THEATRE QUOTES III
quotations about theatre
The theater is a great equalizer: it is the only place where the poor can look down on the rich.
WILL ROGERS
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
Participation in the creative processes of theatre is the best way to reveal the human being, and through this to understand one's self and one's society.
FRANCES BABBAGE
Augusto Boal
It is a hopeless endeavour to attract people to a theatre unless they can be first brought to believe that they will never get in.
CHARLES DICKENS
Nicholas Nickleby
I think theater ought to be theatrical ... you know, shuffling the pack in different ways so that it's -- there's always some kind of ambush involved in the experience. You're being ambushed by an unexpected word, or by an elephant falling out of the cupboard, whatever it is.
TOM STOPPARD
interview, March 10, 1999
I am entirely convinced that the drama renounces its chief privilege and glory when it waives its claim to be a popular art, and is content to address itself to coteries, however "high-browed."
WILLIAM ARCHER
Play-making: A Manual of Craftsmanship
From the viewpoint of analytic psychology, the theatre, aside from any aesthetic value, may be considered as an institution for the treatment of the mass complex.
CARL JUNG
Psychology of the Unconscious
A stage play ought to be the point of intersection between the visible and invisible worlds, or, in other words, the display, the manifestation of the hidden.
ARTHUR ADAMOV
La Parodie, L'Invasion
A good many inconveniences attend playgoing in any large city, but the greatest of them is usually the play itself.
KENNETH TYNAN
New York Herald Tribune, February 17, 1957
The theatre is certainly a place for learning about the brevity of human glory: oh all those wonderful glittering absolutely vanished pantomimes.
IRIS MURDOCH
The Sea, the Sea
No theater could sanely flourish until there was an umbilical connection between what was happening on the stage and what was happening in the world.
KENNETH TYNAN
"Critic Kenneth Tynan Has Mellowed But Is Still England's Stingiest Gadfly", New York Times, January 9, 1966
It is remarkable how virtuous and generously disposed everyone is at a play. We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characteristics
Given technological developments in virtual reality and communications, it is not clear what, if any, purpose will be served by live theatre in the not-too-distant future. Postmodern theory sees theatre as a quaint and marginalized activity in a wired world, and ... whether live theatre even really exists anymore. Some of you may dream of seeing your name up in lights on a theatre marquee, but if you are really looking for fame and fortune shouldn't you be studying film at least, or television arts, or computers? What is it about theatre that remains compelling for you? Is it just because it's there?
MARK FORTIER
Theory Theatre and Introduction
There is something wrong when I go to the theatre whose province is the world and instead of being brought closer to the world I am cut off from it.
JULIAN BECK
The Life of the Theatre
The history of theatre is the history of first nights.
JOHN LAHR
Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton
I thought we had outgrown the idea of theatre as a mystic rite born of secret communion between author, director, actors and an empty auditorium.
KENNETH TYNAN
letter to George Devine, March 10, 1964
I have never regarded any theater as much more than the conclusion to a dinner or the prelude to a supper.
MAX BEERBOHM
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
All theatre is political -- just as all other activities of human beings are political -- because theatre is not autonomous and must thus decide whose interests it serves.
FRANCES BABBAGE
Augusto Boal
With a play, when the curtain goes up and people are in garbage cans, I know I may admire the idea cerebrally, but it won't mean as much to me. I've seen Beckett, along with many lesser avant-gardists, and many contemporary plays, and I can say yes, that's clever and deep but I don't really care. But when I watch Chekhov or O'Neill--where it's men and women in human, classic crises--that I like.
WOODY ALLEN
The Paris Review, fall 1995
It's one of the tragic ironies of the theatre that only one man in it can count on steady work -- the night watchman.
TALLULAH BANKHEAD
Tallulah: My Autobiography
Applause begets applause in the theatre, as laughter begets laughter and tears beget tears.
CLAYTON HAMILTON
Theory of the Theatre