Amy Rapp, my producing partner, and I are drawn to character-driven material. We’re developing and producing movies and TV, fiction and non-fiction, studio and independent, broadcast and cable, theatre, and web so our slate is really diverse.
When I used to do musical theatre, my dad refused to come backstage. He never wanted to see the props up close or the sets up close. He didn’t want to see the magic.
I’ve played a lot of roles I haven’t wanted to play, either because they needed someone in the theatre or because they couldn’t do it without me ’cause they don’t have anyone else the right age.
I left school with no qualifications, but I was doing theatre and film work and thought that was the best thing since sliced bread.
I started in theatre when I was a teenager, and I sort of fell into screen acting by accident because I had friends who were at university studying how to be filmmakers, and they didn’t have to pay me to be in their student films.
Theatre is more exciting in the sense that you can actually see the audience in the eye. You know there are no takes and retakes. You have one chance to do your job… and you better do it well!
I started in theatre, and for me, it was all about transformation. You transform into the character that you’re playing.
I’m at the National Theatre School, which is like the Juilliard of Canada.
There are many actors who’ll make their living in other areas, and they’ll say they don’t like theatre. What they’re saying is that they’re afraid of theatre because they know it will separate those who can from those who can’t.
I think there is no world without theatre.
My experiences in film and theatre in the States have been much more rigorous-in England there’s an environment of, Let’s try this.
I used to work in a hotel kitchen at night and do theatre in the morning. After finishing my night shift – I did it for two years – I used to come back and sleep for five hours and then do theatre from 2-7 P.M. and then again hotel work from 11-7 in the morning.
My teachers encouraged me to audition for some professional work during our summer vacation. I landed my first job. It was for the National Theatre Company’s Mimika Pantomime troupe. I ended up touring with them for the next two years.
What I love is a good role. In the theatre, there is just a canon of extraordinary roles, the quality of character is amazing, but I also love working in front of a camera. It was the first one for me; as a kid I was in front of a camera. I feel at home.
The Urdu or Hindustani language we use isn’t popular in theatre these days. It was a language that was being used in cinema from the 1950s until the ’80s. It is a very communicative language.
Whether it was working on theatre sets or stage lighting, I didn’t realize most all of the skills I was exposed to were going to come in handy later on when I became a designer.
I never thought of myself in comedy at all… I loved going to the theatre and seeing people wearing beautiful clothes come down the staircase and start to dance.
I fear that I won’t work in the theatre again. I’m sad about that. But I won’t retire.
I came to musical theatre from straight acting, and a lot of my friends have a real prejudice about musical theatre – one I probably shared.
I recall the night that President McKinley died. I was working at the time at a theatre in St. Louis. The oppressive feeling was in the air. I could not make the people laugh.
I was on a founding members of the Canadian theatre movement in the late 60’s till the mid 70’s and performed theatre from Halifax to Vancouver and all places in between.
I would have started the National Actors Theatre 30 years earlier.
Choosing to be in the theatre was a way to put my roots down somewhere with other people. It was a way to choose a new family.
The voices of moral authority in the theatre demanded only punctuality and physical performance. In the light of continuing pressure and stress, the occasional lip service paid to moderation was meaningless. Starvation and poisoning were not excesses, but measures taken to stay within the norm.
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.
I did musical theatre for about four years. One time, I did six shows in one year whilst juggling school.
Everytime I get offered theatre I get offered a film role too.
It wasn’t until I went to college that I met the theatre people and began to admire them because they were learning a trade that was guaranteed to make money!
In theatre, after the curtain rises, it’s all about me. I can either elevate myself with my performance or be mediocre.
People that went to art house theatre have more options, I used to go, but now think any movie can be delivered in a red envelope three months after it’s released so why not watch it on my flat screen in the comfort of home.
I went into musical theatre, which I’m not really cut out for – I’m not as skilled at it as other people.
Theatre is a game of hide-and-seek. For both the hiders and the seekers, the thrill is in the discovery. When the rules of the game are too vague or too complicated, however, the audience can lose its urge to play; the prize no longer seems quite worth the hunt.
If I didn’t work in television or film, if I didn’t have the right look, I never took it personally. Because there was always the theatre. I’m not a nihilist, I’m an optimist. And that has served me well in this profession.
In the theatre you can change things ever so slightly; it’s an organic thing. Whereas in film you only have that chance on the day, and you have no control over it at all.
Free speech means the right to shout ‘theatre’ in a crowded fire.
I trained in the theatre.
Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general.
I would hope that the Government would still support those small, struggling independent theatre companies and also maybe look to the built architecture of the theaters because we can’t let them get into disrepair. They are part of the fabric of the country.
People prefer doing films. That is not the case with me. I don’t do theatre because I have to but because it makes me feel alive. I enjoy the whole process of rehearsing, though repetition can make it tedious.
Stepping back into theatre, a childhood dream, I always felt like I would be onstage. I hadn’t imagined myself in a composer role… I find it so satisfying to be behind the scenes and writing the music and watching it elevated and characterized by different voices than my own. It’s so exciting.
I love England, the people, the parks, the theatre.
Theatre outings are my favourite thing to spend money on. The most influential play I saw was ‘Bent,’ which starred Ian McKellen. And I loved the original performance of ‘The Rocky Horror Show,’ with Richard O’Brien and Tim Curry at the Royal Court, when I was about 15.
I was a bit odd as a kid, because there were so little outlets for me. There was no theatre except for the odd community theatre and school shows. The only movie theatre was at the Canadian Forces Base nearby in Comox, so it either showed kiddie flicks for the families and restricted stuff for the men.
Physical comedy and musical theatre were never actually in my main focus at school. I was more of a dramatic actor. I always thought I was better at that.
Once in awhile, there’s stuff that makes me say, That’s what theatre’s about. It has to be a human event on the stage, and that doesn’t happen very often.
My introduction to acting was through theatre, so I actually saw a couple of Broadway shows that made me want to be an actor.
There have been artists who’ve sold out arenas one year, and the next they can’t fill a theatre. There’s always more to achieve.
My father’s parents were carpenters. They were also builders partly. They were painters. And several of them were very, active in the theatre and all such nonsense, you know.
I find the theatre faintly embarrassing for the actors performing on stage. It seems rather showy-off in an undignified way.
Whenever I’m in theatre situations I will go out of my way not to talk about my father, but in the film world I can be really proud of my family and say, ‘You know what: my dad’s a really, really famous theatre director,’ because nobody has any idea.
Theatre is great, but we don’t live in an idealistic world, and we have to pay our bills.
I remember that Pu La had come for one of my premieres and I was patiently waiting to hear his verdict of my acting, but when he came out of the theatre during interval, all he asked me was about my father and his well being, such was their friendship.
In the modern media age we are rarely surprised by what we see. Whether it’s on television or film or in the theatre, everything is so advertised, so trailed, that most entertainment is merely what you thought it was going to be like.
I worked in rep for six years, then I came to London and to the National Theatre. What’s better than that?
Religion is close to theatre; much of its power comes from the effects of staging and framing.
People assume that actors working in films won’t have the time to do theatre. But I make sure that whenever I’m free, I watch a play.
