Quotes About Theater

'Miss Saigon' was my first professional show. It was one of the first regional productions of 'Miss Saigon.'

My career, definitely, the early years were a little scattershot, in terms of - it was a little regional theater, it was a lot of voiceovers, it was a lot of random day jobs. I mean, it was hard. It was hard to scrap around, and once 'Hairspray' happened, then it all kind of clicked into place.

I very much regret that I haven't been taken more seriously. I would love to have been at the National or the RSC.

Those regrets that I do have are, exclusively, not doing plays that I wish I had done.

It's definitely one of those things when you decide to be an actor that it would be really cool to be in a Broadway show or a series regular on a hit show.

In the theater, you didn't have any marks. Your instincts in rehearsal told you what the blocking was. On film, they reversed it. They decided ahead of time what your instincts were, before you even arrived.

Edward Albee, the premier dark playwright of the American theater, would show up at rehearsal and quote his favorite lines from 'Auntie Mame'. He would stand at the back of the theater, not facing the stage, and sort of conduct the music of his play.

The great thing about doing a play is you get this rehearsal period, which you don't get with most film and television roles.

I would rather play Hamlet with no rehearsal than TV golf.

The rehearsal is where it all happens for an actor.

I love opening night, and I love doing plays. But one of my favorite parts about doing a play or working on a new play is rehearsal.

You never learn to act in front of a camera. You never learn anything in front of a camera. But you learn to act in a rehearsal room with a good play and a good cast and a good director.

I met my husband at the rehearsal of a play. We were introduced, and he shook my hand without looking at me and said perfunctorily, 'Pleased to meet you.'

I prefer film to the stage. I always like the rehearsal better than I like performing.

I've been onstage once for one performance with four days' rehearsal.

A movie is a filmed rehearsal in a way. The audience doesn't know that because you're taking out the things that don't work. There's no comparison to the theater because it's live. But making a movie is just as challenging and exciting, I find. A movie is pure process. The theater is the result of process.

I am sure if you went back to the days of 'My Fair Lady,' they would have had one public dress rehearsal, and that is it. And in a way, I would like to go back to that.

I was very lucky: I started acting in this highly subsidized German theater world, so there was not so much job insecurity. We had great working conditions, long rehearsal times, well paid.

For me, rehearsal is only about blocking and pacing; it's not about performance.

At dramatic rehearsals, the only author that's better than an absent one is a dead one.

I think that sometimes in theater, I don't prepare much beyond going to the rehearsals.

In the theater, we used to have four weeks of glorious rehearsals.

The actors work out how to create the show with me during the rehearsals. They owe it to themselves and each other to maintain that contract regardless of what the critics say.

I learned more in the rehearsals for 'The Letter' than I have ever dreamed of know in the theater as a critic. If it doesn't make me a better critic, I'm an idiot.