Live Theater Quotes

Every time I go to the theater, there's something about the atmosphere, seeing something unfold live in front of an audience, that you can't get out of your system.

Unlike film and TV, theater is a luxury object, but one that ordinary middle-class people can still afford. Above all, it isn't a mass medium: Live theater is a small-scale, handmade art form. Intimacy is what makes it special.

I have so much respect for people in the theater. You can't do 10 or 15 takes. It's all live. It's like life in motion.

I played at being someone else in movies and live theater, and at being myself in life's most intense, fascinating game - the game of love.

As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride.

I think movies are a director's medium in the end. Theater is the actor's medium. Theater is fast, and enjoyable, and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance.

Broadway, I have to memorize everything. You get one time to do it right.

The great thing about stage is that you have a live audience.

Good live theater disturbs molecules. You create an energy source around yourself and it alternates between you and the audience. Anybody who sees live theater should come out a little rearranged.

I've never been bored in live theater.

It's great to work in film and TV, and I love it, but there's nothing that can replace that instantaneous storytelling you get in theater.

To be a theater actor, I think you have to do plays all the time.

In the theater you rehearse in order to do the performance. And in the movies the rehearsal and the performance are kind of the same thing. You're figuring it out and hopefully the camera is pointed at you when you're doing it.

Broadway is amazing because you're performing for such an intimate group of people. You're living in the moment and whatever happens happens, and you go on. You can't say cut and redo it, you have to be on the whole time.

I went into performing for the community. Being backstage with your company of fellows is the best part of working in live theater. That energy, that combined focus, the synergy - it's addictive.

I had almost no money, but with the little bit I had, I got a ticket to see 'That Championship Season' at the Booth theater.

Theater is such its own living, breathing animal. You do a show every night, but it's different every night. Being on stage, you're experiencing a journey.

For me, there's nothing more valuable as an actor, or better way to learn, than getting to perform in front of a live audience, no matter where you are. Whether it's on Broadway, in Florida, or doing a tour.

Unlike movies, on stage there are no second chances. Everything is live. If someone messes up, forgets a line, gives the wrong cue, you need to have the presence of mind to move the play along.

Shakespeare in the Park is one of the greatest gifts in New York City. You just have to wait for the tickets - and it's worth the wait.

The theater itself is so archaic and old fashioned, that it doesn't really matter to me whether it's on Avenue D or at the Helen Hayes Theater. What's the difference? It's still a very nostalgic form. Also, it means you're knowingly walking into a room where there's actors. I feel it's very embarrassing. Because, you know, they're right there. You always think like, they can see you, and I think it's mortifying, frankly, and I hate to sit near the front, where you feel they actually might see you. It's too ... it's too live.

Oh, I miss the excitement and immediacy of Broadway and the theaters.

So I've done my fair share of theater. I have also been very fortunate in that I've been able to come to New York two or three times a year just to see as many shows as possible. I think the live theater culture here is incredible.

My favorite Broadway show day-to-day, just for the experience, was 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.' The people were so much fun. It was a great show.

I want to be back on Broadway one day. That's a dream of mine. There's nothing like live theater, and I think it's so important for me to be able to be on stage with an audience that responds.