Top Michael Shurtleff Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Michael Shurtleff Biography

Michael Shurtleff (July 3, 1920 in Oak Park, Illinois – January 28, 2007 in Los Angeles, California) was a major force in casting on Broadway during the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote Audition, a book for actors on the audition process. He also wrote numerous one-act and full-length plays.

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Michael Shurtleff Quotes

The life of an actor is a bit easier to take if you admit you're bonkers.

Actors, Easier, Bits, Bonkers, Actor, Life

Actors, who should pride themselves on their singularity, are forever trying to be someone else. It isn’t necessary for you, the actor, to like yourself— self-love isn’t easy to come by for most of us— but you must learn to trust who you are. There is no one else like you.

Actor, Forever, Learn, Pride, Self, Trust

Most actors make themselves unhappy by searching for their sanity, by insisting on their normalcy; it's a grave mistake.

Make, Mistake, Normalcy, Unhappy

The actor needs to find out what the basic fight is in every character in every scene.

Character, Fighting, Needs, Fight, Scene

We don't live for realities, but for the fantasies, the dreams of what might be. If we lived for reality, we'd be dead, every last one of us. Only dreams keep us going. . . When you are acting, don't settle for anything less than the biggest dream for your character's future.

Acting, Character, Dream, Future, Reality

The first step to a better audition is to give up character and use yourself.

Acting, Audition, Character, Giving Up, Step

Every scene is a love scene. The actor should ask the question: 'Where is the love?'

Actors, Love, Question, Scene, Should

There's only one reason why a character drinks: to seek confrontation. To fight for what they want in ways normally denied them.

Acting, Character, Denied, Fighting, Reason

An actor is looking for conflict. Conflict is what creates drama. We are taught to avoid trouble [so] actors don't realize they must go looking for it. Plays are written about. . . the extraordinary, the unusual, the climaxes. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance.

Actor, Climaxes, Drama, Interesting, Play

Often actors ask me if I think they should go on trying to be an actor. I have the same answer for everyone who asks: If you have a choice and could reasonably be happy doing something else, by all means go at once and do something else. Acting or writing or directing in the theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those who are so smitten with the need that there is no choice.

Irrecoverably, Mean, Reasonably, Thinking, Writing

Humor [in a scene] is not jokes. It is that attitude toward being alive without which you would long ago have jumped off the 59th Street Bridge.

Attitude, Long Ago, Bridges, Bridge, Alive, Jumped

Creating relationship is the heart of acting. It is basic. It is essential.

Acting, Creating, Essential, Heart, Relationship

If we lived for reality, we'd be dead, every last one of us. Only dreams keep us going.

Acting, Dream, Dreams, Keep, Lived, Reality

Acting in theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those so smitten with the need that there is no choice.

Acting, Choice, Choices, Diseased, Screen, Theatre

Competition is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don't want to compete. They want to get along. And they are therefore not first-rate actors. The good actor is the one who competes, willingly, who enjoys competing. An actor must compete, or die. . . Peacefulness and the avoidance of trouble won't help in his acting. It is just the opposite he must seek.

Actor, Competition, Healthy, Life, Opposites, Peacefulness

Every scene you will ever act begins in the middle, and it is up to you, the actor, to provide what comes before.

Acting, Actor, Actors, Middle, Provide, Up To You

Listening is not merely hearing. Listening is reacting. Listening is being affected by what you hear. Listening is active.

Acting, Active, Hearing, Listening, Merely

Consistency is the death of good acting.

Acting, Consistency, Good, Good Acting

Everyone thinks romance is weak. Yet romance is everyone's secret dream-it's why we're alive.

Alive, Dream, Romance, Thinking, Thinks

Conflict is what creates drama. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance.

Acting, Actors, Creates, Drama, Interesting

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