455 Quotes About Theatre

The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.

Actors need a kind of aggression, a kind of inner force. Don't be only one-sided, sweet, nice, good. Get rid of being average. Find the killer in you.

It isn’t real, none of it is, but it’s bearable. Isn’t it pathetic the only way some can tolerate existence is by faking one? The effort to entertain is a happy one. It’s the need to do it that’s so damn sad.

Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when you can forget yourself.

How could we explain that standing on a stage and speaking someone else's words as if they are your own is less an act of bravery than a desperate lunge at mutual understanding? An attempt to forge that tenuous link between speaker and listener and communicate something, anything, of substance.

The curtain rises even on an actor's worst day.

I once got hit by revolving scenery in a production of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. It whacked my hip, bruised my ego, got an unintentional laugh, but the show went on, and it still does.

She never feels more alive than at these moments. When onstage she fears nothing.

Actors are rotten, not parts.