Every play is rhythmic control. If you want an audience to go on a journey, it's rhythmic control. You're crafting when they lean in, when they push back, when they breathe, when they surrender.
George C. WolfeRead
One thing I tend to do is ask actors tons and tons of questions to try to get at what they're thinking but also to expose to them whatever box they've placed their characters in - to blow up that box so the journey can begin.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of questioning to break boundaries in creativity and character portrayal.
George C. Wolfe highlights the significance of in-depth inquiry when working with actors, suggesting that by asking many questions, he aims to uncover their thought processes and challenge the limitations they impose on their characters. This approach encourages a deeper exploration of the characters' journeys, effectively initiating a transformative experience in the storytelling process.
In practice
In a workshop on acting techniques, this quote can inspire actors to explore their character's depth.
Every play is rhythmic control. If you want an audience to go on a journey, it's rhythmic control. You're crafting when they lean in, when they push back, when they breathe, when they surrender.
One of the things I learned very early on was that if you cast the show correctly, and if you've created the right energy in the room, the solution is also in the room. The solution doesn't necessarily come from someone, but if everybody is working in a very steadfast and rigorous way, then everything you're looking for is in the room.
A musical is what happens when text collides with motion collides with song collides with spectacle. And spectacle can be the human heart; it doesn't necessarily have to be a helicopter crashing.
The wonderful thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. The worst thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. That dynamic is thrilling and challenging every time you make a show.
I was raised to believe that other people's suffering was my responsibility.
I think I am the first person of color to direct a major white play on Broadway. In 1993? That's astounding to me. And horrifying to me.
but as God said, crossing his legs, I see where I have made plenty of poets but not so very much poetry.
I didn't have a philosophical understanding of music until I came to New York. I didn't understand how it applied to my kind and my generation. I thought it was just old people talking.
I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.
Hard to believe lightning can strike twice, but it surely did. The moment Caitriona Balfe came on screen, I sat up straight and said, ‘There she is!’ She and Sam Heughan absolutely lit up the screen with fireworks.
Art should be appreciated with passion and violence, not with a tepid, depreciating elegance that fears the censoriousness of a common room.
True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys.
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