Theatre Quotes
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I suppose because I do and can work in the theatre, I don't see work as closing down as an older woman.
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Back in the Stone Age, before there were workshops, it was a very difficult idea to get into musical theatre. Normally, you would be a chorus girl or boy and write something. People would get their start as rehearsal pianists or dance assistants.
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In television or a movie I bring my own ego and consequently can mess up. In the theatre I learnt very quickly to shut up and listen. Now I am able to get out of my own way.
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Musical theatre is now a worldwide conversation.
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You can work and scratch out a living in the theatre, but, if you want to make money, you've got to hit the road. You've got to play big houses of 2, 3 thousand seaters with your name above the bill, do popular fare and reach out to the audience such as it is.
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In many ways, theatre is more rewarding for a writer. I used to think it was like painting a wall - that when the play is finished, it's done - but now I realise it's more like gardening; you plant the thing, then you have to constantly tend it. You're part of a thing that's living.
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The point of theatre is transformation: to make an extraordinary event out of ordinary material right in front of an audience's eyes. Where the germ of the idea came from is pretty much irrelevant. What matters to every theatre maker I know is speaking clearly to the audience 'right now.'
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My old manager of the Irish National Theatre said 'Don't worry about being a star, just worry about being a working actor. Just keep working.' I think that's really good advice.
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I'm ready for theatre. I'm ready for dramas, period stuff, films. I want to achieve everything.
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When I came on the scene, there was The Nualas, who were doing character comedy, but there weren't any other women doing stand-up because Michelle Read had gone more into theatre.
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I have fallen deeply in love with songs - musical theatre songs included - over the years, and this experience has taught me to hear and honor the writer's voice in my soul.
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I was supposed to go to drama school and then go to New York and do theatre. But I grew up on all those fabulous movies and had read all the bold Hollywood books, and I thought I just had to take a look.
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When you come to my show, I want it to feel like opera, like a theatre.
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During my senior year, when I was attending the University of Michigan and getting a drama degree, the Purple Rose Theatre was in its second season. The year before was the company's inaugural season. I, of course, wanted to work there. It was started by a really prominent local actor, Jeff Daniels.
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My first Broadway show was with Elizabeth Taylor and Maureen Stapleton. Maureen Stapleton, a legend in the theatre; Elizabeth Taylor, a legend, period.
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The idea of audiences becoming part of the show is, I think, where theatre is going.
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I saw Cate Blanchett in 'Big and Small,' and it was mind-blowing. The fact that she can do theatre and is also a huge movie star is really exciting.
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I had no acting background in my family and no experience of theatre. I hadn't even been in a school play.
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It was a family name on my mother's side, and I thought my own name Pratt, if I ever got known in the theatre might be unfortunate.
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I hate rules. I hate 'This is the way things are done'. I hate a lack of reinvention. I hate theatre as an archeological exercise. Theatre needs to be urgent.
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I recently did a play, Athol Fugard's 'Coming Home' at Long Wharf Theatre, where I played one character throughout - I sat at a table and didn't have any costume changes. Following one character's arc from beginning to end is a whole different mindset.
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I did an internship at the Ardent theatre company in Philly after dropping out of college. I was earning $165 a week building sets and cleaning the toilets. Cleaning toilets is a good way of getting in touch with your creativity. That's when you find out if you got anything going on in your head.
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A prose writer never sees a reader walk out of a book; for a playwright, it's another matter. An audience is an invaluable education. In my experience, theatre artists don't know what they've made until they've made it.
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All the adults in my family were actors, so there wasn't much else in terms of role models. I fell in love with that world, being backstage at the theatre.
