In the theater the audience wants to be surprised but by things that they expect

In the theater the audience wants to be surprised but by things that they expect

Coughing in the theater is not a respiratory ailment. It is a criticism.

Coughing in the theater is not a respiratory ailment. It is a criticism.

I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly.

I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly.

The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life.

The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life.

You can throw away the privilege of acting, but that would be such a shame. The tribe has elected you read more

You can throw away the privilege of acting, but that would be such a shame. The tribe has elected you to tell its story. You are the shaman/healer, that's what the storyteller is, and I think it's important for actors to appreciate that. Too often actors think it's all about them, when in reality it's all about the audience being able to recognize themselves in you. The more you pull away from the public, the less power you have on screen.

No theater could sanely flourish until there was an umbilical connection between what was happening on the stage and what read more

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.

For my part, I confess I seldom listen to the players: one has so much to do, in looking about read more

For my part, I confess I seldom listen to the players: one has so much to do, in looking about and finding out one's acquaintance, that, really, one has no time to mind the stage. One merely comes to meet one's friends, and show that one's alive.

To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They read more

To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.

We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical read more

We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.