John Tiffany Quotes
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My need is about communicating the whole, and when the whole is there in the text and in what the actors are doing, then it doesn't need 'frou-frou,' as I call it.
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Some actors just have a quality, a way of combining music and character and story, where everything just falls into place.
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For me, there is a real line between something being the worst thing in the world and the best thing in the world.
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When I get really down, I remember that we all share 99.99 per cent of our DNA with Beyonce. And suddenly, the world doesn't seem too bleak.
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Broadway is full of crazy people.
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If you're going to be hosting any event or a performance or having dinner with people after a performance, it is work, but it's also social: food and a glass of wine would be involved often.
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Austerity has led us to a terrible philosophy where we think we've got to cut back on everything that's 'frippery', like the arts.
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When I sold my flat in Glasgow, I bought a little cottage on the North Yorkshire coast. Whenever we go up from London to stay there, I'm just like, 'I'm home! I'm home in Bronte-land!'
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I'll always have a relationship with Scotland.
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I thought a director was like a pillow who sat under the writer, supporting them and submitting to their vision. It took me a long time to realise that what a writer really wants is a production that matches the play and the writing. It is the only way the play can achieve its full potential.
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It blows my mind that you get Shakespeare where the 'low' comedy characters have got Northern or Welsh accents.
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I did a couple of short films when I was in Scotland.
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Where film can eat up story, theatre needs space and breath.
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The only thing I fear is when people say, 'I should go to the theatre more.' I say, 'We should create work that makes you not have a choice.'
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I never get star-struck. I never fanboy. Ever, ever, ever.
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A first preview is not exactly a pleasant experience for directors and actors. You're never as raw as when the audience first comes in.
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I've never understood why anyone would want to join the army, but that's irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that, as long as we go on voting in governments who are prepared to take troops into an illegal war, that army is a necessity.
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In film, if you've got to do a scene in a swimming pool, you do a scene in a swimming pool. If you've got to blow up a car, you blow up a car. In theater, you can't do that, and therefore, you have the opportunity to engage the audience's imagination in a way that's rich.
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Whenever I'd seen Greek tragedy done with masks and declamations, it brought me out in a rash.
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Pinocchio's really naughty. He's all impulse: 'I want to sleep now. I want to eat that. I want to run off to Pleasure Island.' It's commedia dell'arte meets Grimm's tales.
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I'm fascinated to see how 'Black Watch' connects with an American audience.
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We just don't need any more 'Macbeth's in the world, however brilliant mine might turn out to be.
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I realise that there's something about fantasy, whether it's written by the Grimm Brothers or J. K. Rowling or Thorne or J. M. Barrie, that it gets closer to the human experience than realism every could.
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I suppose the key for me is about opening up experiences and untold stories to audiences.