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.

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.

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.

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.

You need three things in the theater - the play, the actors and the audience, - and each must give read more

You need three things in the theater - the play, the actors and the audience, - and each must give something

All of the arts, poetry, music, ritual, the visible arts, the theater, must singly and together create the most comprehensive read more

All of the arts, poetry, music, ritual, the visible arts, the theater, must singly and together create the most comprehensive art of all, a humanized society, and its masterpiece, free man

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.

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.

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.