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Theatre Quotes

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Displaying 121 - 140 of 425
  • " Of course, the age-old tradition that a star must appear even if he or she is practically dying is an excellent one, but it can be carried too far. I one played a performance of The Knight of the Burning Pestle with a temperature of 103 and gave sixteen members of the company mumps, thereby closing the play and throwing everybody out of work. There may be a moral lurking somewhere in this, but I cannot for the life of me discover what it is."

    - Noel Coward

    Source: www.musicals101.com/noelquot.htm


  • " The actor creates with his own flesh and blood all those things which all the arts try in some way to describe."

    - Lee Strasberg


  • " Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory."

    - Tennessee Williams


  • " I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success."

    - Tennessee Williams


  • " If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it."

    - Tennessee Williams


  • " Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself."

    - Tennessee Williams


  • " This ain't Chekhov, you know! [comment to cast during a rehearsal for "H.M.S. Pinafore"]"

    - Alan Stambusky


  • " All the theories that acting is reacting to imaginary circumstances as though they are real, and directing is turning psychology into behavior, those are all stabs at something that can't be taught. All the great actors can't talk about what they do, and they don't want to begin to talk about it. They just do it."

    - Mike Nichols


  • " The whole point about laughter is it's like mercury: you can't catch it, you can't catch what motivates it - that's why it's funny."

    - Mike Nichols


  • " You can't be funny unless you're tragic, and you can't be tragic unless you're funny."

    - Elaine Stritch


  • " You cannot tell an audience a lie. They know it before you do; before it's out of your mouth, they know it's a lie."

    - Elaine Stritch


  • " I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people, really."

    - Tennessee Williams


  • " 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

    Source: https://suite.io/kerry-chafin/2nhw2w1


  • " Actors cannot choose the manner in which they are born. Consequently, it is the one gesture in their lives completely devoid of self-consciousness."

    - Helen Hayes


  • " Actors work and slave and it is the color of your hair that can determine your fate in the end."

    - Helen Hayes


  • " The worst constructed play is a Bach fugue when compared to life."

    - Helen Hayes


  • " I'm a bad liar; I don't know what to say backstage."

    - Uta Hagen


  • " Once in awhile, there's stuff that makes me say, That's what theatre's about. It has to be a human event on the stage, and that doesn't happen very often."

    - Uta Hagen


  • " I love playing Chekhov. That's the hardest; that's why I love it most."

    - Uta Hagen


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

    - Moss Hart