Giving kids the chance to see live theatre should not just be free, it should be compulsory.
I write the occasional entry for the 'Times' Theatre blog, especially when I'm in London and seeing two shows a day, but I don't tweet. I don't want to have to express my opinion in 140 characters. That's like writing haiku. You need a certain amount of legroom to review a play properly.
There were no theatre facilities at the comp that I went to, but I did have amazing teachers who never stopped encouraging me.
Next time I do a play, I want to go out of town. I don't like the idea of opening in New York. I don't have to do theatre, but if you're going to do it, you should do it well. These days, everything has to be up and running in five minutes. As a result, the rehearsal time is missing.
Having learnt my basics in theatre, I always feel film is a collaborative effort. If you do your part well and help the person in front of you in realising his or her potential, the film invariably comes out good.
Theatre is all about the process and the sense of community that is created. You have weeks of rehearsal, time to explore your character and get to know the other actors. There is opportunity to try off-the-wall ideas, to find layers and nuance over weeks. You become like a second family with your cast.
One of the things about being a law student is that the academic discipline of law is very often removed from the practical reality of law. How to complain, who to complain to, and whether or not you even need to invoke the law is very different in the real world from how it's examined in the lecture theatre.
The bits I most remember about my school days are those that took place outside the classroom, as we were taken on countless theatre visits and trips to places of interest.
The think that we hung the film version all on was 'Hedwig' on tour. On stage, it's one theatre, one show. It just seemed natural to change it. In the film, we were able to go to flashback rather than have her talk to the audience. And we had the play to practice and to see where we had made mistakes.
I have a dialect myself; it's more pronounced, because I have studied theatre and been in England. It's half-British, half-Indian.
There's little money in theatre.
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 spent two years in the military service, then I trudged around in repertory for quite a while. I somehow wound up at the National Theatre, though, and then I was definitely on my way.
The last thing the theatre owners wanted was for people who spent $200 to see 'Les Miserables' to come out again and see the real miserable children of America, right there on the sidewalk.
My grandparents met each other in amateur theatre. My uncle is an actor.
The man who plays his part upon the theatre of life almost always maintains what may be called an artificial character.
Be it 120 frames or 24 frames or film or theatre, you're trying to be a fully formed human being and trying to be honest.
More often than not, theatre critics bubble with enthusiasm about plays that are, when all is said and done, really pretty average.
There's great theatre in New York City, but no New York City in theatre.
Having done film, TV and theatre, the nicest final bit of the jigsaw is to do live comedy, because you can talk to the audience. It feels really natural to be able to laugh with them, but at the same time still be within the framework of a play.
I have lots of ambitions. I'd love to do theatre. I'd like to be in 'Tea With Mussolini 2;' I'd like to touch Meryl Streep - which would involve being with her in some exotic location. I have lots of fantastical dreams.
My background is in largely in theatre and acting. I grew up in a town with a well-respected Shakespeare Festival, and I fell in with some kids whose parents worked there. We staged all-kid versions of 'Hamlet', 'Cymbeline', a few others. All the while, I was making short films; monster movies, slapstick comedies, claymation.
My first Broadway show was with Elizabeth Taylor and Maureen Stapleton. Maureen Stapleton, a legend in the theatre; Elizabeth Taylor, a legend, period.
I was trained on stage at NYU in New York City; I did a lot of theatre then.
I have learnt a lot about theatre, and I would like to know the same about film.
I've never done stand-up; I came via small-scale touring theatre, through the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, then I got employed on that as an actor who had a humorous sensibility.
When you do a film, you get picked up in a car, lunch is free. Theatre is really hard, and you get absolutely no money.
When I see someone filming me, I don't usually think, 'No, man, don't put this up online!' I'd think, 'Hey man, you don't get to go to shows very often, put down the camera and enjoy it!' I love going to theatre and to shows so much.
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 working history as an actor is definitely in the theatre; it certainly was in Australia.
There are so many people who want to be the next person on 'Home and Away,' or they just want to be on the cover of a magazine, and they don't really understand the craft. They're not interested in theatre, they're not interested in the art.
I remember seeing 'A Moon for the Misbegotten' with Colleen Dewhurst, and that made a really big impression on me, and I remember wanting to be like her and I still want to be like Colleen Dewhurst! My mom took me to a lot of theatre growing up, and I also remember seeing Pippin and being like, 'Wow!
I miss family and friends, and I'd like to get back to work more in Scotland, and do more things like theatre and 'Red Road.' But over here you have the beach and the mountains and the climate. A lot of people diss L.A. as being all tinsel town, fake this and fake that, but a place is only as good as the people you know.
Theatre owners cannot threaten actors with defamation cases and take them to court or seek compensation for losses incurred.
People who have never done theatre before, and have only worked in front of a camera, would find it very difficult, I think, to know how to command a stage and work with the logistics of being on stage. They're very different. The theatre is quite tricky, actually.
'The Firebird' just symbolizes a lot for me and my career. It was one of the first really big principal roles that I was ever given an opportunity to dance with American Ballet Theatre, and it was a huge step for the African-American community, I think, within the classical ballet world.
