolutely deny the value of dramatic literature. Only, I should like the actors to be mounted on high pattens, to wear masks more expressive than the human face, and to speak through megaphones.

- Charles Baudelaire

topic: Beautiful, Childhood, Theatre, Symmetrical, Beautiful Objects

Life is a theatre of alarms and contentions.

- Charles Horton Cooley

topic: Life, Theatre, Alarms

Embarrassment is a partner in the creative act.

- Charles Jeffries

topic: Creative, Theatre, Embarrassment

In the theatre, the actor is given immediate feedback.

- Charles Keating, Jr.

topic: Theatre, Actors, Feedback

Never not dare to hang yourself. That's the only way you grow in your profession. You must continually attempt things that you think are beyond you, or you get into a complete rut.

- Charles Laughton

topic: Thinking, Theatre, Way

Of all the London theatres, the Donmar is the dream.

- Charlie Cox

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Dream, Theatre, London

I'd like more kids to go and see theatre because it really is amazing.

- Charlie Rowe

topic: Kids, Theatre

I got the O.B.E because I represent England outside of England more...but thinking of me as an actor, I haven't done all the classical theatre, all the great roles. Think of Helen Mirren and me. Helen, who I adore, is a friend - should be Dame. I am the rebel, the revolutionary on the side.

- Charlotte Rampling

topic: Thinking, Theatre, England, Helen

You take a plug and put it in a socket, and that's what the theatre is-it lights up right away. You speak, and they respond immediately.

- Chita Rivera

topic: Light, Theatre, Speak

Theatre is immediate gratification

- Chita Rivera

topic: Theatre, Immediate Gratification, Gratification

It's communication - that's what theatre is all about.

- Chita Rivera

topic: Communication, Theatre

Since I was a child I've loved going to the opera, theatre and ballet.

- Christian Lacroix

topic: Children, Ballet, Theatre

There's something about doing theatre in London - it sinks a little bit deeper into your soul as an actor. It's something about the tradition of theatre, about performing on the West End stage

- Christian Slater

topic: Soul, Theatre, Actors, West End

I want everyone to feel as much as possible as if they inhabit the same space. They more fluid the relationship between actor and audience, the better.

- Christine Jones

topic: Space, Theatre, Actors, Actors And Audience

I have a large personal collection of pictures. For every project, I choose images. Usually I don't do this until I've done an extensive script breakdown and distilled the text down to poetic form. I have to plant enough seeds so that there will be vibration.

- Christine Jones

topic: Theatre, Done, Scripts

Theatre is more exciting in the sense that you can actually see the audience in the eye. You know there are no takes and retakes. You have one chance to do your job... and you better do it well!

- Christine Lahti

topic: Jobs, Eye, Theatre

I grew up wanting to be a writer for theatre.

- Christopher Durang

topic: Theatre, Grew Up, Grew

I think film and television are really a director's medium, whereas theatre is the actor's medium.

- Christopher Eccleston

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

topic: Thinking, Theatre, Directors, Film And Television

Theatre is expensive to go to. I certainly felt when I was growing up that theatre wasn't for us. Theatre still has that stigma to it. A lot of people feel intimidated and underrepresented in theatre.

- Christopher Eccleston

topic: Growing Up, People, Theatre

The money is better in films and television. But in terms of acting, theatre is more rewarding.

- Christopher Eccleston

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

topic: Theatre, Acting, Television

Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff didn't like the word 'horror'. They, like I, went for the French description: 'the theatre of the fantastique'.

- Christopher Lee

source: Biography/Person Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Theatre, Horror, Description

I had great faith in Irish actors, that they'd be hip to the whole theatre thing, and they are. I had no illusions of coming over here as some kind of big shot. It's been a learning experience for me too.

- Christopher Meloni

topic: Theatre, Actors, Hips, Big Shots, Great Faith

I did loads of student films and fringe theatre. I worked for free a lot.

- Christopher Parker

topic: Theatre, Students, Film

Yeah, well I've always played comedy. My background is musical comedy theatre and that's really where my training is. As an actor, that's my training.

- Christopher Walken

topic: Musical, Training, Theatre

I'm looking forward to locking swords with Douglas Henshall and working against the stunning backdrop of Shetland. I came to Scotland a lot in the 70s and 80s in various theatre productions and of course to film Hallam Foe but this is the furthest I've ever been.

- Ciaran Hinds

source: "The Good Wife's Archie Panjabi to appear on BBC One's Shetland" by Tom Eames, www.digitalspy.com. April 09, 2015.

topic: Scotland, Theatre, Looking Forward, Stunning

Having started out in theatre, I feel an impulse to do it as much as I can

- Cillian Murphy

topic: Theatre, Impulse, Feels

A good actor makes clear the meaning of the words. A better actor gives also the emotion of the part. The best actor adds emotion of which the character is unconscious.

- Clare Eames

topic: Character, Giving, Theatre

I first came to London as a musician, and when my group broke up, I did 'Guys and Dolls' at the Watford Palace theatre. After that, Ned Sherrin found me and brought me to the West End to do one of his shows. The work went from strength to strength, so I thought: 'This is where the world wants me; I'll stay.

- Clarke Peters

source: "Clarke Peters: 'Lester Freamon's the guy I'd like to grow up to be'". Interview with om Lamont, www.theguardian.com. September 18, 2010.

topic: Guy, Theatre, World, West End

I've been doing theatre since I was 5 years old.

- Claudia Christian

topic: Years, Theatre

I don't see why people want new plays all the time. What would happen to concerts if people wanted new music all the time?

- Clive Barnes

topic: Play, People, Theatre

Money's never an issue. I can go and work for a small studio theatre somewhere if it's a play I really care about, or do TV or a big commercial West End show.

- Conleth Hill

source: "Hill's alive with the sound of music" by Liz Hoggard, www.theguardian.com. November 14, 2004.

topic: Play, Issues, Theatre, West End

All action in theatre must have inner justification, be logical, coherent, and real.

Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it.

topic: Real, Theatre, Action

The theatre infects the audience with its noble ecstasy.

topic: Theatre, Better Person, Should, Theatre Acting

Play well, or play badly, but play truly.

topic: Theatre, Noble, Ecstasy

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.

topic: Play, Theatre, Wells