The primary function of a theater is not to please itself, or even to please its audience. It is to read more

The primary function of a theater is not to please itself, or even to please its audience. It is to serve talent.

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.

The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to read more

The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My playground was the theatre. I'd sit and watch my mother pretend for a living. As a young girl, that's read more

My playground was the theatre. I'd sit and watch my mother pretend for a living. As a young girl, that's pretty seductive.

We are in the black theater of nonexistence. In an eye blink the curtain is up, the stage ablaze, for read more

We are in the black theater of nonexistence. In an eye blink the curtain is up, the stage ablaze, for the vast drama of ourselves.