As an actor you become that lighting rod between the person who made the play and the audience.
quote by Christopher Walken
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Related quotes
The lighting is so important. One thing that makes me nuts about the lighting now is that they spend an enormous amount of time lighting the set, the background. But the most important thing in the scene is the actor.
quote by Donna Mills
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There's nothing like a play. It's so immediate and every performance is different. As an actor, you have the most control over what the audience is seeing.
quote by David Schwimmer
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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An actor really is a kind of intermediary between an audience and the piece, whether it's a play or movie.
quote by Christopher Walken
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Theater is the most enriching and thrilling thing to do as an actor. It trumps movies and all that other stuff. People say, "You must love the instant feedback," and we're all attention whores for sure - that's why we choose this profession. But it goes beyond that: There's something magical about a shared experience in a theater, with actors and an audience. I don't know if the audience members realize just how huge a part they play in a production. How they are determines how we are, and when it all works, it's magical.
quote by Paul Rudd
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Play
I am the only actor.
It is difficult for one woman
to act out a whole play.
The play is my life,
my solo act.
My running after the hands
and never catching up.
(The hands are out of sight -
that is, offstage.)
All I am doing onstage is running,
running to keep up,
but never making it.
Suddenly I stop running.
(This moves the plot along a bit.)
I give speeches, hundreds,
all prayers, all soliloquies.
I say absurd things like:
egss must not quarrel with stones
or, keep your broken arm inside your sleeve
or, I am standing upright
but my shadow is crooked.
And such and such.
Many boos. Many boos.
Despite that I go on to the last lines:
To be without God is to be a snake
who wants to swallow an elephant.
The curtain falls.
The audience rushes out.
It was a bad performance.
That’s because I’m the only actor
and there are few humans whose lives
will make an interesting play.
Don’t you agree?
Anonymous submission.
poem by Anne Sexton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable. You must reach the emotional and intellectual level of ability where you can go out stark naked, emotionally, in front of an audience.
quote by Jack Lemmon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Actor Of Love
Hold on
I have found something I longing for
To fill the hollowness of my heart
But why I'm feeling more of sorrow
Before
I am the one who said: 'Oh, I'll control'
But now I realize you are my world
And it's waiting to break apart
I'm an actor of love
I'm trying to perfect
But I'm just fooling around
I'm an actor of love
I want to be your hero
But I've made myself a clown
I'm an actor of love
I need you by my side
But now you leave me alone
I'm an actor of love
I beg your forgiveness
But you refuse me so cold
Sometimes
We wonder why we should be together
Do we really dream of love forever?
Or we afraid to be alone
I'm an actor of love
I want to protect you
But I always hurt you bad
I'm an actor of love
I want to be your shield
But may turn someone you hate
I'm an actor of love
We kiss in the morning
But in night we have a war
I'm an actor of love
We care for each other
But we only circle round
If this love only makes me crazy
Take the story and just let it be
Tragedy or comedy
Or anything it wants to be
poem by Maria Sudibyo
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Private Theatricals
A quite convincing axiom
Is, 'Life is like a play';
For, turning back its pages some
Few dog-eared years away,
I find where I
Committed my
Love-tale--with brackets where to sigh.
I feel an idle interest
To read again the page;
I enter, as a lover dressed,
At twenty years of age,
And play the part
With throbbing heart,
And all an actor's glowing art.
And she who plays my Lady-love
Excels!--Her loving glance
Has power her audience to move--
I am her audience.--
Her acting tact,
To tell the fact,
'Brings down the house' in every act.
And often we defy the curse
Of storms and thunder-showers,
To meet together and rehearse
This little play of ours--
I think, when she
'Makes love' to me,
She kisses very naturally!
. . . . . .
Yes; it's convincing--rather--
That 'Life is like a play':
I am playing 'Heavy Father'
In a 'Screaming Farce' to-day,
That so 'brings down
The house,' I frown,
And fain would 'ring the curtain down.'
poem by James Whitcomb Riley
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But, yes, no matter how in character actresses are in a film, the moment they take off their clothes, you start wondering about them as a person. You start checking them out, in a way. It's a self-conscious moment for both the audience and for the actor and always, I think, slightly embarrassing.
quote by Emily Mortimer
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Sometimes there's one person in the audience laughing hysterically, and it's so much fun. You end up playing the entire play to them.
quote by Lorraine Bracco
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Lighting Fairy
The lighting fairy,
she’s full of
lighting...
You might want to
stand back..
When she throws
lighting bolts.
That’s only when
she’s angry....
The other times...
She will give you
a hug or....
A chocolate kiss...
She is the lighting
fairy...
Of them ALL!
poem by Lisa Parks
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Lighting Up The Candles
Lighting up the candles, lighting up our love
Lighting up the candles, lighting up our love
Lighting up the candles
To what use to be
Tender memories in moments of love
Happy times and bad times
All seem wonderful
When you have a toast to moments of love
Lighting up the candles, lighting up our love
Lighting up the candles
To what use to be
Tender memories in moments of love
Happy times and bad times
All seem wonderful
When you have a toast to moments of love
I really think we could have made it
To that forever and a day
But destiny and fate decided
They would get in our way
Lighting up the candles
Wishing you the best
Like the happiness in moments of love
For lighting up the candles
Spark the memories
Helping us to see more moments of love
I really think we could have made it
To that forever and a day
But destiny and fate decided
They would get in our way
For lighting up the candles
Spark the memories
Helping us to see the need for what was
Helping us to see more moments of love
Lighting up the candles, lighting up our love
Lighting up the candles, lighting up our love
Lighting up the candles, lighting up our love
song performed by by Stevie Wonder
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I just don't think that I could be the kind of actor I want to be and not be honest with myself. Honesty is very important to me as an actor and as a person. I didn't even think about it.
quote by Randy Harrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.
quote by Quentin Tarantino
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Never use the word 'audience.' The very idea of a public, unless the poet is writing for money, seems wrong to me. Poets don't have an 'audience'. They're talking to a single person all the time.
quote by Robert Graves
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Behind the Scenes
The actor struts his little hour,
Between the limelight and the band;
The public feel the actor's power,
Yet nothing do they understand
Of all the touches here and there
That make or mar the actor's part,
They never see, beneath the glare,
The artist striving after art.
To them it seems a labour slight
Where nought of study intervenes;
You see it in another light
When once you've been behind the scenes.
For though the actor at his best
Is, like a poet, born not made,
He still must study with a zest
And practise hard to learn his trade.
So, whether on the actor's form
The stately robes of Hamlet sit,
Or as Macbeth he rave and storm,
Or plays burlesque to please the pit,
'Tis each and all a work of art,
That constant care and practice means --
The actor who creates a part
Has done his work behind the scenes.
poem by Andrew Barton Paterson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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When I got to the reading all the work, I was reduced to being an actor in an experimental play that I'd already written. And I didn't want to be an actor.
quote by David Antin
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Indeed, the actor's lot is a much harder one than that of the director's, from one simple standpoint: The actor has to play the eight shows a week.
quote by Charles Keating
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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This was basically the first time I got to act in action scenes, with things blowing up all around me. It sounds corny, but I think every actor would like to - at least once in his or her career - play the person who saves the entire world.
quote by Lukas Haas
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Looker On
for Mr. Satterthwaite
the audience in drama of life
never lucky in love and adventure
but has knowledge about life and human characters
sometimes wants to be the actor
small role that easily be marginal from world stage
but the one who gives a sign to the leading actor
to start an important climax
that won't be able to begin if he's not there
then goes down from the stage
and satisfied enough to be a looker on again
poem by Maria Sudibyo
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