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, 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 |
Playwriting |
I started writing for the theatre because I hated it. |
Eugene | Ionesco | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Playwriting |
I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage. |
Anton | Chekhov | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Playwriting |
The Russian dramatist is one who, walking through a cemetery, does not see the flowers on the graves. The American dramatist . . . Does not see the graves under the flowers. |
George Jean | Nathan | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Playwriting |
One begins with two people on a stage, and one of them had better say something pretty quick. |
Moss | Hart | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
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 |
Playwriting |
A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation. |
Ring | Lardner | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Playwriting |
Don't write stage directions. If it is not apparent what the character is trying to accomplish by saying the line, tell us how the character said it or whether or not she moved to the couch isn't going to aid the case. |
David | Mamet | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |