THEATRE QUOTES III
quotations about theatre
The play was a great success, but the audience was a failure.
OSCAR WILDE
attributed, Encore
No, no, no; the theatre is not a house of evil repute, nor are its followers evil doers: the theatre is a temple where the beautiful is always worshipped; it makes a continuous appeal to the higher senses and natural passions. In this temple vice is punished, and virtue rewarded; the great social problems are presented. In this temple instruction is less abstract, and, therefore, more profitable for the crowd. The apostles of this temple are full of faith and courage; they have the souls of missionaries marching always toward the ideal.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Idol of Paris
The theatre is a place where one has time for the problems of people to whom one would show the door if they came to one's office for a job.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
attributed, Profiles
I think theater ought to be theatrical ... you know, shuffling the pack in different ways so that it's -- there's always some kind of ambush involved in the experience. You're being ambushed by an unexpected word, or by an elephant falling out of the cupboard, whatever it is.
TOM STOPPARD
interview, March 10, 1999
The theater is a great equalizer: it is the only place where the poor can look down on the rich.
WILL ROGERS
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
I am entirely convinced that the drama renounces its chief privilege and glory when it waives its claim to be a popular art, and is content to address itself to coteries, however "high-browed."
WILLIAM ARCHER
Play-making: A Manual of Craftsmanship
Theatres are curious places, magician's trick-boxes where the golden memories of dramatic triumphs linger like nostalgic ghosts, and where the unexplainable, the fantastic, the tragic, the comic and the absurd are routine occurrences on and off the stage. Murders, mayhem, political intrigue, lucrative business, secret assignations, and of course, dinner.
E. A. BUCCHIANERI
Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
The theatre is certainly a place for learning about the brevity of human glory: oh all those wonderful glittering absolutely vanished pantomimes.
IRIS MURDOCH
The Sea, the Sea
No theater could sanely flourish until there was an umbilical connection between what was happening on the stage and what was happening in the world.
KENNETH TYNAN
"Critic Kenneth Tynan Has Mellowed But Is Still England's Stingiest Gadfly", New York Times, January 9, 1966
Given technological developments in virtual reality and communications, it is not clear what, if any, purpose will be served by live theatre in the not-too-distant future. Postmodern theory sees theatre as a quaint and marginalized activity in a wired world, and ... whether live theatre even really exists anymore. Some of you may dream of seeing your name up in lights on a theatre marquee, but if you are really looking for fame and fortune shouldn't you be studying film at least, or television arts, or computers? What is it about theatre that remains compelling for you? Is it just because it's there?
MARK FORTIER
Theory Theatre and Introduction
Life is a theatre set in which there are but few practicable entrances.
VICTOR HUGO
Les Misérables
It is remarkable how virtuous and generously disposed everyone is at a play. We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characteristics
All theatre is political -- just as all other activities of human beings are political -- because theatre is not autonomous and must thus decide whose interests it serves.
FRANCES BABBAGE
Augusto Boal
The history of theatre is the history of first nights.
JOHN LAHR
Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton
There is something wrong when I go to the theatre whose province is the world and instead of being brought closer to the world I am cut off from it.
JULIAN BECK
The Life of the Theatre
I thought we had outgrown the idea of theatre as a mystic rite born of secret communion between author, director, actors and an empty auditorium.
KENNETH TYNAN
letter to George Devine, March 10, 1964
I have never regarded any theater as much more than the conclusion to a dinner or the prelude to a supper.
MAX BEERBOHM
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
Applause begets applause in the theatre, as laughter begets laughter and tears beget tears.
CLAYTON HAMILTON
Theory of the Theatre
It's one of the tragic ironies of the theatre that only one man in it can count on steady work -- the night watchman.
TALLULAH BANKHEAD
Tallulah: My Autobiography
With a play, when the curtain goes up and people are in garbage cans, I know I may admire the idea cerebrally, but it won't mean as much to me. I've seen Beckett, along with many lesser avant-gardists, and many contemporary plays, and I can say yes, that's clever and deep but I don't really care. But when I watch Chekhov or O'Neill--where it's men and women in human, classic crises--that I like.
WOODY ALLEN
The Paris Review, fall 1995