Quotes About Theater

My first job was in pantomime; I was a chorus girl in 'Dick Whittington' at 16. I got the part by ringing the director daily to see if anyone had dropped out, and it paid off eventually, when I was cast as a rat!

Theater was definitely part of my roots. My father would take me to plays, and then my mother was always on the lookout for other talent and taking me to see plays. I saw Frank Langella in 'Dracula'... Great, great performances. I was a theater rat, hanging out backstage.

There's a picture of me at 3 years old playing the baby rat in 'The Pied Piper.'

'Broadway' is one of the big American words. It's exciting to be given the chance to rattle around in one of the big words.

I've never seen a theater community to rival that of Chicago. Neither New York nor L.A. has the raw talent or integrity that Chicago theater has, and I think it's because Chicago doesn't have Broadway or the film and TV business to distract it.

I feel there's a really raw quality in the Chicago theater community that's really special.

When you're in a theater, it's about reaching the back rows. When you have a camera in your face, it's just about knowing the size of the room.

I really like reaching out and seeing the audience - they're potential audiences! And on occasion I can make them excited about going to the theater again, if they've ceased or gone less.

All I wanted to do was create theater for us, for our generation, for the people of this planet. And it's so rare that the art that you are making is reaching a huge mass of people.

I didn't feel like gymnastics were part of The Cars. I certainly philosophically didn't want to prod the audience to react to anything. To me, it was more like negative theater. We didn't really talk to the audience. I didn't see that being a part of this band.

Acting to me is always reacting.

Acting is about reacting, and it's not easy to do that when you don't have a good co-star.

Acting is reacting, and it's always easier to react when someone is doing a good job.

When you're always onstage, you really have to focus on listening and reacting.

Reacting is so important to the craft of acting.

That's what acting is. You're not alone. It's reacting. That's what we do.

Acting is reacting. That's when acting is great - when you say something, somebody said something, they make a face, they pose, they use something physical, then you react to that, then they react to you.

Acting is nothing but reacting, so if your co-stars react in a particular way, it does affect your acting as well.

Working with good actors is a pleasure as acting is all about reacting.

I like working on stage because there's something very immediate about it, that interaction with an audience where you immediately hear their reaction, or feel them, whether they're with you.

I love performing on stage the most. It's getting that instant reaction from a live audience. There are no boundaries, you can take your character as far as you want to, you can be the craziest person ever.

I don't know how it is now but the assistant stage manager had to understudy several parts. You had to be ready to go on at any time if the actor couldn't make it to the play. I didn't think anything of it.

An actor should be ready to play any role within reason. For example, I think the most ridiculous thing for me to do would be to try and play Shakespeare.

I feel any actor can deliver a dialogue but real acting is how one reacts to the dialogue.