Dramatic Illusion Quotes

When I used to do musical theatre, my dad refused to come backstage. He never wanted to see the props up close or the sets up close. He didn't want to see the magic.

Playing a character is an illusion, and I feel that when you know too much about a person, possibly part of that illusion is disrupted.

If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

People forget that actors are actors, who are looking to put on the clothes and the character, and then shed it just as easily.

One of the skills you have to master in theater is the ability to make the audience believe that things that aren't there are there - just like when you're acting against CGI. Also, in a theater, the people in the back row can't see the whites of your eyes. Or your lips moving as you deliver dialogue.

The stage is suspension of disbelief. Film is a literal medium.

The business of the dramatist is to keep himself out of sight, and to let nothing appear but his characters. As soon as he attracts notice to his personal feelings, the illusion is broken.

One of the great tools we use in acting is the idea of immediacy, that the audience gets to see you witness something apparently for the first time, so you create a lot of tools to kind of trick yourself into making it appear something is happening for the first time.