Sunday, September 29, 2013

Writing, Theatre, Quotes

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I've been working with a national task force for a year on developing a standard practice paper for performance interpreting. We are now in the final edit stages. Truly. We are now at the point where the two of us who volunteered to be the final editors are sculpting and primping and turning the many pages of outlines and ideas and the eleven pages of the first draft, the second one with comments, into a concise and smooth three page document which covers the vastness that is performance interpreting.

But we have it down to very near three pages. And we are at the point of adding an introduction, in which we want to include a quote. That's how far we are in our process - trimmed, dense and accessible, and now time to add the decoration.

I sent an email to a wonderful Artistic Director I know who had a lovely quote last year about why we go to theatre, why theatre is important. I don't remember it now and I would need her permission to include it, anyway. But while I wait for her reply, I've been doing some 'net surfing to see what else I can find. I've found a few gems, although they may not fit our needs; or they may fit our needs with the addition of another quote about why interpreting performances is important.

I've now accumulated a short list of my favorite quotes (so far) and thought I'd share a few.


"Theater is life with the dull bits cut out." - Alfred Hitchcock

"An actor is a sculptor who carves in snow." - Lawrence Barrett

The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life. - Oscar Wilde

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