The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place.
Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when you can forget yourself.
When I went to LA I was almost 30, I'd been nominated for two Tony awards, and on the New York theatre scene I was pretty well known. I went out to LA to meet with casting people, and I remember walking into one meeting and saying: "Hey, how are you? I'm Patrick. . . " And they said: "I'm so sorry! I thought you were British!" When I asked why, she replied: "Because you're 30 and I've never heard of you!"
Postmodern theatre seems unwilling to listen to talk about textual or theatrical heritage, which it treats as no more than memory in the technical sense of that word, as an immediately available and reusable memory bank.
Much of the day I have busied myself making notes on the small parts in Shakespeare, often nameless, which are rewarding to the actor if only he'll not dismiss them as beneath his dignity. If I can work it up into a talk I might call it, 'Only a cough and a spit ' -the phrase so often used by actors to explain away a lack of opportunity.
I love going to see the theatre whether it's a Broadway play or a Russian ballet company.
It's quite possible we may actually be looking at some kind of super-sanity here. A brilliant new modification of human perception, more suited to urban life at the end of the twentieth century. . . He creates himself each day. He sees himself as the lord of misrule and the world as a theatre of the absurd.
In my school, the library was forbidden. I was accused of turning on the radiator so that the [class]room was uninhabitable and the ceiling came down below; I'm pretty sure I didn't do it. But then we were moved to the library. And there was a really boring history thing, about the Spanish Armada: how could you make that boring?!So I reached my hand out, and slid a book off to read under the desk, and it opened at King Lear Act Four Scene Six. I was astounded. I'd never seen language like it. I was awestruck. I think that may be one reason why I got involved in theatre.
The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.
The Greeks already understood that there was more interest in portraying an unusual character than a usual character - that is the purpose of films and theatre.
When a culture is being dumbed down as effectively as ours is, its narrative arts (literature, film, theatre) seem to vacillate between the brutal and the bland, sometimes in the same work.
I love musical theatre and my dream is to do Once On This Island.
In my opinion, Christian Dior was never, ever theatre.
I understand the power and the alarm of words - Not those that they applaud from theatre-boxes, but those which make coffins break from bearers and on their four oak legs walk right away.
My greatest experiences in the theatre and the most religious experiences in my life - of which going to the opera is one for me - have been with the Romantic composers' repertoire: it's Wagner, it's Strauss, Verdi, Puccini. That era gets me every time.
I started in theatre, and for me, it was all about transformation. You transform into the character that you're playing.
If you have the emotion, it infects you and the audience. If you don't have it don't bother; just say your lines as truthfully as you are capable of doing. You can't fake emotion.
My whole family is very artistic - my uncles are all actors and theatre directors.
I regard the theatre as a serious business, one that makes or should make man more human, which is to say, less alone.
I love storytelling and I love just relating directly to an audience. That's why we do theatre, it's because we love contact with the audience. We love the fact that the audience will change us. The way the audience responds makes us change our performance.