Stage Acting Quotes

• Stage acting is for me the basic form of acting. If you make films all the time, you have so few possibilities to rehearse. And it's important to rehearse, because it gives you the possibility to try things which are not good!

  Erland Josephson

  Giving, Important, Trying

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• Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.

  Michael Caine

  Movie, Thinking, Acting

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

  William Shakespeare

  Birthday, Time, Player

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• All the world's a stage, and all the men and women mearly players.

  William Shakespeare

  Friendship, Birthday, Men

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• One man in his time plays many parts.

  William Shakespeare

  Birthday, Character, Men

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation.

  Bette Davis

  Acting, Stage Actors, Wonder

  Bette Davis (1962). “The lonely life: an autobiography”, Putnam's

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• There's no doubt that I owe a lot to my training of stage acting.

  Denis Lavant

  Doubt, Training, Acting

  7 Copy quote

• The foundation for film acting is stage acting.

  James Lipton

  Acting, Foundation, Film

  7 Copy quote

• I studied movies for many years, but I am professionally an actor because I, my background is actually a stage actor and acting.

  Tommy Wiseau

  Years, Acting, Stage Actors

  "Conversations with a Cult (Film) Director Tommy Wiseau". Interview with Eric Ravenscraft, gawker.com. August 19, 2010.

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• If you get a chance to act in a room that somebody else has paid rent for, then you're given a free chance to practice your craft.

  Philip Seymour Hoffman

  Practice, Acting, Stage Actors

  6 Copy quote

• I would rather do many small roles on TV, stage or film than one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting.

  Miranda Richardson

  Acting, Roles, Tvs

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• In life, as on the stage, it's not who I am but what I do that's the measure of my worth and the secret of my success. All the rest is showiness, arrogance and conceit.

  Stella Adler

  Who I Am, Arrogance, Secret

  Howard Kissel, Stella Adler (2000). “Stella Adler - The Art of Acting: preface by Marlon Brando compiled & edited by Howard Kissel”, p.131, Hal Leonard Corporation

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• Full of wise saws and modern instances.

  William Shakespeare

  Wise, Saws, You Like It

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• When you stand on the stage you must have a sense that you are addressing the whole world, and that what you say is so important the whole world must listen.

  Stella Adler

  Important, Acting, World

  Howard Kissel, Stella Adler (2000). “Stella Adler - The Art of Acting: preface by Marlon Brando compiled & edited by Howard Kissel”, p.22, Hal Leonard Corporation

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• A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist.

  Constantin Stanislavski

  Artist, Feelings, Acting

  Constantin Stanislavski (2013). “Building a Character”, p.216, A&C Black

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• I can do everything with ease on the stage, whereas in real life I feel too big and clumsy. So I didn't choose acting. It chose me.

  Ingrid Bergman

  Real, Acting, Ease

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• My first love is acting on stage. A sitcom is a hybrid of stage and film.

  Judd Nelson

  First Love, Love Is, Acting

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Funny, Mean, Men

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• Last scene of all that ends this strange, eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion. I am sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

  William Shakespeare

  Eye, Lasts, Taste

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• Acting is a sport. On stage you must be ready to move like a tennis player on his toes. Your concentration must be keen, your reflexes sharp; your body and mind are in top gear, the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the theatre people pay to see energy.

  Clive Swift

  Sports, Moving, Player

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• A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Men, People, Acting

  Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (1964). “Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic”

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• My wife says that stage acting is like being on a tightrope with no net, and being in the movies, there is a net - because you stop and go over it again. It's very technical and mechanical. On stage you're on your own.

  Eli Wallach

  Movie, Wife, Acting

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• In my career, I've had kind of a strange trajectory as an actor. I started out doing movies and theater and stuff, but then I had a terrible problem with stage fright as an actor on stage, and I quit stage acting for a long, long time.

  Fred Melamed

  Careers, Long, Acting

  "Fred Melamed on Casual, the Coens, and making Larry David laugh". Interview with Will Harris, www.avclub.com. January 15, 2016.

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• I've never been a really big fan of theatre. I don't know why. It's so much for effort. It's much more difficult for me than stage acting just because of the pressure that's piled on you and you have to learn the entire performance by heart.

  Callan McAuliffe

  Heart, Effort, Theatre

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• People talk about the difference between radio acting, TV acting and stage acting, but I think it's all the same. For instance, when I played Vultan in 'Flash Gordon,' I put as much energy into it as I would with 'King Lear' - it's all part of the same thing.

  Brian Blessed

  Kings, Thinking, Differences

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