Quotessence
Home / Topics / Theatre Quotes

Theatre Quotes

Browse 1773 quotes about Theatre.

Related topics

ActorsPeopleThinkingPlayFilmIfsActingAudienceStageTheaterArtWorldWayWantKnowsFirstsShowsYearsKindShouldDifferentDramaWritingFeelsSchoolMusicalTelevisionCharacterMusical TheatreTvsPerformancesGivingJobsLongLooksWantedWellsHas BeensTryingWholeTwoDoneI CanLittlesNightDirectorsHumansMenNeedsUsedMeanBroadwayStoriesImportantMayNew YorkRolesYoungAbleFormHomeIdeasBigsChildrenDoeFeelingsBelieveMadeActionBitsEndsLinesPlaywrightStillsCinemaCitiesEnjoyHeartLondonRealSaidSometimesUseCollegeFactsKidsPersonsWould BeEnoughLastsRememberArtistBookClassFunHappensLiteratureMightSawsSeemsmore

Theatre Quotes

“Seen from the point of view of the composer, the most nonsensical practice is that of casting people in musicals who are unable to sing. No one would cast a dancing part with someone who cannot dance sufficiently to come up to professional standards. The same is true of acting. But when it comes to singing, more often than not it is amateur night. . . . Either musicals should be written for specified performers in the first place, or they should be cast with people who are adequate to its dancing, acting and singing demands.”

PeopleShouldFirstsNightViewsActingPracticeWrittenDemandSingingStandardsDancingCastsCome UpPoint Of ViewTheatrePerformersComposerCastingAdequateNonsensical
Author:Ernest Gold
Create image

“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”

PeopleShouldArtPlayDiesActorsPiecesImpossibleAirReturnDramaTheaterDressesBoxesDinnerActressesTheatreDestroyedEveningGreekPoisonPlagueActors And Actresses
Author:Eleanora Duse
Create image

“A nation that does not support and encourage its theater is - if not dead - dying; just as a theater that does not capture with laughter and tears the social and historical pulse, the drama of its people, the genuine color of the spiritual and natural landscape, has no right to call itself theater; but only a place for amusement.”

PeopleIfsDoeSpiritualNationsSocialNaturalSupportDyingTearsColorDramaLaughterTheaterHistoricalTheatreGenuineLandscapeCaptureAmusementPulse
Author:Federico Garcia Lorca
Create image

“The truth is that the spectators are always in their senses, and know, from the first act to the last, that the stage is only a stage, and that the players are only players.”

KnowsFirstsLastsPlayerStageTruth IsTheatreSensesSpectators
Book:Dedication of the players. Preface of the players. Pope's preface. Theobald's preface. Hanmer's preface. Warburton's preface. Johnson's preface. Advertisement by Steevens. Capell's
Create image

“How to you teach someone that a theatre comes about first as an idea, from an individual who has a philosophy and a passion? That a theatre's idea is its heart and individual soul? That the person who creates it must have the desire not only to create work, but also to create the conditions in which that work can live-and in which others can do it as well? How do you teach someone to want to be a midwife as well as a mother.”

WantFirstsWellsHeartPersonsIdeasSoulPhilosophyMotherDesirePassionIndividualCan DoTeachConditionsTheatreMidwife
Author:Robert Kalfin
Create image

“You have two kinds of shows on Broadway - revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles. You get your tickets for 'The Lion King' a year in advance, and essentially a family comes as if to a picnic, and they pass on to their children the idea that that's what the theater is - a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theater at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar. We live in a recycled culture.”

IfsYearsKindChildrenTwoIdeasShowsCultureSeeingStageKingsTheaterMusicalTheatreFamiliarVersionsLionsTicketsBroadwayRevivalSpectacularPicnicsSpectaclesRecycledLion King
Author:Stephen Sondheim
Create image

“The cast, staff, and crew of a live theater work together toward a common goal: a good performance. Thus, theater is necessarily a group effort. However, it is never a group effort of vague fellow committee members, but of associated autocrats-a playwright, a producer, a director, a stage manager, designers, and, above all, actors. Each accommodates the others, and may overlap others in function when necessary. But each autocrat assumes distinct responsibilities and accepts them completely.”

MayTogetherActorsGoalCommonEffortResponsibilityAcceptingGroupsStageDirectorsMembersPerformancesFunctionTheaterFellowsAssumingCastsTheatreProducersManagersDesignerWorking TogetherStaffCommitteesCrewVaguePlaywrightAccommodateCommon GoalGroup EffortLive TheaterStage Managers
Author:Laurence Sterne
Create image

“A flop is often the result of the fact that each of the talents involved, while working on the same project, may in effect have been working on a different show from all the others. If all contributors do not share the same vision of the evening, the end product will not evince the harmony of diverse elements-the seeming inevitability of book, score, and staging-of a good musical.”

IfsMayHas BeensBookDifferentEndsFactsShowsResultsVisionShareEffectsTalentProductsInvolvedElementsProjectsHarmonyMusicalTheatreEveningScoreDiverseSeemingInevitabilityContributorsStaging
Author:Ethan Mordden
Create image

“I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage.”

StageTheatreConventionsSwear
Book:The Life and Genius of Anton Chekhov: Letters, Diary, Reminiscences and Biography: Assorted Collection of Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned Russian Author and Playwright of Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters and The Seagull
Create image

“I've always had great satisfaction out of writing the plays. I've not always had great satisfaction out of seeing them produced-although often I've had satisfaction there. When things go well in production, on opening there's no nicer feeling in the world-what could be nicer than watching an audience respond? You can't that from a book. It's a fine feeling to walk into the theater and see living people respond to something you've done.”

PeopleWorldWritingWellsBookDonePlayFeelingsWalksAudienceSeeingFineTheaterSatisfactionProductionsTheatreOpening
Book:Conversations with Lillian Hellman
Create image

“Once after Barefoot In the Park had been playing for about a week I went back to see it, watching the audience, which was just falling over laughing except for one guy sitting the aisle. I was transfixed. I said to myself, there seems to be no way to get to him. No one else would I watch except this one man. My wife joined me about 20 minutes later and asked me how it was going, and I said, terrible. I really meant it. There was no way to get to this man. It destroyed me.”

MenWaySaidSeemsGuyFallWatchesAudienceLaughingWifeWeekMinutesTerribleSittingMy WifeTheatreDestroyedParksOne ManReally MeanAisleBarefoot
Author:Simon Neil
Create image

“When I first started writing plays I couldn't write good dialogue because I didn't respect how black people talked. I thought that in order to make art out of their dialogue I had to change it, make it into something different. Once I learned to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them. I let them start talking.”

PeopleWritingFirstsArtDifferentPlayCharacterValuesOrderBlackTalkingTheatreDialogueBlack PeopleValues And Respect
Author:August Wilson
Create image