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Trevor Nunn

Trevor Nunn Books

Theatre Director

Trevor Nunn (born January 14, 1940) is a renowned British theatre director who served as Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (1968-1979) and the Royal National Theatre (1988-1997). He is celebrated for his innovative productions of classic plays and major musicals including "Cats" and "Les Misérables". Nunn has received numerous Olivier Awards and Tony Awards for his contributions to theatre, and has also directed several successful films.

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Related Quotes

“I would be terribly disappointed if anything would get in the way of my being cast in something, or if performances were canceled. It was a fix that I obviously needed.”

Ifs Way Would Be Needed Performances Casts Disappointed

Author:Trevor Nunn

“In my early years, my father was away as a soldier in the war. When he came back, work was very difficult to come by. Even though he was a highly skilled man, a maker of furniture, the payment for that work was very poor.”

Men Years War Father Difficult Poor Soldier Makers Furniture Payment

Author:Trevor Nunn

“In the commercial theater, I've been pretty fortunate. The producers that I've worked with have allowed me to define the artistic integrity, the artistic limits of the work.”

Integrity Limits Theater Producers Artistic Fortunate Artistic Integrity

Author:Trevor Nunn

“One fine day I discovered that more complex plays really have to be directed.”

Play Fine Complexes Fine Day

Author:Trevor Nunn

“Peter Hall was just organizing the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was going to be an ensemble, it was going to be in repertory, it was going to have a home in London as well as in the Midlands, and all of those things were happening at that time.”

Wells Home Company Happenings London Halls Peter Royal Ensemble

Author:Trevor Nunn

“The first big break was winning a scholarship to go to Cambridge University. I was very lucky, because my parents couldn't have afforded a university education for me. Without a scholarship I couldn't possibly have gone.”

Firsts Bigs Winning Parent Break Gone Lucky University Scholarship Cambridge University Education Cambridge University

Author:Trevor Nunn

“The thing that I had saved up for myself and wanted most to bring off was a fully fledged professional production of Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford.”

Wanted Theater Productions Saved Royal

Author:Trevor Nunn

“What you're doing is putting into professional play the way that you relate to other people, the way that you analyze and relate to a written text, the way that you would persuade anybody to do anything. It has to do with listening, with humility and a sense of yourself.”

People Way Play Written Humility Listening Relate

Author:Trevor Nunn

“When I was 13 years old, a professional theater company in my town needed a kid actor. I auditioned, and I got the part, so for just a few weeks I became a member of the company and I met some professional actors.”

Years Kids Actors Company Week Needed Mets Members Theater Towns

Author:Trevor Nunn

“When I was at Stratford, the very first thing that I was commissioned to work on was trying to make a musical out of the documentary material about the General Strike, which was the next big historical event in England, after the First World War.”

World Trying Firsts War Bigs Next Events Materials England Historical Musical Strikes War Of The Worlds Documentaries First World War Historical Events

Author:Trevor Nunn

“In a way, I have to have a dictatorship. I can't be told that I'm wrong. That conflicts with what I was saying earlier about listening. It isn't to do with receiving criticism and responding to other views, it's who has that last decision.”

Way I Can Lasts Decision Views Listening Conflict Criticism Receiving Dictatorship Responding

Author:Trevor Nunn

“So, through all that early professional career I would occasionally do a musical, a pantomime or a play with songs. The next stop would be a Shakespeare, or an Ibsen, or a play by a brand new writer who had never done anything in the theater before.”

Done Play Would Be Song Next Careers Theater Musical Brands Brand New Professional Career Pantomime Ibsen

Author:Trevor Nunn

“Soundbite and slogan, strapline and headline, at every turn we meet hyperbole. The soaring inflation of the English language is more urgently in need of control than the economic variety.”

Needs Turns Language Economic Variety Soar Inflation English Language Slogans Headlines Hyperbole

Author:Trevor Nunn

“If you're a director, your entire livelihood and your entire creativity is based on your self-confidence. Sometimes that's dangerously close to arrogance.”

Ifs Self Sometimes Creativity Directors Self Confidence Arrogance Livelihood

Author:Trevor Nunn

“I always believe it's better to have 30 imaginations working on a project, rather than one imagination telling the other 29 what to do.”

Believe Imagination Projects Management Planning Filmmaker Always Believe

Author:Trevor Nunn

“I've never had any feeling of disconnection between the classical theater, or the contemporary theater, or musical theater, or the thing that we call opera.”

Feelings Theater Musical Contemporary Opera Musical Theater Disconnection

Author:Trevor Nunn

“Mem'ry All alone in the moonlight I can smile at the old days Life was beautiful then.”

I Can Beautiful Song Memories Moonlight Old Days All Alone Popular Song

Author:Trevor Nunn

“A lot of performing instincts are involved in the business of direction, but so is analysis and having a sense of literature.”

Literature Involved Instinct Analysis Performing Hygiene

Author:Trevor Nunn

“I so wanted to perform, and I grasped every opportunity.”

Wanted Opportunity

Author:Trevor Nunn

“I had a feeling about Shakespeare's soliloquies, that there should be a real exchange between the actor and the audience.”

Should Real Feelings Actors Audience

Author:Trevor Nunn

“I tend to arrive in the rehearsal process with very strongly developed ideas about what I want to do. But I don't like those ideas to be things that are not subject to change, or subject to development, or subject to challenge.”

Want Ideas Process Challenges Subjects Development Very Strong Rehearsal

Author:Trevor Nunn

“I've experienced a private doubt, something that I've kept deeply inside, and then eventually delivered a piece of work that people responded to with huge enthusiasm.”

People Doubt Pieces Huge Enthusiasm

Author:Trevor Nunn

“I've just taken the decision that I'm going to now go full time back into the theater.”

Decision Taken Theater

Author:Trevor Nunn

“If you can't fully believe in your ideas, it very quickly communicates to a group of actors who need something to hold onto. They need to believe that whatever criticism, whatever comment is received, is meant.”

Ifs Needs Believe Ideas Actors Groups Criticism Communicate Comment Believe In You

Author:Trevor Nunn

“If you feel very deeply about something, it's not possible to sacrifice your integrity about that.”

Ifs Feels Sacrifice Integrity Very Deep

Author:Trevor Nunn

“The film director, in many instances, has to swallow somebody else's decision about the final form of something. It's so hard as to be intolerable.”

Hard Film Form Decision Directors Finals Instance Ghouls Film Directors

Author:Trevor Nunn

“In my teens, I developed a passionate idolatry for a teacher of English literature. I wanted to do something that he would approve of more, so I thought I should be some sort of a scholar.”

Should Wanted Literature Teacher Passionate Scholar Teens Idolatry English Literature

Author:Trevor Nunn

About the Author

Born: January 14, 1940
Known for: Theatre Director
Quotes: 27

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