108 Stage Directions Quotes
Following is our list of stage directions quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about directions.
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Famous Stage Directions Quotes
A stage space has two rules: (1) Anything can happen and (2) Something must happen. — Peter Brook
You need someone to tell you how to do things like hitting your marks, or driving a car so it looks right or getting out of a car so it doesn't take a million years of screen time. — Gary Cole
Within the various acts of the ecodrama should be included scenes in which men's and women's roles come to center stage and scenes in which Nature 'herself' is an actress. — Carolyn Merchant
The essential is to excite the spectators. If that means playing Hamlet on a flying trapeze or in an aquarium, you do it. — Orson Welles
Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good, the show looks good! — Florenz Ziegfeld
If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting? — George Carlin
I am always more interested in performance and character depiction, and my direction says as much. — Lasse Hallstrom
Acting is the art of speaking in a loud, clear voice and the avoidance of bumping into the furniture. — Alfred Lunt
To enter a theatre for a performance is to be inducted into a magical space, to be ushered into the sacred arena of the imagination. — Simon Callow
I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space, whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged. — Peter Brook
Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly. — Rosalind Russell
I provide the bricks and mortar with the words and situations - the director and the actors and the designers build the house. — Eric Bogosian
I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move! — Howard Hawks
The life of a character should be an unbroken line of events and emotions, but a play only gives us a few moments on that line - we must create the rest to portray a convincing life. — Constantin Stanislavski
Acted drama requires surrender of one's self, sympathetic absorption in the play as it develops. — George P. Baker
Short Stage Directions Quotes
- A good director creates an environment, which gives the actor the encouragement to fly. — Kevin Bacon
- Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place. — Martha Graham
- The only thing that matters is the theater! — Lily Rabe
- The work of a director can be summed up in two very simple words. Why and How. — Peter Brook
- I didn't like the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions - the curtain was up. — Groucho Marx
- There are two impulses in theatre: to be frivolous or to make rules. — Tadashi Suzuki
- Actors should be overheard, not listened to, and the audience is 50 percent of the performance. — Shirley Booth
- On stage, I am in the dark. — Maria Callas
Stage Directions Image Quotes
Stage Directions Quotes
Theatre for a New Audience is one of America's most admirable and exciting theatre companites...some of the best acted and directed work to be found on American stages, engaging with the canon of world dramatic literature in a vigorous way. — Tony Kushner
Bodybuilding saved my life because I overcame the nerd stage. I got picked on. I was fascinated with power, and then I decided to take that direction because I knew that it would make me feel good about myself — Lou Ferrigno
I attend film school, my background is acting and directing. But the acting does best, I like to work on the stage. — Tommy Wiseau
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. — George Santayana
Don't write stage directions. If it is not apparent what the character is trying to accomplish by saying the line, tell us how the character said it or whether or not she moved to the couch isn't going to aid the case. — David Mamet
You've got to remember that improvisers are writers and actors and directors all simultaneously. That's what's happening in real time because you're writing on your feet, and you are acting out the words and you are directing what the staging is. You're deciding what staging is. — Mike Birbiglia
I usually write very few stage directions. I think a lot of that is a waste of time. The art of screenwriting is in its terseness, saying a lot with a little. I have no patience when I read a script where the writer describes this guy and what he's wearing and his glasses and his hair. — Scott Frank
One impulse of photography, as immediate as its impulse to extend the visible, is to theatricalize its subjects. The photographer's command, Watch the birdie! is essentially a stage direction. — Stanley Cavell
On stage, there are hundreds of people watching you. It's so much energy directed at you. I pick up energy really easily. Even if I go to the grocery store and no one is paying attention to me, I can pick up other people's moods and it's really intense. — Rooney Mara
If science is an unfinished project, the next stage will be about reconnecting and integrating the rigor of scientific method with the richness of direct experience to produce a science that will serve to connect us to one another, ourselves and the world. — Sayings
Directions Quotes
I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. — Jimmy Dean
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. Moving Forward In A Positive Direction - Colin Stuckert — Albert Einstein
As a guiding principle, life shrinks and life expands in direct proportion to your willingness to assume risk. — Casey Neistat
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined... — Henry David Thoreau
When you can’t change the direction of the wind — adjust your sails — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. — Carl Rogers
When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there. — Zig Ziglar
If you think down, you will go down. If you think up, you will go up. You’ll always travel in the direction of your thinking. — T. D. Jakes
The child who has felt a strong love for his surroundings and for all living creatures, who has discovered joy and enthusiasm in work, gives us reason to hope that humanity can develop in a new direction. — Maria Montessori
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. — John F. Kennedy
Stage Show Quotes
I got booed off the stage one time. This was in a University in Florida. The students didn't know that I had to come back out 6 more times, because I was hosting the show. They just thought that I was a comedian opening the show. — Theo Von
In 2001, Katie Couric told 'Today Show' audiences that 7 percent of Americans doubt the moon landing happened - that it was staged in the Nevada desert. — Annie Jacobsen
There is a kind of classlessness in the theater. The rehearsal pianist, the head carpenter, the stage manager, the star of the show-all are family. — John Kander
Bodybuilding is men on a stage in their underwear wearing brown paint showing other men their muscles. It is training for appearance only, and at the contest level requires a degree of vanity, narcissism, and self-absorption that I find distasteful and odd — Mark Rippetoe
Go out on the stage as a human being and do not be afraid to show struggle in your music. It's a struggle in life and then struggle and then victory. — Wayne Shorter
When I'm on stage the savage in me is released. It's like going back to being a cave man. It takes me six hours to come down after a show. — Angus Young
I feel like you have to make art because you have to make it. But the end result of it- that last stage- you have to show it to somebody else to hopefully get a rise or reaction out of them- [to see] if it’ll affect someone else. — Frank Iero
[On turning down an invitation to appear for four minutes on the Ed Sullivan Show:] Honey, it takes Moms four minutes just to get on the stage. — Moms Mabley
The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it. — John Adams
I have never had anything that I can remember in the business - and that includes all the movies and the stage shows and everything - that I didn't enjoy. I didn't like some of the small-time vaudeville, because we weren't going on and getting better. Aside from that, I didn't dislike anything. — Fred Astaire
Stage Is Set Quotes
Truly remarkable leadership is not just about motivating others to follow, it's about inspiring them to become leaders themselves and setting the stage for even greater opportunities for future generations. — Condoleezza Rice
We are setting the stage for war, Netanyahu is setting the path for Armageddon. America thinks that the presence of our offshore naval power will act as a deterrent to the Turks, Iranians, and others in the region that might otherwise become involved in a confrontation with Israel. — Douglas Macgregor
A stage setting is not a background; it is an environment. — Robert Edmond Jones
Decorating is not about making stage sets, it's not about making pretty pictures for the magazines, it's really about creating a quality of life, a beauty that nourishes the soul. — Albert Hadley
Leadership is about setting the stage for others to shine. — Jensen Huang
The classical error of historical Christianity is that we have never started with the value of the person. Rather, we have started from the 'unworthiness of the sinner', and that starting point has set the stage for the glorification of human shame in Christian theology. — Robert H. Schuller
Photography is only intuition, a perpetual interrogation - everything except a stage set. — Henri Cartier-Bresson
The Spirit is testifying that a new day is dawning. The stage of the world is being set for a fullness of a harvest and a genuine apostolic reformation in a new way. — Mark Chironna
I think on a stage in front of thousands of people is a wildly invigorating and amazing experience, and it requires a certain skill set; then being in the studio, and being curled up in the fetal position under the piano, that requires another skill set. — Mary Chapin Carpenter
Freeing hostages is like putting up a stage set, which you do with the captors, agreeing on each piece as you slowly put it together; then you leave an exit through which both the captor and the captive can walk with sincerity and dignity. — Terry Waite
People Writing About Stage Directions
| Name | Quotes | Likes |
|---|---|---|
 Peter Brook |
26 | 1454 |
 Gary Cole |
44 | 115 |
 Orson Welles |
200 | 1817 |
 Florenz Ziegfeld |
14 | 176 |
 George Carlin |
932 | 11627 |
 Lasse Hallstrom |
33 | 237 |
More Stage Directions Quotes
The general direction of evolution is to produce a serially imprinting, multibrained creature able to decipher its own program, create the technology to leave the planet and live in post-terrestrial mini-worlds, decode the aging sectors of the DNA code--thus assuring immortality, and act in harmony with stages of evolution to come. — Timothy Leary
I almost feel like I'm still in a molding stage so the feedback and response not only inspires me but guides me in a certain direction as well. — Kid Ink
Some stage directions you just simply have to throw away. — Judd Hirsch
In swimming at my level it's about control of the small movements. A good ballet dancer floats across the stage, the best sprinters virtually abolish gravity. All motion occurs in the right direction. — Alexander Dale Oen
When people embrace character, there's latzie. It's the stuffing of a scene that's not written. It's not in the stage direction and it's not in the words. When people embrace character, it informs their living, breathing moments in a scene so well. — Sayings
I come alive when I have assisted in bringing out the printed word on the stage, you know, and I enjoy directing plays. It's a tactile process, theatre, unlike a number of other forms of the creative work. — Wole Soyinka
Sometimes when I'm directing, the stage manager will have a good idea and that's okay with me. — Adam Rapp
Before I even knew what that half of my family did, I was interested in performing. I remember being seven years old and up on a stage and loving it. I've always adored it. Not just acting, but the whole process of writing and directing movies, everything that has to do with that part of life. Maybe it's in my blood. — Jack Huston
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians. — George Santayana
Gosh, I'd like to direct Our Town on stage. — Robert Englund
Maybe I've got to admit that what I did here was enough. I can make some more films. Maybe I'll direct a film. Maybe I'll have my musical put on stage. But nothing, really, to be absolutely honest, competes with making a very successful pop band for 10 years of my life. — Gary Kemp
When I use music on stage, the prime directive is to entertain the public, so it is different. — Cliff Richard
The only stage direction Jackie ever gave him, George said was: 'If you want to stay in the picture, stay close to me.' The rest of the cast remembered a television director's adage. — Audrey Meadows
The first stage had been all over before the doctors even knew they were dealing with a new sickness; it was the direct reaction to the bombardment of the body, at the moment when the bomb went off, by neutrons, beta particles, and gamma rays. — John Hersey
At every stage since World War II, people have assumed that what's happening today will happen forever. Universally, that's been wrong. I can't say in which direction but I do think that what we expect today won't be what we'll get in 15 years. — Robert J. Samuelson
It's pretty rare that I watch a movie now without seeing the script in a way that I hate, where I can see the stage directions and the choices that the actors are making. — Mackenzie Davis
In the beginning you can think, "The world is like a stage. I am only an actor. God is the director. All are His instruments, all are just actors. He is directing everything." But do not always remain at that level. Move on. Think, "I am the unchanging Atma, not this changing personality and body." — Sathya Sai Baba
Oliver [Goldstick] is a very dynamic and imaginative writer, so the stage directions were visceral and very clearly written. — Tom Riley
If you ask why start-ups outperform established enterprises when it comes to catching the next wave, the answer is that they are not conflicted. Everyone is rowing in the same direction. That is never the case in a company that has a portfolio of businesses at different stages in their maturity. So the key to winning there has to be to "zone out" the conflicts - sort of like sending quarrelling children each to their own room. — Geoffrey Moore
All modesty aside, I think I'm good at reading scripts. The way I read a script is as fast as I can, all in one sitting, and I don't read many of the stage directions. I only read enough stage directions to let me know where I am, because they're always so verbose and mostly horseshit. So I only read the dialogue, which allows me to see the movie in my mind's eye in real time. — William H. Macy
These are human beings with real lives and the uncertainty and the fear that any of them face right now could be ended at a stroke if we had all the candidates for prime minister simply say that the right to remain here is not in question and I call again upon Theresa May and on the current prime minster to do that. That would be the humane thing to do and I even at this stage hope that that's a direction they will take. — Nicola Sturgeon
With everything I've done from "Jackie Brown" on, I got really into really writing more prose in the - in what you're calling the stage directions, all right, and consequently my scripts have gotten bigger and bigger, and cut to "Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2." — Quentin Tarantino
You collaborate with actors who are also talented and visionary and come together on a artistic direction within the confines of humanity and realism. The collaboration that you have had with all of these people plays an integral role in its final stage where editing and music are combine to enhance your work. This whole process is very rewarding and I wouldn't trade it for anything. — Ruth E. Carter
I think there was an overemphasis in the early stage on militarization rather than directly providing relief. I don't think it has any long-term significance. — Noam Chomsky
The photographic frame is no longer used as a documentary window into undisturbed private lives, but as a stage on which the subjects consciously direct themselves to bring forward hidden information that is not normally displayed on the surface. — Arthur Tress
Nicholas Hytner, who directed Center Stage, is a huge ballet fan. He was completely open, as was Bruce Beresford, to get our perspective. "No, we wouldn't do this. Yes, we would do that. That's not realistic." So, I feel like Center Stage did well in that respect. — Amanda Schull
Maybe yes, but probably not. At each stage I made what was then the best choice. Having taken that decision, I changed direction and there was no turning back. — Mr. Lee
Since September 11, it seems to me that never in our lifetime, except possibly in the early stages of World War II, has it been clearer that we have as a source of strength, a source of direction, a source of inspiration - our story. — David McCullough
If an idea seems to find its way towards a stage setting, that's the direction I take. I don't know if I'm trying to achieve anything other than to follow an idea on to the page. — Don Delillo
For me, the real goal is to integrate. The thing that I'm most happy with is the fact that I've been able to keep doing all of it - to keep writing, and to keep acting in movies, and to keep acting on the stage, to keep directing plays. I find that they feed each other, and that I learn about acting from directing and I learn about writing from acting. — Ethan Hawke
I never thought about whether film is inherently more sincere, because certainly I think if Guy Maddin had directed A Series Of Unfortunate Events, there probably could have been more of the stage-y irony that is in the books. But I was just interested to see what people would do with it, and worrying that Brad Silberling wouldn't do what I had in mind. — Daniel Handler
A lot of actors choose parts by the scripts, but I don't trust reading the scripts that much. I try to get some friends together and read a script aloud. Sometimes I read scripts and record them and play them back to see if there's a movie. It's very evocative; it's like a first cut because you hear 'She walked to the door,' and you visualize all these things. 'She opens the door' . . . because you read the stage directions, too. — Al Pacino
I was always directing; even back when I started on stage. I was always throwing out ideas. I just love creating stories and for some reason people would listen. — Mike Mayhall
Sometimes you write and you find yourself almost wondering how it will turn out. I don't think every writer sort of almost admits that at some stage his books can take on their own kind of life it selves and simply lead away into directions that they're not kind of prepared for. — J. P. Donleavy
I sort of dreamed about directing before my career as an actor took off. I've directed stage before in so many capacities on tours. I put that together. You have to. Otherwise, it's your statement. It's your voice, and that has to come through. — Justin Timberlake
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