Theatre Quotes
For use in newsletters, season or fundraising brochures or emails, presentations--you name it.
| Category | Quote | First | Last |
Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acting, Directing, General |
Opening Night: The night before the play is ready to open. |
George Jean | Nathan | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
| 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 |
| Acting, Playwriting |
It is the writer's job to make the play interesting. It is the actor's job to make the performance truthful. |
David | Mamet | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
| Acting |
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 | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
| Acting |
Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when you can forget yourself. |
John | Gielgud | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
| Acting |
The most precious things in speech are pauses. |
Ralph | Richardson | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
| Acting |
Good actors are good because of the things they can tell us without talking. When they are talking they are the slaves of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor. |
Cedric | Hardwicke | 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 |
| Acting, Directing, General |
I think that first nights should come near the end of a play's run--as indeed, they often do. |
Peter | Ustinov | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
| Acting |
In the theatre, the actor is in total control. The director wasn't in the house last night, the designer wasn't there, the author's dead. It's just us and the audience. |
Ian | McKellen | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
