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

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 theater needs continual reminders that there is nothing more debasing than the work of those who do well what read more

The theater needs continual reminders that there is nothing more debasing than the work of those who do well what is not worth doing at all.

I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is read more

I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.

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.

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

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.

It's one of the tragic ironies of the theatre that only one man in it can count on steady work read more

It's one of the tragic ironies of the theatre that only one man in it can count on steady work -- the night watchman.