50 Theatre Quotes

Acting is not pretending or lying. It's finding a side of yourself that's the character and ignoring your other sides. And there's a side of me that wonders what's wrong with being completely honest.

The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.

The theatre demanded of its members stamina, good digestion, the ability to adjust, and a strong sense of humor. There was no discomfort an actor didn't learn to endure. To survive, we had to be horses and we were.

Players and painted stage took all my love, And not those things that they were emblems of.

Hal: Bury her naked? My own mum? It's a Freudian nightmare. Dennis: I won't disagree. Hal: Aren't we committing some kind of unforgivable sin? Dennis: Only if you're a Catholic. Hal: I am a Catholic. I can't undress her. She's a relative. I can go to Hell for it. Dennis: I'll undress her then. I don't believe in Hell. Hal: That's typical of your upbringing, baby. Every luxury was lavished on you - atheism, breast-feeding, circumcision. I had to make my own way.

The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a Theatrical Show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that; i.e. all the Glory of it.

'Lady Cannon's gone to a matinee at the St. James's. We had tickets for the first night, but of course she wouldn't use them then. She preferred to go alone in the afternoon, because she detests the theatre, anyhow, and afternoon performances give her a headache. If she does a thing that's disagreeable to her, she likes to do it in the most painful possible way. She has a beautiful nature.'

This stage, if it hasn't already, probably will see a production of the Vagina Monologues. Which I cannot wait to see, because it sounds so fabulously fucking stupid. Everybody knows that if female genitalia could speak, it would sound exactly like Enya.

'Heartbreak, jealousy, loneliness-, Elvis Presley gave luxuriant voice to these less than cheerful emotions, but did you ever think of him as a balladeer of the unbearable bleakness of being, of the horror of existing without purpose in a godless universe? In the improbably vivacious London-born production of 'Woyzeck', vintage Elvis recordings provide much of the background music for Daniel Kramer's adaptation of Georg Buchner's great, prophetic drama of existential emptiness from the 1830's. Dolly Parton and, more predictably, Beethoven, make aural guest appearances but it's the voice of the Pelvis that sets the rhythm of life. And if the 'wedding' of Presley and Buchner is more shotgun marriage than natural love match, at least you leave the theater feeling less suicidal than you normally do, after two hours with one of the grimmest heroes in Western literature.

Lastly, there are Idols which have immigrated into men's minds from the various dogmas of philosophies, and also from wrong laws of demonstration. These I call Idols of the Theater, because in my judgment all the received systems are but so many stage plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion.

But you can't emphasize 'beef', that's like his wanting me to emphasize 'in' before 'July'! Come on, fellows, you're losing your heads! I wouldn't direct any living actor like this in Shakespeare! The way you do this, it's impossible!

We've all seen 'Jewing it up' performances. They are about as miserable to watch as as 'camping it up' performances when representing gays.

No one ever wanted to see it as anything other than a boring play about a middle-aged man having a mid-life crisis. I think it's about rather more than that - or maybe it's not. Maybe that's exactly what it is about.

You know, I go to the theatre to be entertained... I don't want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction... I can get all that at home.

Our play's chief aim has been to take to bits Great propositions and their opposites, See how they work, and let them fight it out, To point some light on our eternal doubt. Marat and I both advocated force But in debate each took a different course. Both wanted changes, but his views and mine On using power never could combine. On the one side, he who thinks our lives Can be improved by axes and knives, Or he who, submerged in the imagination, Seeking a personal annihilation.

Clio's Protest, or the Picture Varnished (written 1771, published 1819) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

'Oh, what was that? Here try that again...this time toss it and say RUFUS! (Pause) That's always been my dream, to have girls to scream at me and be pummeled with roses.' ~ Rufus in Cleveland, after a girl threw a rose on stage

Kitty: Shikspur? Shikspur? Who wrote it? No, I never read Shikspur. Lady Bab: Then you have an immense pleasure to come.

Full comment Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? The music - that's the big plus. about this

John Osborne spoke out in a vein of ebullient, free-wheeling rancour that betokened the arrival of something new in the theatre - a sophisticated, articulate lower-class. Most of the critics were offended by Jimmy Porter, but not on account of his anger; a working-class hero is expected to be angry. What nettled them was something quite different: his self-confidence. This was no envious inferior whose insecurity they could pity.

Henry IV, Part II

Henry VI, Part II

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Winter's Tale

I do not know if it was born from an idea, but rather from a need. At the beginning, people came from far away, they travelled through mud, and it was important to allow them to eat. And with good food, we wanted to make people happy. 1789 required a fairground. We asked for a basketball court, because we knew that there were basketball courts everywhere! It is thus the project which gave rise to this configuration at piece-rates; it is also the part which required actor-spectators. For the same reason, it is because there were no dressing rooms inside the Cartoucherie that the actors put their make-up on in public. We kept the idea. But I believe that our public is initially that of the Theatre du Soleil.

The director has already achieved the greatest degree of power he has ever had in history. And our aim is to move beoynd that situation by creating a form of theatre where it will be possible for everyone to collaborate without there being directors, technicians, and so on, in the old sense.

Archie Rice: Don't clap too hard - it's a very old building.

'Mani Madhava Chakyar when he portrayed Arjuna on the first evening and Ravana on the second, showed himself a master of the expression of the eye' - Dr. V Raghavan, renowned scholar of Sanskrit dramaturgy, classical Indian dance and music, connoisseur of art and former director of Samskritaranga- Chennai.[4]

'Mani Madhava Chakyar's forte was Satwikabhinaya. Endowed with expressive eyes; that can speak a thousand moods and a countenance that can reflect the range of human emotions in its entirety, Mani Madhava Chakkiar was the master at work' - Mani Madhava Chakkyar: The Master at Work (film)[10]

'With a few movements of the eye, he could manifest the mountains, the ocean, the rivers, the moonlit valleys, torrential rain, the gait of the swan and the elephant, a tornado, the opening of the lotus flowers and a lot else. To see him do it was to know that he was a non-pareil' - P.T. Narendra Menon (noted art critic and poet)[12]

'His eyes were the unrivaled wonder of Abhinaya' - P.T. Narendra Menon (connoisseur of art)[14]

'Mani Madhava Chakyar was performing sikhinisalabha... Butterflies fly all around. Some of them fell into the fire below. The anguish was reflected in the actor's eyes. Ha! There they come out without a burn! What a relief! They came again. The actor continued the performance. Only his eyes move: The audience was spellbound. They did not know that an hour has passed!' - About his world famous abhinaya of the shloka shikhinisalabha from Subhadradhananjayam.[18]

'Scholars of Paderevski Foundation who were fortunate enough to have witnessed the fragments of Swapnavasavadattam as performed by your splendid actors, were unanimous in their praise of the high cultural and aesthetic level of the Koodiyattam. It was a most enjoyable experience and the Paderevski Founadtion is proud to have co-sponsored the appearences of the Theatre in Northern India' - Paderewski Foundation (New York) Certificate (New Delhi, 1964) - First International recognition for Kutiyattam and the maestro.

From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type.

From the beginning Wilde performed his life and continued to do so even after fate had taken the plot out of his hands.

Then to the King's Theatre, where we saw Midsummer's Night's Dream, which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life.

I think theatre should always be somewhat suspect.

Bursting with life, wit and feeling - A review of Much Ado About Nothing starring Tamsin Greig as Beatrice

Pretty witty Nell.

Cymbeline

Twelfth Night