“There's the beauty of the stage. I don't like filmed theater or opera because you're kind of playing soccer in a hockey game. Either or, they don't do justice to the media and you end up with a hybrid that is purely sensationalistic. Opera is a very theatrical medium that should be seen on a stage with the musicians in the pit in the audience.” ShouldKindEndsGamesJusticeAudienceStageMediaMusicianTheaterMediumsSoccerHockeyOperaPitsTheatricalHybridEither OrPlaying Soccer Author:Christoph Waltz
“I'm very proud of the work I do, but I genuinely can't involve myself with an audience as early as somebody who's not part of the film can. So there's that side of theater that appeals to me, where you give something and the response to what you've created is a communion between you and the dark that contains however many people. It's thrilling not having a reflection other than through the people you're communicating with. But people ask, "What do you prefer?" and I don't have a preference. I love them both. I really do.” PeopleGivingFilmAsksSidesDarkAudienceProudReflectionTheaterResponseCommunicateAppealsCommunionPreferenceThrilling Author:Benedict Cumberbatch
“I love live theater; I like the relationship between the show and the audience. That's my comfort zone, but more than anything, it's what makes me happy.” ShowsAudienceComfortTheaterZoneComfort ZoneMake Me HappyLive Theater Author:Kristin Chenoweth
“People don't go to see things in the theater for the same reasons that I do. And movies are about mass audiences. And so moviegoers are going for a different kind of drug than for a certain kind of literary quality.” PeopleKindDifferentReasonCertainQualityAudienceDrugMassTheaterDifferent Kinds Author:Mike White
“Even though I'm an actor, even though I know a little bit about film, I very much view things as an audience member. For me, whether it's TV, film, theater, whatever, it's a big movie, a small movie, whatever it is, I look for the truth in it. I look for the honesty. I just look for if it feels honest and real to me.” IfsKnowsFeelsLooksLittlesRealBigsFilmActorsBitsViewsAudienceHonestHonestyTvsMembersLittle BitTheaterBig Movie Author:Elisabeth Moss
“I wasn't a trained actor, I was trained in musical comedy theater, and when you do that, the audience is completely part of the thing. It's like Elizabethan theater. You play the scene, and then you turn - the audience is part of it.” PlayTurnsActorsAudienceComedySceneTheaterMusicalElizabethan Author:Christopher Walken
“The experience of going to a theater and seeing a movie with a lot of people is still part of the transformational power of the film, and it's equivalent to the old shaman telling a story by the campfire to a bunch of people. That is a remarkable thing, if you scream and everyone else in the audience screams, you realize that your fears are not just within yourself, they're in other people as well, and that's strangely releasing.” PeopleIfsWellsStillsStoriesFilmRealizingAudienceSeeingTheaterBunchRemarkableScreamCampfire Author:Wes Craven
“In the stand-up comedy top, there's room for everyone - if you're good, there's room for everyone. You'll put on your own show - no one casts you. You cast your own show as a stand-up comedian. When you get good at stand-up comedy you book a theater and if people show up, people show up. If people don't show up, people don't show up. You don't have a director or a casting agent or anybody saying if you're good enough - the audience will decide.” PeopleIfsBookEnoughShowsRoomsAudienceComedyDirectorsTheaterCastsAgentsComedianGood EnoughCastingStand Up ComedyStand Up Comedian Author:Jim Jefferies
“You want people to think. You want people to be emotionally moved. And there's a theory behind that in terms of storytelling. It has been around for thousands of years. And that's where something like live theater or a live performance is something that is very valuable because you get instant feedback from your audience and you kind of know the things that work and the things that don't work.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWantYearsKindHas BeensTermBehindsAudienceTheoryPerformancesTheaterMovedValuableStorytellingInstantFeedbackLive PerformanceLive Theater Author:George Lucas
“I love having made a film and watching it when it affects audiences in a positive way. It was always fun for me to hide in the back of a theater and watch Tootsie with an audience and hear them laugh. And it's gratifying 20 years later to imagine that they still can find it amusing.” WayYearsMadeStillsFilmFunWatchesAudienceLaughingImagineTheaterImagine ThatAmusing Author:Sydney Pollack
“I've always been drawn to the best writing that I can find. I don't care if it's in movies or theater or whatever - if you want to be in front of an audience, you have to do writing you believe in.” IfsWantWritingBelieveI CanCareAudienceFrontsTheaterDon't CareI Don't Care Author:Ethan Hawke
“Audiences and, to a large extent, critics who want less from theater than it is possible for it to give. If everybody's encouraged to want less, you'll end up with less.” IfsWantGivingEndsAudienceTheaterCritics Author:Edward Albee
“I think that when you do any kind of theatrical form, (you can't really do this in the theater) the task as an artist is to reach some form of catharsis yourself, and express something that allows an audience to have some form of catharsis. If there's no discovery in what you do, if there's no struggle in what you do to have that discovery, then, there's no meaning in what you do.” IfsThinkingKindFormArtistAudienceStruggleDiscoveryTasksTheaterTheatricalCatharsis Author:Scott Cohen
“I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.” PeopleThinkingHas BeensTimeThreeActorsEasyAudienceSuccessfulConceptsIncreaseTheaterBeing SuccessfulQuartersSophistication Author:David Zucker
“I enjoy my solo career because I get to play smaller places like clubs and theaters, and the interaction with the audience is much higher quality. It also sounds better than a baseball stadium. Everybody has a good seat, and I don't have to play a specific part like I do in the Eagles.” PlayEnjoySoundQualityCareersAudienceHigherBaseballTheaterClubsSeatsInteractionSoloEaglesStadiums Author:Joe Walsh
“Most movies don't have the ability to find an audience. So the movie plays out very quickly in a lot of theaters to get the biggest gross. So that demands that we make things that are hits before they open. So they have to have the elements, they have to be franchises.” PlayAbilityAudienceDemandElementsTheaterGross Author:Laura Ziskin
“The film industry needs to find a way to bring audiences to movie theaters. It's more of a technical trick than a revolution.” WayNeedsFilmAudienceRevolutionIndustryTheaterTricksFilm IndustryMovie Theater Author:Michel Ocelot
“With a time-based medium like theater or film, you can't have the audience getting restless in their seats. They're stuck there on their bums; you have to pay enormous attention to pace and you can't lose your way.” WayFilmLosesPayAttentionAudienceTheaterStuckEnormousMediumsSeatsPaceRestless Author:Emma Donoghue
“In theater, you're in charge of your performance, and at the end of the day you're the one who gets credit because you're in front of the audience doing it, and in film and TV it's the director who gets to decide when to cut to you on a line, which take he uses.” EndsUseFilmLinesAudienceCuttingFrontsTvsDirectorsPerformancesTheaterCreditThe End Of The DayAnd At The End Of The Day Author:Jonathan Groff
“Today, you'll have a following for a film before it even hits theaters. We can reach out and touch our audience in ways that they couldn't. So it's about getting eyes, getting interest, and getting people involved.” PeopleWayEyeTodayFilmInterestAudienceInvolvedTheaterFollowingReach Out Author:Lena Waithe
“I prefer the films that put their audience to sleep in the theater. Some films have made me doze off in the theater, but the same films have made me stay up at night, wake up thinking about them in the morning, and keep on thinking about them for weeks.” ThinkingMadeFilmNightSleepMorningAudienceWeekWake UpTheater Author:Abbas Kiarostami
“I feel that doing theater does give you a good grounding to work on camera. The audience is the lens.” GivingFeelsDoeAudienceTheaterCamerasLensesGrounding Author:Julian Ovenden
“I honestly consider that the greatest gift to me, is the reaction that I get from my work. That is a given which I never, ever take for granted. But to be given that by audiences, individuals, on the street, in the theater, is an extraordinary feeling.” FeelingsIndividualGivenAudienceStreetsTheaterExtraordinaryHonestlyReactionsGrantedGreatest Gifts Author:Angela Lansbury
“I've had a long association with the theater over the years but I had never produced a play and it was something that I'd always wanted to do.The movies moved away from dramas, and I think that I'm very excited by the opportunity to take smart writing that takes risks and see it on stage. It's exciting to see that engagement between the audience and the playwright.” ThinkingWritingYearsLongPlayWantedOpportunityAudienceRiskStageDramaSmartExcitingTheaterMovedExcitedEngagementAssociationPlaywright Author:Colin Callender
“What magicians we are, turning darkness into light, transforming invisible atoms into dazzling theater of the world, pulling objects, (people as well as rabbits) out of secret microscopic closets, turning winter into summer, making a palmful of moments disappear through time's trap door. We learned the methods so long ago that they're unconscious, and we've hypnotized ourselves into believing that we're the audience, so I wonder where we served our apprenticeship. Under what master magicians did we learn to form reality so smoothly that we forgot to tell ourselves the secret?” PeopleWorldBelieveWellsLongMomentsRealityLightFormSecretWonderDarknessAudienceDoorsObjectsMastersSummerTheaterMethodWinterDisappearInvisibleUnconsciousAtomsLong AgoTrapsPullingClosetsMagicianRabbitsTransformingDazzlingApprenticeship Author:Jane Roberts
“I do not care to be esthetically tickled in a fancy theater surrounded by an audience drenched in the confident perfume of culture. I can't afford it.” I CanCareCultureAudienceTheaterFancyPerfume Book:Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away Source: Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away
“I guess because theater's so ephemeral and it's gone. You make this nightly contract with the audience and you redraw that contract for the next night, whereas film and television, it's forever. I suppose it's always about adopting personas, never about being yourself. I think they call it a "shy man's revenge."” ThinkingMenFilmNightNextAudienceGoneForeverTelevisionTheaterRevengeBeing YourselfShyContractsPersonaEphemeralAdoptingFilm And Television Author:Cillian Murphy
“What I love about the theater is that you know who you're acting for: your audience. And the thing I find really hard in film is, you don't. The audience is invisible. And we're sitting there, hoping there's other people out there.” PeopleKnowsHardFilmActingAudienceSittingTheaterInvisible Author:Cate Blanchett
“I have a children's theater background, so I grew up performing for child audiences; it's sort of my specialty. I know the child audience pretty well - or felt like I did because I performed for them so much. I studied a lot about the child audience, about theater. So it was naturally a place that I gravitated to.” KnowsWellsChildrenFeltAudienceGrewGrew UpTheaterBackgroundsPerformingSpecialty Author:Linda Woolverton
“What I love is when I'm in the theater with audiences and I hear them laugh. That's such a relief to me. They're going on the ride and they're allowing themselves to enjoy it, even though we're traversing some dark waters.” EnjoyWaterDarkLove IsAudienceLaughingTheaterReliefAllowingDark Water Author:Francesca Gregorini
“I love watching audiences scream. I imagine it's the same joy that a director feels who has made a comedy when he or she is sitting at the back of a theater listening to the audience laugh. That sound of laughter is so sweet to a comedy director and that's exactly how a horror film feels when you hear the audience scream.” FeelsMadeFilmJoySoundAudienceLaughingComedyImagineSweetListeningHorrorDirectorsLaughterSittingTheaterScreamHorror Film Author:Leigh Whannell
“In movies, you can basically buy the audience into the theater. If you spend enough money on visual effects, even if you are lacking in story and character, you might still pull it off.” IfsStillsEnoughCharacterStoriesMightAudienceEffectsTheaterVisualsLackingVisual Effects Author:Doug Liman
“It's really an amazing feeling because you're flying in a car that's on stage and to be this age also, and in the theater and then with a huge audience of 1,800 people backing you up and cheering you on. It's a really amazing feeling.” PeopleFeelingsAgeAudienceStageCarHugeTheaterFlyingCheerReally Amazing Author:Ellen Marlow
“I've had frank conversations with theaters who say, 'We love your play, but we've already done a play by another black person this year,' or 'I don't think the kind of people you write about are the ones our audience wants to see'... Up and coming young black female writers are still struggling to have their voices heard and have their plays produced.” PeopleThinkingWantWritingYearsKindPersonsStillsDonePlayYoungBlackVoiceAudienceStruggleHeardLove YouConversationFemaleTheaterFrankBlack PersonFemale Writers Author:Katori Hall
“Theater is like boxing - having the audience ringside. It's instant gratification. Or horrification.” AudienceTheaterInstantBoxingGratificationInstant Gratification Author:Sylvester Stallone
“There are two kinds of audiences. There's the ones who were in the theaters, and the ones who are outside and we want them to come inside the theater. And, it's not the same.” WantKindTwoAudienceTheater Author:Michel Hazanavicius
“We must recognize the eloquence of our passions and refuse to be taken in. Instead of saying, 'That false friend always did despise me,' say: 'In my present state of agitation, I can't see clearly, I can't judge clearly; I am only a tragic actor who is declaiming for his own ears.' Then you will see the lights in the theater go out for lack of an audience, and the brilliant sets will be nothing more than painted cardboard.” I CanStatesLightPassionActorsAudienceTakenJudgingEarsTheaterRefuseBrilliantTragicDespiseEloquenceAgitationFalse Friends Author:Emile Chartier
“In not-for-profit theater, you don't worry so much about how the audience is going to react. You want to make them absorb the piece.” WantWorryAudiencePiecesTheaterProfit Author:Stephen Sondheim
“I love the chemistry that can be created onstage between the actors and the audience. It's molecular even, the energies that can go back and forth. I started in theater and when I first went into movies I felt that my energy was going to blow out the camera.” FirstsActorsEnergyFeltAudienceTheaterCamerasBlowChemistryBack And Forth Author:Glenn Close
“Good live theater disturbs molecules. You create an energy source around yourself and it alternates between you and the audience. Anybody who sees live theater should come out a little rearranged.” ShouldLittlesEnergyAudienceSourceTheaterMoleculesEnergy SourcesLive Theater Author:Glenn Close
“I'm lucky to have worked in theater all over the world, but there's something magical about Broadway. The audiences are smart, they're educated. They go in ready and they're up for it, they're up for the party. It's a whole different atmosphere.” WorldDifferentWholePartyAudienceReadyLuckySmartTheaterEducatedAtmosphereBroadway Author:Hugh Jackman
“Nowadays, especially in big commercial films it's much easier for the audience, and they tend to get spoonfed. It's much more interesting to me, people leave the theater and they start asking themselves questions and find their own moral compass about what these characters have been doing.” PeopleHas BeensCharacterBigsFilmInterestingMoralAudienceEasierTheaterAskingCompassMoral Compass Author:Michael Fassbender
“To be able to actually sit in a theater and watch people get off on anything that I had a part in, is just thrilling. When you work in television, it's an isolating experience. You rarely ever get to watch it with an audience.” PeopleAbleWatchesAudienceTelevisionTheaterThrilling Author:Marti Noxon
“If they [the crowd at The Apollo Theater] don't like you, they will let you know. When you didn't have any talent, they would let you know about it -- and not kindly. There'd be things like "Get off the stage!" and certain expletives we won't say here. It was a rough audience.” IfsKnowsCertainAudienceStageTalentLike YouTheaterCrowdsRoughApolloExpletives Author:Don Alias
“I love the theater. I love being on stage; I love the live audience. I also love dressing up and all of the make-believe.” BelieveLove IsAudienceStageTheaterDressingsMake BelieveDressing Up Author:Nicole Ari Parker
“There should be a name for this, for the process whereby one knows one is being yanked and concedes it has been done successfully - that one is grateful to have been spun. In the theater, it is called the willing suspension of disbelief. That's what allows the play to make an impact on the audience: they have to be able to make believe that what's happening on the stage is really happening. Maybe to a degree it is a requirement for all political participation, all effective political communication, too.” KnowsShouldBelieveHas BeensDonePlayAblePoliticalNamesProcessAudienceStageWillingCommunicationDegreesHappeningsTheaterGratefulImpactRequirementsParticipationDisbeliefMake BelieveSpunSuspensionSuspension Of DisbeliefPolitical Participation Author:Peggy Noonan
“The liveness of theater, and the excitement of experiencing it alongside an audience, is something you can't get at home. That makes the theater more vital than ever. It's definitely expensive, but I have faith that the market will keep recognizing the live experience as a valuable and important one.” ImportantHomeAudienceTheaterValuableExcitementExpensiveHave FaithRecognizing Author:Nick Blaemire
“I can stand at the back of the theater and watch an audience laugh, cry, and be moved by what I do. I can entertain people around the world. It's nice when you can give someone that gift.” PeopleWorldGivingI CanWatchesAudienceLaughingNiceCryTheaterMovedAround The World Author:Jerry Bruckheimer
“In my theater pieces, I would do "Tits on the Head" - Polaroid photos for $10 on the stage. There would be a line of folks paying me $10 for their turn. It was public prostitution. I turned my whole audience into johns. But because it was in a theater context, an art context, it was socially acceptable.” ArtWholeWould BeTurnsLinesAudiencePiecesStageTheaterFolksAcceptableProstitutionPolaroids Author:Annie Sprinkle
“I've seen productions where it feels like the actors are just tired and want to go home. That is one of the challenges doing theater - especially a long production - how to keep it alive for yourself and the audience.” WantFeelsLongHomeActorsChallengesAudienceAliveTheaterTiredProductions Author:Gillian Anderson