Quotes About Theater

Actors know how to talk to other actors in a way that sometimes other directors just don't.

I'm always in disguise in one form or another in my plays.

It's fun to play the type of people you dislike.

I love a period drama - the theatricality of going into work and having that distance between yourself and the character you're playing.

To be totally honest, I thought I would have a Broadway debut in the distant, distant future, maybe in my 60s or 70s when somebody revived one of my off-Broadway plays with a star.

I love the theater community and theater life, and would love to figure out the distinctive differences between Broadway and the West End.

I need distractions. Good distractions, not bad ones. A good distraction for me is a great play.

You can go to a play that is enjoyable because it's funny, and then on the next night you can go to a play that's enjoyable because it's 'disturbing.'

I played Pierre, a white Russian aristocrat, and my co-lead was Denee Benton. Two black leads playing not black people - it was an important moment for the Broadway community to say diversity is possible and it's here.

Commercial theater, in its agenda to appeal to everybody, is often at the expense of the unique vision of the artist.

Well, acting has been a dream of mine since I can remember; being in the movies and acting, having those experiences.

At the core of what I'm doing is a belief in the audience, a belief that populism doesn't mean dumbing down theater, but rather giving the audience a voice and a role in experiencing theater.

I want to do more theater, which allows you to take bigger risks and experiment.

With film, so much is in the director's hands. Once something is cut together - unless you're in the editing room - you don't really remember what the alternatives are. The exercise in theater is night after night, you are doing the same play, but you have another opportunity to explore.

We've all had that moment, the first time you're exposed to live theater, and it's shocking in the best possible way. You see something and say to yourself, 'I didn't know this could exist.'

We had a great dramatic society in school, and that's where I first got exposure both as an actor and director.

When I'm writing Broadway, it's for a character, a man, a woman, an old guy, a kid. In the band, you're talking in your own voice in the lyrics, saying what you think or feel. On Broadway, you're expressing that through a character.

I never really think of acting and directing as being separate; they are just different expressions of the same thing.

When I was in school, and even after, I did a lot of classic plays, and I guess it sort of extended into film.

Looking at acting, in the movies or the theater, and the way I like to look at it, it's just an extension of childhood play... Kids play and imagine in a very intense fashion and they don't need any director telling them, 'You really have to believe in it.' They believe in it completely.

While my megalomania knows no bounds, directing is one thing I have never really done. I directed a couple of plays. That was the extent of it.

Most of the comedies I've done have been rather farcical and extravagant.

There is a wealth of fabulous actresses in England.

I think British audiences are accustomed to the 'boo' factor and pantomimes.