I had a feeling about Shakespeare's soliloquies, that there should be a real exchange between the actor and the audience.
quote by Trevor Nunn

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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

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The only line that's wrong in Shakespeare is 'holding a mirror up to nature.' You hold a magnifying glass up to nature. As an actor you just enlarge it enough so that your audience can identify with the situation. If it were a mirror, we would have no art.
quote by Montgomery Clift

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I'm kind of private and I keep things inside a lot, but it's been so wonderful to realize that people care about you in a very deep way and that there is some bond between an actor and his audience. I don't even know how to describe that feeling.
quote by Michael J. Fox

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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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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

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We give you this story. It is for the audience to be moved and gut wrenched, not us. It isn't as if we don't go through those real feeling and it isn't as if I don't cry three or four times a night. I usually do.
quote by Linda Lavin

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Which implies that the real issue in art is the audience's response. Now I claim that when I make things, I don't care about the audience's response, I'm making them for myself. But I'm making them for myself as audience, because I want to wake myself up.
quote by Richard Foreman

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I had to learn how to become a real actor, I had to suffer and be rejected and face that 100 times just like every actor. It wasn't like someone handed it to me.
quote by Donnie Wahlberg

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I am a real ham. I love an audience. I work better with an audience. I am dead, in fact, without one.
quote by Lucille Ball

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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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An actor is an actor is an actor. The less personality an actor has off stage the better. A blank canvas on which to draw the characters he plays.
quote by Arthur Lowe

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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No Other Feeling's Like It
I like it!
To be held.
To be hugged,
And understood.
I like it!
That one on one,
Knowing what is done...
Is good.
I like it!
When it's real.
And I feel,
I am and can be...
Loved.
I like it!
When it's real.
And I feel,
I am and can be...
Loved.
No other feeling's quite like love.
And I like it when it's real,
And Love.
No other feeling's quite like love.
And I like it when it's real,
And Love.
No other feeling's like it.
And I like it!
No other feeling's like it.
And I like it!
No other feeling's quite like love.
And I like it when it's real,
And Love.
No other feeling's like it.
And I like it...
When it's real.
And I feel,
I am and can be...
So loved.
I am and I can I be loved!
There is nothing that compares to love.
No there's nothing quite exciting as love.
The feeling that I wish is to love.
No other feeling's quite like love.
No other feeling's like it to love.
No there's nothing quite exciting as love.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

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If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.
quote by Liev Schreiber

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For anyone who works in front of an audience there is no thrill quite like that of feeling and hearing the evidence of the audience members' enjoyment. Laughter and applause really are powerful.
quote by Randy West

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Even Shakespeare Didn't Learn How To Fly
I love you
But i hope you know that by now
I feel many things it's hard to sum them up
But this feeling just sorrounds me somehow
I'm trying my best to tell you
I want you to know so much
It's making me cry
Realistically all problems aside
Even Shakespeare didn't learn how to fly
Noone can put love into word
It's a magic noone can achieve
I can't explain this feeling to you
It's so tragic it's making me bleed
I live for you and care for you
More then you could ever know
But even the greatest writer can't put into words what we know
Realistically all problems aside
Even Shakespeare didn't learn how to fly
Not one word i have wrote is a lie
Even Shakespeare didn't learn how to fly
poem by Lucy Vernezze

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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.
quote by Jack Lemon

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I had never done Shakespeare before, but I don't think you can be an actor and not do it. There were moments when I thought, I'm just not going to be able to pull this off.
quote by Jessica Lange

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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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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

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I try to do as many stunts as they'll let me do. I think it's important for an audience to feel that the actor's really doing it.
quote by Nicolas Cage

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