“From being a writer of plays, it was not that surprising that somebody thought of giving me a job as an actor. After I played one part, others came along.” GivingPlayJobsActorsSurprising Author:Wallace Shawn
“My plays have been strange from the beginning, and they never got unstrange.” Has BeensPlayStrange Author:Wallace Shawn
“"The Fever" is a one-person play. I decided I would perform it myself, and I decided I would not perform it in theaters, because the character in the play says certain things that I meant.” PersonsPlayCharacterCertainDecidedTheaterFever Author:Wallace Shawn
“I started writing plays in around 1967, and at a certain point, I thought, 'I'm writing plays, I should learn about acting and what it is.' So I went to the HB Studio in New York, and I was there for about nine months.” ShouldWritingPlayCertainActingNew YorkMonthsStudiosNineNine Months Author:Wallace Shawn
“When I was first exposed to the films of Ingmar Bergman, I found them frank and disturbing portraits of the world we live in, but that was not something that displeased me. They were beautiful. I thought people would respond to my plays the way I responded to Bergman's films.” PeopleWorldWayFirstsPlayBeautifulFilmFoundExposedFrankPortraitsDisturbingBergman Author:Wallace Shawn
“When I was first starting to write plays, I quite literally had never heard of the idea of studying playwriting. I wouldn't have studied it even if I had heard of it.” IfsWritingFirstsIdeasPlayStudyHeardStartingPlaywritingStarting To Write Author:Wallace Shawn
“You're always fighting the contradiction between the supposed intimacy of a two-person conversation and the blunt reality that you're trying to sell the play to people who are sitting maybe too far away from you.” PeopleTryingPersonsTwoPlayRealityFightingConversationSittingSellsIntimacyContradictionFar AwayAway From YouBluntAlways Fighting Author:Wallace Shawn
“I love going to plays. There's a subconscious side to it, obviously-some people like to be spanked for XYZ psychological reasons, and I like to go to plays, and I can't entirely explain why.” PeopleI CanReasonPlaySidesPsychologicalSubconscious Author:Wallace Shawn
“What I'm really involved in when I'm writing is something that no one ever mentions when they see any play. Writing is like trying to make gunpowder out of chemicals. You have these words and sentences and the strange meanings and associations that are attached to the words and sentences, and you're somehow cooking these things all up so that they suddenly explode and have a powerful effect. That's what absorbs me from day to day in writing a play.” WritingTryingPlayPowerfulEffectsStrangeInvolvedCookingSentencesChemicalsAssociationDay To DayGunpowderPlay Writing Author:Wallace Shawn
“We are not what we seem. We are more than what we seem. The actor knows that. And because the actor knows that hidden inside himself there's a wizard and a king, he also knows that when he's playing himself in his daily life, he's playing a part, he's performing, just as he's performing when he plays a part on stage.” KnowsPlaySeemsActorsStageKingsPerformingDaily LifeWizards Author:Wallace Shawn
“I probably have a higher opinion of my writing than the average person, at least when I'm in a good mood, but I don't really think of my plays as only being relevant to a particular month or year.” ThinkingWritingYearsPersonsPlayOpinionParticularMonthsHigherAverageMoodRelevantAverage PersonGood Mood Author:Wallace Shawn
“I never grew up thinking, 'One day I will play so and so' because I wasn't expecting to be an actor at all.” ThinkingPlayActorsGrewOne DayGrew UpExpecting Author:Wallace Shawn
“For me, a play is a form of writing which isn't complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it's still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence.” ThinkingWritingStillsPlayFormActorsSentencesMy Time Author:Wallace Shawn
“I wrote my first play at the age of 10, 55 years ago, and I've always found it a fantastic relief to imagine I know what things would be like from the point of view of other individuals and to send out signals from where I actually am not. Playwrights never need to write from the place where they are.” KnowsNeedsWritingYearsFirstsPlayWould BeAgeFoundIndividualViewsImagineYears AgoPoint Of ViewFantasticReliefSignalsPlaywright Author:Wallace Shawn
“A play presents a self-enclosed little world for the audience to examine. It's an opportunity to look objectively at a group of people, to assess them, to react to them, and to measure oneself against them, to ask 'Am I like that?'” PeopleWorldLooksLittlesSelfPlayAsksOpportunityAudienceGroupsOneself Author:Wallace Shawn
“I don't see that many plays, and for me, musicals are rarely pleasing. I feel the actors are being put through a kind of nightmarish labor. They're like animals being forced to pull heavy carts of vegetables at incredible speeds.” FeelsKindPlayActorsAnimalLaborIncrediblesHeavySpeedTheatreVegetablesCarts Author:Wallace Shawn
“I don't have an idea for a play until after I've finished writing it. I write first, and come up with what it's about later. My technique could be compared to having a large canvas and coming in every day and putting a dot on it somewhere, and after several years - literally - I begin to say, That reminds me of an elephant, so I think I'll make it one.” ThinkingWritingYearsFirstsIdeasPlayCome UpFinishedTechniqueCraftsCanvasElephantsDots Author:Wallace Shawn
