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The only thing we are as actors are messengers. That's all we are. Correct? We are delivering the playwright's intention through the concept of the director. And I come on stage; if I feel confident in the role, then I give it away.
Patti Lupone
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Actors are merely conduits for the playwright's message, interpreting it through the director's vision.

In this quote, Patti Lupone emphasizes the role of an actor as a messenger rather than a creator. She articulates that the true essence of acting lies in the ability to interpret and convey the playwright's intentions as guided by the director, highlighting the collaborative nature of theater where individual contributions serve a larger artistic vision.

Themes

ActingTheaterMessengerPlaywrightDirectorArtistic Interpretation

In practice

Example use cases

During a theater workshop, I shared this quote to illustrate the importance of collaboration in acting.

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All my career, I've said this: Critics and producers think audiences want actors that only present the silhouette and hit the points in the silhouette. What I do is too dangerous.
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Quote by Patti Lupone | QuoteProject