“After a close examination of the existing literature on performance art, it is remarkable to see how much of the emphasis has been placed on the grim, the intense, and the masochistic. Indeed, performance audiences have come to expect to be shocked, to witness artists being covered with bodily fluids, pierced, hung, confined, and/or mutilated. […]
Tag: Theatre quotes
A defense of the elitist theatre critic
“Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas: I cannot serve the cause of friendliness when I am trying to serve the cause of theatre by being as passionate, subjective and truthfull as I can be. “Criticism is, by definition, one of the most elitist activities extant. It is highly presumptuous to sit in judgment – to […]
How to write a sentence
“For me, a play is a form of writing which isn’t complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it’s still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence.” – Wallace Shawn
The actor’s deepest calling
“Theatre – through the actor’s technique, his art in which the living organism strives for higher motives – provides an opportunity for what could be called integration, the discarding of masks, the revealing of the real substance: a totality of physical and mental reactions. “This opportunity must be treated in a disciplined manner, with a […]
A cheap trick of unhappy people
“If you decide to be an actor, stick to your decision. The folks you meet in supposed positions of authority – critics, teachers, casting directors – will, in the main, be your intellectual and moral inferiors. They will lack your imagination, which is why they became bureaucrats rather than artists; and they lack your fortitude, […]