Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall. — Stephen Sondheim
A real theatrical experience shakes the calm of the senses, liberates the compressed unconscious and drives towards a kind of potential revolt . . . — Antonin Artaud
Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place. — Martha Graham
Theatergoing is a communal act, movie going a solitary one. — Robert Brustein
The only thing that matters is the theater! — Lily Rabe
To me, theater is the mecca; if you really love to act, that's where it's the most fun, by a long shot. — Scott Caan
Good theatre draws the energies out of the place where it is and gives it back as joie de vivre. — Joan Littlewood
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
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
But theater, because of its nature, both text, images, multimedia effects, has a wider base of communication with an audience. That's why I call it the most social of the various art forms. — Wole Soyinka
I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost - it's there and then it's gone. — Maggie Smith
There are two impulses in theatre: to be frivolous or to make rules. — Tadashi Suzuki
Acted drama requires surrender of one's self, sympathetic absorption in the play as it develops. — George P. Baker
I hate the word 'production'...it's a ceremony, it's a ritual...you should go out of the theatre stronger and more human than when you went in. — Ariane Mnouchkine
Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage. — Charlie Chaplin
Short Theatrical Quotes
I studied at the Budapest Academy of Theatrical Arts for four years and emerged with a degree. — Bela Lugosi
God will have life to be real; we will be damned, but it shall be theatrical. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every man is a borrower and a mimic, life is theatrical and literature a quotation. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt. — Studs Terkel
Characterization is integral to the theatrical experience. — Robert Ludlum
I needed someone really intense, but also somebody with a lot of theatrical credibility. — Denis Leary
I don't like theatrical actors and actresses. I like people that talk like real human beings. — Woody Allen
The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. — Gilbert K. Chesterton
Well, we have theatrical parties. It's not me singing. People like to get up and jam on the piano. — Liza Minnelli
It's my job to be the Pierrot, the clown, in the theatrical sense. — Marilyn Manson
Theatrics Quotes
Young artists wish for inspired moments. And you find them; you take them; eager artists are bandits. Theatrical moments arrive, and...you grab. Good! You know it will draw attention to you. But you aim to be more than bandits, no? So, okay...now be Samurai. — Jerzy Grotowski
My pictures are about everyday life combined with theatrical effect. I want them to feel outside of time, to take something routine and make it irrational. I’m always looking for a small moment that is a revelation — Gregory Crewdson
The language of the younger generation has the brutality of the city and an assertion of threatening power at hand, not to come. It is military, theatrical, and at its most coherent probably a lasting repudiation of empty courtesy and bureaucratic euphemism. — Elizabeth Hardwick
Be reflective...and stay away from the theater as much as you can. Stay out of the theatrical world, out of its petty interests, its inbreeding tendencies, its stifling atmosphere, its corroding influence. Once become — Minnie Maddern Fiske
Black Books adheres to a more old fashioned, traditional sitcom format, which I think works, because in its own way, it's quite theatrical. — Dylan Moran
I'm really very sorry for you all, but it's an unjust world, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances. — W. S. Gilbert
Hitler frequently demonstrated diffidence and unease in dealings with individuals which contrasted diametrically with his self-confident mastery in exploiting the emotions of his listeners in the theatrical setting of a major speech. — Ian Kershaw
The Theatre of the Absurd is a theatrical embodiment and manifestation of existentialism. It is part reality and part nightmare — Martin Esslin
Although one may fail to find happiness in theatrical life, one never wishes to give it up after having once tasted its fruits. — Anna Pavlova
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
Theatrical Drama Quotes
I was always a drama queen. I remember playing in the kitchen, trying to get my mom to think I was dead and call the police. When she didn't, I would cry. I was always theatrical. I don't think any of my relatives are surprised. — Amy Lee
I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection. — Aaron Sorkin
The drama may be called that part of theatrical art which lends itself most readily to intellectual discussion: what is left is theater. — Robertson Davies
In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage. — Gustav Mahler
If you look at the timing of many of the Greek dramas from the theatrical point of view, it's all off, and I think the reason for that is that music played a very important part. — John Eaton
I think that there is a role for food to be art; and when food is art, it can have drama, it can have spectacle, it can be theatrical. It can be this amazing experience. — Nathan Myhrvold
Theater Quotes
You cannot be buried in obscurity: you are exposed upon a grand theater to the view of the world. If your actions are upright and benevolent, be assured they will augment your power and happiness. — Cyrus the Great
It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. — Bertolt Brecht
When I was a teenager, I began to settle into school because I'd discovered the extracurricular activities that interested me: music and theater. — Morgan Freeman
I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches. — Strom Thurmond
To say whatever nonsense comes into your head without any repercussions has got to be a bigger high than heckling a movie screen in a darkened theater. — Lenny Bruce
The problem was to sustain at any cost the feeling you had in the theater that you were watching a real person, yes, but an intense condensation of his experience, not simply a realistic series of episodes. — Arthur Miller
This...is an age of specialization, and in such an age the repertory theater is an anachronism, a ludicrous anachronism. — Minnie Maddern Fiske
Coughing in the theater is not a respiratory ailment. It is a criticism. — Alan Jay Lerner
In the commercial theater, I've been pretty fortunate. The producers that I've worked with have allowed me to define the artistic integrity, the artistic limits of the work. — Trevor Nunn
We can guess that the unacceptable conduct of the soldiers at Abu Ghraib resulted in part from the dangerous state of affairs on the ground in a theater of war. — John Yoo
Musical Theater Quotes
Simplify, slow down, be kind. And don't forget to have art in your life - music, paintings, theater, dance, and sunsets. — Eric Carle
I'm preparing for a multimedia theater piece, Airport Music, that's coming up in New York City. — Jessica Hagedorn
Look at the darkest hit musicals - Cabaret, West Side Story, Carousel - they are exuberant experiences. They send you out of the theater filled with music — John Lithgow
Love is a command, not just a feeling. Somehow, in the romantic world of music and theater we have made love to be what it is not. We have so mixed it with beauty and charm and sensuality and contact that we have robbed it of its higher call of cherishing and nurturing. — Ravi Zacharias
I had an older brother who was very interested in literature, so I had an early exposure to literature, and and theater. My father sometimes would work in musical comedies. — Francis Ford Coppola
Broadway has changed tremendously from the early days when the shows were referred to as musical comedies. Musical Theater is now a more expanded art form. Back then, singer/actors were not the norm. From the 60's to now, it is necessary to do it all to be a consummate Broadway performer. — Betty Buckley
Anyone interested in design must be interested in other fields of expression - theater, ballet, photography, literature, music. — Lester Beall
Bangladesh is a world of metaphor, of high and low theater, of great poetry and music. You talk to a rice farmer and you find a poet. You get to know a sweeper of the streets and you find a remarkable singer. — Jean Houston
Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world. — Alan Rickman
Broadway Theatre Quotes
A young Brit girl with no theatre experience decided to take on an iconic American role on Broadway. Maybe I should have thought that through? — Emilia Clarke
I received the most fantastic welcome to the Broadway Theatre community. I walked on stage to tremendous applause and a long standing ovation, wondering when I was ever going to be able to say my first line! — Elaine Paige
I figured as I got older, the good roles for women would be in the theatre. So 15 years ago I started building a Broadway career to try and develop the chops to be accepted as a great theatrical actress. — Kathleen Turner
What success I achieved in the theatre is due to the fact that I have always worked just as hard when there were ten people in the house as when there were thousands. Just as hard in Springfield, Illinois as on Broadway. — Bill Robinson
You can't remember what movie you saw two weeks ago, but you can remember what Broadway show you saw two weeks ago and where you ate dinner - everything about it. There's something about live theatre that hits you in the heart. — Susan Stroman
Though I acted in hundreds of productions, appeared at the Guthrie Theatre and on Broadway in Amadeus, I discovered in my thirties that I didn't really like stage acting. The presence of the audience, the eight shows a week and the possibility of a long run were all unnatural to me. — Fred Melamed
It's lovely that the Hollywood stars are crossing over to Broadway.... There used to be such a dividing line in the country between Hollywood and the theatre and that's just melting away. It's just wonderful right now! — Julie Andrews
My mother's side of the family was in the production side of theatre. My grandfather, Jose Vega, was a general manager for Neil Simon shows on Broadway. — Yancy Butler
Because Chicago was to radio what Hollywood was to films and Broadway was to the theatre: it was the hub of radio. — Mel Torme
It was a different planet in 1967, the Broadway theatre. It had a little ashtray clamped to the back of every seat and the author got 10% of the gross. — Tom Stoppard
Musical Theatre Quotes
I dislike organized games, swimming pools, fashionable resorts, night clubs, music in restaurants, and political manifestoes; I enjoy driving from coast to coast, good food and drink, a few friends, dogs, the theatre, long walks, music and free conversation. — James Hilton
I used to do puppet theatre and also mime and musical theatre in Florida for competitions and festivals, which was great. I was very much involved in theatre when I was in college. — Wesley Snipes
Musical theatre is something I'm familiar with, I've been doing that. — David Naughton
I grew up overseas in Indonesia, and my school had a great art, music, and theatre program. — Angela Kinsey
Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it. — Aristotle
There is a lot of interest in the arts, music, theatre, filmmaking, engineering, architecture and software design. I think we have now transitioned the modern-day version of the entrepreneur into the creative economy. — John Baldacci
The musical has always been in jeopardy - until - or was in jeopardy until it was realised that it is probably the safest living theatre art form. — Harold Prince
We haven't truly had a zeitgeisty, 'songs on the radio' show, since...I want to say "One Night in Bangkok" was the last musical theatre song that charted. That was so long ago. — Nikka Graff Lanzarone
I wanted to be a musical theatre actress - I wanted to play Sally Bowles, forever and ever always. — Carey Mulligan
See, there's only two theaters, man that are set up pretty groovy all around for music and for smooth stage changes, good lighting and all that - the Fillmore and The Capitol Theatre. And those are the only two in the whole country. — Jerry Garcia
Theatre Quotes
Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it. — Augusto Boal
Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions, I beg you. — Constantin Stanislavski
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
Drama is exposure; it is confrontation; it is contradiction and it leads to analysis, construction, recognition and eventually to an awakening of understanding. — Peter Brook
Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. — Sanford Meisner
Preparing a character is the opposite of building-it is a demolishing, removing brick by brick everything in the actor's muscles, ideas and inhibitions that stands between him and the part, until one day, with a great rush of air, the character invades his every pore. — Peter Brook
Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it. — Konstantin Stanislavisky
Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it. — Constantin Stanislavski
You can't learn to act unless you're criticized. If you tie that criticism to your childhood insecurities you'll have a terrible time. Instead, you must take criticism objectively, pertaining it only to the work being done. — Sanford Meisner
An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words. — Sanford Meisner
Live Theater Quotes
Twentieth-century culture's disease is the inability to feel their reality. People cluster to TV, soap operas, movies, theater, pop idols and they have wild emotion over symbols. But in the reality of their own lives, they're emotionally dead. — Jim Morrison
I live in New Jersey, so I kind of just go to New York whenever. — Sadie Sink
During a trip to Iraq last fall, I visited our theater hospital at Balad Air Force Base and witnessed these skilled medical professionals in action and met the brave soldiers whose lives they saved. — Melissa Bean
I realize I'm a very lucky man. I love what I do, I love films, TV and theater, and the fact that I'm able to make a living at it staggers me. — Eric Stoltz
And that's what people want to see when they go to the theater. I believe at the end of the day, they want to see themselves - parts of their lives they can recognize. And I feel if I can achieve that, it's pretty spectacular. — Viola Davis
I love live theater; I like the relationship between the show and the audience. That's my comfort zone, but more than anything, it's what makes me happy. — Kristin Chenoweth
...there is no doubt something will be done sooner or later to enable us to put on a house every day, just as we put on clothes or choose a book to read or a theater to go to, like choosing a day to be lived, within the limits grated by other destinies or chances. — Ettore Sottsass
I love flexing theater Muscles. Television has merits as well, but there's no substitute for live theater. — Eddie Cahill
Nothing against comedy clubs, they work. But when you're sitting with a tablecloth and a candle and an appetizer menu, three-drink minimum, it can feel more like a dinner theater than a live experience. — Doug Stanhope
All the difference in the world between the movies and the thrill I get out of a play at the theater. Ay, yes! Like fooling around with paper dolls when you could be playing with a real live baby. — Edna Ferber
Animal abuse is rampant in the U.S., right under everyone's eyes, for the entertainment of the public. The brutal confinement and pain of training methods of wild animals in the circus, the aquatic and theatrical shows, leads to retaliation by the animals. Eventually they find the right time to strike out, and they will. — Tippi Hedren
Taking offense has become America's national pastime; being theatrically offended supposedly signifies the exquisitely refined moral delicacy of people who feel entitled to pass through life without encountering ideas or practices that annoy them. — George Will
When I looked at the state of women's MMA, what I saw was that it was missing rivalries or anything theatrical about it. Everybody was trying to be Miss America, unwilling to go under any kind of criticism, and taking the safe answers. I thought I needed to do whatever I could to get attention. — Ronda Rousey
Pornography is human imagination in tense theatrical action; its violations are a protest against the violations of our freedom by nature. — Camille Anna Paglia
Pornography is human imagination in tense theatrical action; its violations are a protest against the violations of our freedom by nature. — Camille Paglia
But then in novels the most indifferent hero comes out right at last. Some god comes out of a theatrical cloud and leaves the poor devil ten thousand-a-year and a title. — Anthony Trollope
I am so used to seeing the sort of play which deals with one man and two women. They do not leave me with the feeling I have made a full theatrical meal they do not give me the experience of the multiplicity of life. — E. M. Forster
When I started in the late 1950s, every film I made - no matter how low the budget - got a theatrical release. Today, less that 20-percent of our films get a theatrical release. — Roger Corman
I'm there to make a kind of theatrical music that is desperately missing in my life. And if other people don't like it, I'm very unhappy, but I can't do anything about that. — Richard Foreman
I'm cautious about using fire. It can become theatrical. I am interested in the heat, not the flames. — Andy Goldsworthy
I had a feeling it was gonna work out because not only did I enjoy the music and hit it off with the guys, but I was into theatrical rock and was willing to wear makeup and do anything to make it. — Ace Frehley
There is something about New York City that in and of itself is so theatrical hat I use to think... I use to feel when I walked out of my apartment on the way to school or anywhere that I was walking out on stage. — Dabney Coleman
In TV, and in particular in commercials, you don't really need to explain very much at all - you just say he's a spy and he's a little bit theatrical and overblown and smug and he's not very good at his job. — Rowan Atkinson
Figure skating is theatrical. It's artistic. It's elegant. It's extremely athletic. And there's a very specific audience for that. — Johnny Weir
I wore makeup when I was at school, and I wore makeup when glam started. I started wearing it again when punk started. I've always been drawn to wearing it. It's partly ritualistic, partly theatrical and partly just because I think I look better with it on. — Robert Smith
When AI approximates Machine Intelligence, then many online and computer-run RPGs will move towards actual RPG activity. Nonetheless, that will not replace the experience of 'being there,' any more than seeing a theatrical motion picture can replace the stage play. — Gary Gygax
I had a toy theater and a magic lantern, and when I was eight I built a stage for theatricals in the attic. — James Broughton
Circumstances made me the theatrical personality I am, which many people believe is also a part of my personal life. — Bela Lugosi
I never really listen to what people say. My thing is that my favorite artists are artists that are theatrical. Obviously when you are doing a recording, things aren't gonna translate as over-the-top. — Adam Lambert
I have walked many times around the world and each time it's different from the last one. It feels a little bit like I am a theatrical director, creating a theatre in space. It's really a theater in the sky. But of course the World Trade Center is certainly the most well-known of my productions. — Philippe Petit
One can do such lovely things with so little. Subjects that are too beautiful end by appearing theatrical. — Camille Pissarro
The marrying of an actor and his whimsical and theatrical vision is very enjoyable, because he wants it to be filled with something honest, truthful, human, soulful, substantial. — Jeff Goldblum
Blink and you miss a sprint. The 10,000 meters is lap after lap of waiting. Theatrically, the mile is just the right length: beginning, middle, end, a story unfolding. — Sebastian Coe
I'm the kind of person who would rather get my hopes up really high and watch them get dashed to pieces than wisely keep my expectations at bay and hope they are exceeded. This quality has made me a needy and theatrical friend, but has given me a spectacularly dramatic emotional life. — Mindy Kaling
I'm careful not to give into theatrics when times are tough, I don't like it when somebody gives into outside pressure and puts on a show for others. — Tony La Russa
And I don't consider Broadway the acropolis of theatrical art. I mean Broadway is commercial - that's what it is. It's expensive seats and a lot of them that have to be filled every night. Off-Broadway and off-off Broadway as far as I'm concerned is in New York the pride of New York theater. — Tony Kushner
The longer I live the more I mistrust theatricality, the false glamour cast by performance, the more I know its poverty beside the truths we are salvaging from the splitting-open of our lives. -from "Transcendental Etude — Adrienne Rich
Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience. — Eric Hoffer
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of theatrical quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about theatrical to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of theatrical quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
