Quote • HELEN McCRORY • RSC Types
Quote | HELEN McCRORY ‘…she is identifiably an RSC type, the small, punchy actress with a voice that can coat a back wall in honey from 100 paces… You already … Continue reading
Quote • KATHLEEN TURNER • Auditions
What’s your best advice for auditions? Be brave, risk it. What I tell my students is, if you go through an audition and they say, ‘No, but thank you very much’, … Continue reading
Quote • PATTI Lu PONE • ‘Stunt’ Casting
“I’ve seen terrible performances by stage actors and I’ve seen brilliant performances by film actors coming to the stage, but it’s when an actor tries to legitimise themselves without having … Continue reading
Quote • STEPHEN SONDHEIM • Directors and Musicals
Stephen Sondheim: ‘Directors should focus more on the text and less on themselves’ Stephen Sondheim: ‘Directors should…
Quote • LYN GARDNER • Audiences
There is an undoubted pleasure in watching a classic play unfold to an unknowing audience. I once saw Hedda Gabler in a regional theatre where it was clear from the … Continue reading
Quote • IMELDA STAUNTON • Film Stardom
‘Well, my parents were working people. You just worked. I’ve always wanted a long career, not an instant one. I left RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art], I worked in … Continue reading
Quote • HELEN MIRREN • Looks
Helen Mirren would rather not be the poster woman for ageing gracefully. In fact, she’s “a bit cross” that she’s been getting so much attention for her looks in recent years. … Continue reading
Quote • JAMES NORTON • Looks
‘I was sitting opposite my great-aunt Grania at a family lunch the other day and she was staring at me, in a quizzical way. Then she said: “Honestly, James, I … Continue reading
Quote • CECIL BEATON • The Burtons
“I’ve always despised the Burtons for their vulgarity, commonness and crass bad taste. Richard Burton is as butch and coarse as only a Welshman can be. Elizabeth Taylor is everything … Continue reading
Quote • ALAN DOBIE on PETER HALL on GODOT
“As he gets older, he does this wonderful thing, which is why I always like working with him — he never has a pre-conceived notion of how he’s going to … Continue reading
Quote • LIVE THEATRE v FOOTBALL MATCHES • Surprising
I have been in hospital for two weeks, hence the gap in transmission. ‘More people watch live theatre every year than Premier League football matches.’ Libby Purves, @RadioTimes Originally published on … Continue reading
![Detail from a portrait of Sir Peter Hall by his daughter Jennifer Caron Hall. [Wikipedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/sirpeterhallbyjennychall.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Quote • SIR PETER HALL • Acting versus Performing
“To me the greatest actor was [Ralph] Richardson. Larry was a great performer. In a way you always knew it was performing. But he was such an extraordinary conjurer that … Continue reading
Quote • SAMUEL BECKETT • Failure
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett
Quote • J.M.BARRIE • Advice
When asked for some advice on a particular role, J. M. Barrie [1860 – 1937] told an actor, ‘Try to look as if you had a younger brother in Shropshire.’
Quote • MICHAEL CAINE • Not Such a Class Act
‘I am being tough on him, but only because the world has been far too kind. [Michael] Caine can do good work, in a limited range: he is very interesting … Continue reading
Quote • GLENDA JACKSON • Theatre People
“One of the amazing things about theatre people is that you might not see each other for years, and then when you do it’s as if you’d just walked into … Continue reading
“Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words?” – Art of Quotation
“Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words?” — Marcel Marceau, actor, mime, French Source: “Do not the most moving moments of our lives find … Continue reading
Quote • PETER FINCH • ‘cheerful idiots’
[When asked why he chose acting as a profession] “If I was going to be broke I decided I might as well be with actors as anyone else. They were … Continue reading
![Anne-Marie Duff at the Baftas 2007 [Wikimedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/bafta_2007_387030334.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Quote • ANNE-MARIE DUFF • Saint Joan
“She’s cheeky and pert. She’s funny by accident a lot of the time. She’s got that hilarious conviction of her own invincibility, the way you are when you’re that age … Continue reading
![creenshot from Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize lecture, 27 December 2005 [Wikipedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/harold-pinter-atp.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Quote • THE PINTER TEST
‘This week I passed a personal-development landmark, because after trying once a decade for 30 years, I finally stayed awake all the way through a Harold Pinter play. I’m so … Continue reading
Quote • JOHN HURT • Listening
“If you listen, you learn; if you talk, you don’t.” – John Hurt, English, actor, painter (1940-2017) Source: In Memory: “If you listen, you learn; if you talk, you don’t.” … Continue reading
![Kwame Kwei Armah at Arts Council England: Women to Watch [Wikimedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/147px-kwame_kwei_armah.jpg?w=147&h=110&crop=1)
Quote • KWAME KWEI-ARMAH • The Critics
“I wasn’t prepared for that [critical mauling of Statement of Regret] really, just as I wasn’t prepared for all the praise and success [for Elmina’s Kitchen]. You have to reassess … Continue reading
Quote • RYAN GOSLING on GENE WILDER
‘Gene Wilder will break your heart and make you laugh at the same time. And that’s deep. There’s something really profound about what he’s able to do. It’s transcendent. It’s … Continue reading
Quote • MRS PATRICK CAMPBELL • The Cult of Personality
‘Most successful actors and actresses are entirely dependent upon personality for their effect, aided, as the case may be, by the charm of their diction or their natural grace of … Continue reading
Quote • LIZ SMITH • Attitude to Success | Rogues & Vagabonds
FROM THE ARCHIVE 14-10-14 “If it hasn’t happened to you by the time you’re 25, don’t give up.” Liz Smith, who was already 50 when director Mike Leigh offered her … Continue reading
Quote • OSCAR WILDE • Acting
“I love acting. It is so much more real than life.” – Oscar Wilde
![Sir Donald Wolfit in May 1965 [Wikipedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/donaldwolfit.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Quote • “I SAW HIS LEAR…”
“I saw his Lear. I was pleasantly disappointed.” ‘Sir’ in Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser talking about a rival actor.
![John Barrymore, Photograph by Arnold Genthe, October 3, 1922 [Wikimedia]](https://roguesandvagabonds.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/john_barrymore.jpg?w=155&h=110&crop=1)
Quote • JOHN BARRYMORE • Famous Last Words
“Die, I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.” These are often incorrectly cited as the last words of the … Continue reading
Quote • ARISTOPHANES
“You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.” From Knights by Aristophanes [444 – 380 BC] Originally published on R&V … Continue reading
Quote • SEAN O’CASEY • All the world’s a stage…
‘All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.’ Irish playwright Sean O’Casey. Originally published on R&V 14-01-08
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