It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.
Oscar WildeRead
Acting is all about relating to the people on stage with you, even in plays that break the fourth wall. Clowning, for the most part, is the opposite. If somebody in the audience sneezes, I can count on it: I don't even have to look at Shiner; he'll have his handkerchief out. It's all about all of us in the room together.
Interpretation
Acting is about connection with fellow performers and the audience, while clowning focuses on individual interaction within that shared space.
In this quote, Bill Irwin emphasizes the importance of relational dynamics in performance art, particularly in acting. He suggests that effective acting relies on a connection with other actors and the audience, acknowledging the collective energy in the room, whereas clowning represents a more personal, immediate interaction, highlighting the nuanced differences in how performers engage with their environment and spectators.
In practice
This quote can be used in an acting workshop to illustrate the importance of ensemble work.
It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
I think that were beginning to remember that the first poets didn't come out of a classroom, that poetry began when somebody walked off of a savanna or out of a cave and looked up at the sky with wonder and said, "Ahhh." That was the first poem.
I'm not asking you to describe the rain falling the night the archangel arrived; I'm demanding that you get me wet. Make up your mind, Mr. Writer, and for once in your life be the flower that smells rather than the chronicler of the aroma. There's not much pleasure in writing what you live. The challenge is to live what you write.
Writing poetry is what I am. I wouldn’t know what else to be.
And let me touch those curving claws of yellow ivory; and grasp the tail that like a monstrous asp coils round your heavy velvet paws.
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