Quotessence
Home / Topics / Theater Quotes

Theater Quotes

Browse 2622 quotes about Theater.

Related topics

PeopleFilmThinkingActorsIfsPlayAudienceWayKnowsWantActingStageYearsSchoolShowsArtKindFirstsWorldDifferentFeelsMusicalDoneMovie TheaterNew YorkTelevisionWantedTheatreMusical TheaterWellsTryingCharacterLittlesMenTvsShouldWritingRolesTwoDramaKidsNeedsI CanLongStillsNightRealWholeLooksBigsDirectorsFormComedyGivingJobsIdeasUsedWatchesCollegeYoungMadePerformancesDoeMeanThreeGrewHigh SchoolStoriesBelieveHas BeensPersonsWould BeGrew UpHomeFunStuffAbleBroadwaySawsRunningScreensActressesBookCareersCommunityHoursSittingBitsChildrenCinemaCompanyFeltFrontsMindEnoughGuyWeekBackgroundsEndsTogethermore

Theater Quotes

“Ivo van Hove is directing The Crucible, and rehearses in quite an unusual way. We started rehearsals last week and dived straight into the first act, like, five minutes after we all turned up. No warm-ups. We were very intensely immersed in that whole world on day one. It was quite surreal because I've never done any theater before.”

WorldWayFirstsDoneWholeLastsFiveWeekMinutesTheaterWarmWhole WorldUnusualFive MinutesVansRehearsalSurrealCrucible
Author:Saoirse Ronan
Create image

“I'm somebody who grew up listening to a lot of musical theater, so getting to finally write musical theater songs and songs that sound that way - the emphasis being on the storytelling, but the arrangements and the orchestrations can be really varied - I found that to be, actually, a really joyful discovery.”

WayWritingSongFoundSoundListeningGrewGrew UpDiscoveryTheaterMusicalStorytellingJoyfulArrangementsEmphasisMusical TheaterOrchestration
Author:Sara Bareilles
Create image

“Yeah, this is what I think was a quality of movies, is you're in a group of people. You're sharing something with people. Whether those other people make you laugh more, you're all laughing. You're all happy together. There's something... manmade about that in a way that's - I'm not sure how that manifests itself in nature, but culturally we've set that up when we invented theater and the movies and all that stuff.”

PeopleThinkingWayTogetherStuffQualityLaughingGroupsTheaterYeahNot SureMake You LaughHappy Together
Author:Paul Reubens
Create image

“I grew up in such a small area that there really weren't any acting classes. So I had to wait till I got to college, at the University of Washington. I was a theater major there and got my training. Then after college, I packed up my Honda Civic and kind of fulfilled the cliché of driving down to Los Angeles, and literally, brick by brick - you know, the slow and painful way - I built my career.”

KnowsWayKindWaitingActingClassCareersCollegeGrewMajorsGrew UpTrainingBuiltAreasTheaterUniversityPainfulDrivingLos AngelesFulfilledBricksCivicsActing ClassesHonda
Author:Mariana Klaveno
Create image

“Don't tell me about heaven. What about in this life, that there is a better way, that this is not in vain, that it is not Edward Albee or Camus's absurd, the theater of the absurd, it is not Shakespeare - "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" - that life has meaning and that God is still in control, and that God can, and God will, so people of goodwill, working hard, do something about the situation? We can change.”

PeopleWayStillsHardHeavenSoundSituationTheaterGods WillAbsurdThis LifeVainFuryBetter WaysGoodwillSignifying
Author:Jeremiah Wright
Create image

“I just remember not having access to films as a young person who loved films but living in Compton. In order to see the film, I had to get on the bus and travel quite a ways to get to an arthouse theater - none of which you're gonna find in black and brown communities - to see anything that was outside of what the studios fed me, and that's not the case anymore.”

WayPersonsRememberFilmYoungOrderBlackCommunityCasesTheaterStudiosAccessBrownFedsBusCompton
Author:Ava DuVernay
Create image

“It is something more fleeting than what you normally see. People might somehow take it into their own dreams, into their own life, in a way. I hear it more recently; people are telling me that when they leave the theater and see one of my films, they are not alone anymore. It's probably more that kind of feeling. If I managed to do a film like that, everything is fine.”

PeopleIfsWayKindFeelingsDreamMightFilmFineTheaterFleetingNot Alone
Author:Werner Herzog
Create image

“I'm trying to change theater, in my own way - not just magic. I say that humbly, because I'm learning every single day. I do 15 shows a week, and every single audience I have is like a test screening for you, when you listen and go, "Really? They laughed at that?" All over the stage I have lines, written onstage, that I'm changing every single day.”

WayTryingShowsLinesMy OwnAudienceWrittenMagicWeekStageTestsTheaterLaughedScreeningTrying To Change
Author:David Copperfield
Create image

“I've been working in theater, really, since about 1965. I started working with the Mabou Mines about then, and in a way I've always worked in the theater, but it's never been a main part of my work. And it wasn't until Einstein that I kind of shifted into high gear with theater, working with Bob, with Bob Wilson. And since then I find it a very attractive form to work in. It's just an extension of my work.”

WayKindFormMinesTheaterAttractiveBobExtensionsGearsWilson
Author:Philip Glass
Create image

“Theatrical times are different from concert times, to put it simply. Taking a figure like [Mahatma] Gandhi and setting him on a stage requires thinking about what theater is about and what the whole experience is about and what we're trying to communicate in that way, so you get into certain less abstract considerations.”

ThinkingWayTryingDifferentWholeCertainStageFiguresTheaterCommunicateSettingSettingsAbstractConsiderationConcertsTheatrical
Author:Philip Glass
Create image

“When I was a teenager and all these shows were on I was in that business, so I knew a lot of people in the theaters and I saw many of the great shows many times. I would go in and stand in the back - they would let me in, they knew me. I saw Fiddler on the Roof, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Gypsy, and Funny Girl many times just standing in the back.”

PeopleWayShowsGirlSawsHappenedStandingLet MeTheaterThings HappenTeenagerRoofFunny ThingsGypsyForumsFiddlersFunny GirlFiddler On The Roof
Author:Christopher Walken
Create image

“The reason I live in America is because I mean literally every six or seven years I've done something in England. The last lead I had in an English film I did was 1998. So that's why I live here. It's because I get more work. I'll travel back for radio, you know what I mean. I've just got to consider myself to be living in the middle of the ocean, and that way I have a really nice career, if I'm prepared to do television, radio, theater, and film.”

IfsKnowsWayYearsMeanReasonDoneLastsAmericaFilmCareersNiceMiddleTelevisionOceanSixEnglandTheaterPreparedSevenRadioSeven YearsReally Nice
Author:Rufus Sewell
Create image

“What is likely to happen? Either an escalation of violence or an entire change in the whole Middle East theater. It may well happen, and I say this to my Palestinian friends, that the Palestinians have in a certain way missed their hour. They had their moment when the world's public opinion was behind them, and a considerable part of the Israeli public was willing to compromise with them.”

WorldWayWellsMayWholeMomentsHappensCertainHoursBehindsOpinionViolenceMiddleWillingTheaterEastCompromiseMiddle EastPalestinianPublic OpinionIsraeliEscalation
Author:Amos Oz
Create image

“The wonderful thing about the theater is that it can emphasize BOTH our diversity AND our common humanity. In many ways, the world of Shakespeare (or Aeschylus or Racine) is totally different from our world; and yet any human being can look through the differences in dress and mores and discover our common problems, passions, and potentials.”

WorldWayHumansLooksDifferentProblemHumanityPassionDifferencesHuman BeingsCommonWonderfulDiversityTheaterDressesOur WorldWonderful ThingsCommon Humanity
Author:Howard Gardner
Create image

“For early plays of mine, I started with character. But I think that's because I hadn't been in theaters; I hadn't worked that much. I'm very interested in character, obviously, but once I started having my plays produced, I became so fascinated by the theatrical experiment and the weirdness of theatrical space, so now all my plays start with space and stage picture and setting - or container is maybe the better way to put it.”

ThinkingWayPlayCharacterSpaceStageMinesTheaterExperimentsSettingSettingsFascinatedBetter WaysTheatricalWeirdnessContainers
Author:Annie Baker
Create image

“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

WayLongMovingWallIllusionTheaterTablesExpensiveChairsCurtainsBricksProfitableSceneryBrick WallIllusion Of FreedomTables And Chairs
Author:Frank Zappa
Create image

“What you and I might rate as an absolute disaster, God may rate as a pimple-level problem that will pass. He views your life the way you view a movie after you've read the book. When something bad happens, you feel the air sucked out of the theater. Everyone else gasps at the crisis on the screen. Not you. Why? You've read the book. You know how the good guy gets out of the tight spot. God views your life with the same confidence. He's not only read your story...he wrote it.”

KnowsWayInspirationalFeelsMayBookStoriesProblemMightHappensGuyLevelsViewsKnow HowAirAbsolutesTheaterCrisisRateScreensDisasterSpotsGood GuyPimples
Book:One God, One Plan, One Life: A 365 Devotional
Create image

“…. Query: How contrive not to waste one's time? Answer: By being fully aware of it all the while. Ways in which this can be done: By spending one's days on an uneasy chair in a dentist's waiting-room; by remaining on one's balcony all of a Sunday afternoon; by listening to lectures in a language on doesn't know; by traveling by the longest and least-convenient train routes, and of course standing all the way; by lining up at the box-office of theaters and then not buying a seat; and so forth.”

KnowsWayDoneCoursesLanguageWaitingAnswersRoomsListeningOfficeWasteStandingTheaterTrainBoxesSpendingSeatsBuyingChairsSundayAfternoonRoutesLecturesConvenientDentistUneasyBox OfficeBalconiesWaiting RoomsQueriesSunday AfternoonsLining Up
Book:The Plague
Create image

“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened.”

IfsMenWaySometimesEyeUsedNightWatchesSawsHappenedMinutesTheaterJazzHis EyesResolveFifteenOne NightJazz MusicSaxophonePortland
Book:Blue Like Jazz: Movie Edition: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Create image

“I envy the music lovers hear. I see them walking hand in hand, standing close to each other in a queue at a theater or subway station, heads touching while they sit on a park bench, and I ache to hear the song that plays between them: The stirring chords of romance's first bloom, the stately airs that whisper between a couple long in love. You can see it in the way they look at each other... you can almost hear it. Almost, but not quite, because the music belongs to them and all you can have of it is a vague echo that rises up from the bittersweet murmur and shuffle of your own memories.”

WayFirstsLooksLongPlayHandsRomanceSongMemoriesAirLove YouCoupleLoversWalkingStandingTheaterEnvyParksStationsTouchingEchoesVagueAcheChordsHand In HandBenchesStirringSubwayBittersweetShuffleQueuesMusic LoverPark BenchesWalking Hand In Hand
Author:Charles de Lint
Create image

“We didn't think the library was funny looking in it's faux- Greek splendor, nor did we find the cuisine limited or bland, or the movies at the Michigan theater relentlessly American and mindless. These were opinions I came to later, after I became a denizen of a City, an expatriate anxious to distance herself from the bumpkin ways of her youth. I am suddenly consumed by nostalgia for the little girl who was me, who loved the fields and believed in God, who spent winter days home sick from school reading Nancy Drew and sucking menthol cough drops, who could keep a secret.”

ThinkingWayLittlesHomeSchoolGirlReadingSecretCitiesOpinionFieldsYouthSickTheaterDistanceWinterLibraryNostalgiaGreekAnxiousConsumedSplendorMichiganMindlessCuisineNancyBlandFauxWinter DaysExpatriatesNancy DrewCough DropsHome Sick
Author:Audrey Niffenegger
Create image

“It is central to Christian living that we should celebrate the goodness of creation, ponder its present brokenness, and, insofar as we can, celebrate in advance the healing of the world, the new creation itself. Art, music, literature, dance, theater, and many other expressions of human delight and wisdom, can all be explored in new ways.”

WorldWayShouldHumansArtChristianLiteratureHealingCreationExpressionGoodnessTheaterDelightCelebrateChristian LivingNew WaysPonderingBrokennessArt Music
Author:N. T. Wright
Create image

“When student-actors see people and the way they behave when together, see the color of the sky, hear the sounds in the air, feel the ground beneath them and the wind on their faces, they get a wider view of their personal world and development in the theater is quickened. The world provides the material for the theater and artistic growth develops hand-in-hand with one's recognition of it and one's self within it.”

PeopleWorldWayFeelsSelfHandsTogetherFacesActorsSoundGrowthViewsActingAirSkyStudentsColorWindMaterialsDevelopmentTheaterRecognitionArtisticBehaveHand In Hand
Author:Viola Spolin
Create image

“Literature is the best way to overcome death. My father, as I said, is an actor. He's the happiest man on earth when he's performing, but when the show is over, he's sad and troubled. I wish he could live in the eternal present, because in the theater everything remains in memories and photographs. Literature, on the other hand, allows you to live in the present and to remain in the pantheon of the future. Literature is a way to say, I was here, this is what I thought, this is what I perceived. This is my signature, this is my name.”

MenWaySaidShowsHandsEarthActorsFatherLiteratureNamesWishMemoriesEternalOvercomingTheaterRemainsPhotographBest WayPerformingLive In The PresentSignaturesPantheonHappiest Man
Author:Ilan Stavans
Create image

“The best of our theater is standing on tiptoe, striving to see over the shoulders of father and mother. The worst is exploiting and wallowing in the self-pity of adolescence and obsessive keyhole sexuality. The way out, as the poet says, is always through.”

WaySelfMotherFatherWorstPoetStandingTheaterStriveSexualityShouldersPityAdolescenceObsessiveSelf PityTiptoesWallowingKeyholes
Book:The Collected Essays of Arthur Miller
Create image