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bongo
productions quotations:
" I don`t act . . . I react."
John Wayne
"If
you haven't cried, your eyes can't be beautiful." Sophia Loren
“Acting
is half shame, half glory. shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when
you can forget yourself.” John Gielgud
“Our
heritage as actors goes back thousands of years, and we have to feel
as comfortable in the clothes, and the language of Sophocles as we
do in our sneakers.” Stella Adler
Your
curse is that you have chosen a form that requires endless study ....
It means you have to read, you have to observe, you have to think,
so that when you turn your imagination on, it has the fuel to do its
job.” Stella Adler
'Young
actors, fear your admirers! Learn in time, from your first steps,
to hear, understand and love the cruel truth about yourselves. Find
out who can tell you that truth and talk of your art only with those
who can tell you the truth.' Konstantin Stanislavsky
"Don't
act, be." Kate Winslet
'It's
not a field, I think, for people who need to have success every day:
if you can't live with a nightly sort of disaster, you should get
out. I wouldn't describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would
just say that the ghosts you chase you never catch.' John Malkovich
“Acting
is standing up naked and turning around very slowly.” Rosalind
Russell
"Feelings
are like a timid animal -- if you approach them, they'll run away.
Let them come to you." Michael Howard
"Acting
represents all that human beings experience, and if you want it to
be 'nice,' you will never be a serious communicator of the human experience."
Larry Moss
"Honesty
isn't enough for me. That becomes very boring. If you can convince
people what you're doing is real and it's also bigger than life --
that's exciting." Gene Hackman
"One
way we can enliven the imagination is to push it toward the illogical.
We're not scientists. We don't always have to make the logical, reasonable
leap." Stella Adler
"Acting
in a scene is like paddling a canoe from a pebbly beach on to the
river, the writer builds the canoe, and the actor provides the river.
The river is the actor’s thoughts and emotions." Sanford
Meisner
"An
actor must interpret life, and in order to do so he must be willing
to accept all experiences that life can offer." Marlon Brando
"Talent
is an amalgam of high sensitivity; easy vulnerability; high sensory
equipment (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting intensely);
a vivid imagination as well as a grip on reality; the desire to communicate
one's own experience and sensations, to make one's self heard and
seen." Uta Hagen
“An
actor entering through the door, you've got nothing. But if he enters
through the window, you've got a situation.” Billy Wilder
"The
basic essential of a great actor is that he loves himself in acting."
Charlie Chaplin
"One
of the things I like about my profession, and that I find healthy,
is that one constantly has to break oneself to pieces." Liv Ullmann
"When
you stand on the stage you must have a sense that you are addressing
the whole world, and that what you say is so important the whole world
must listen." Stella Adler
"Study,
find all the good teachers and study with them, get involved in acting
to act, not to be famous or for the money. Do plays. It's not worth
it if you are just in it for the money. You have to love it."
Philip Seymour Hoffman
“I
think whatever you do, if you are going to do it well or even if you
don't do it well, you have to have a passion for it, and I am passionate
about it. I love it. I respect it and it gets me. I get off on acting!”
Jack Lemmon
“If
I wasn't an actor, I think I'd have gone mad. You have to have extra
voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights. Art is a
little bit larger than life- it's an exhalation of life and I think
you probably need a little touch of madness.” Sir Laurence Olivier
'With
any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There
has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.' Johnny Depp
"If
you don't interfere with me, I'll always do something really good."
John Malkovich
"I'm
curious about other people. That's the essence of my acting. I'm interested
in what it would be like to be you." Meryl Streep
"An
actor is never so great as when he reminds you of an animal - falling
like a cat, lying like a dog, moving like a fox.” Francois Truffaut
"The
actor is an athlete of the heart." Antonin Artaud
“Acting
is a question of absorbing other people's personalities and adding
some of your own experience." Jean-Paul Sartre
"An
actor has to burn inside with an outer ease." Michael Chekhov
“Our
heritage as actors goes back thousands of years, and we have to feel
as comfortable in the clothes, and the language of Sophocles as we
do in our sneakers.” Stella Adler
“Imagination!
Imagination! I put it first years ago, when I was asked what qualities
I thought necessary for success upon the stage. And I am still of
the same opinion. Imagination, industry, and intelligence –
‘the three I’s’ – are all indispensable to
the actress, but of these three the greatest is, without any doubt,
imagination.” Ellen Terry
“No
artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.
There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that
keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
Martha Graham
“I
was like a dull knife – I had the tool, I just needed to sharpen
it.” Luis Guzman
“Find
your mark, look the other fellow in the eye, and tell the truth.”
James Cagney
“Acting
deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each
time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself.” Rodney
Dangerfield
“I
use everything that I pick up in my memory, and everything that vibrates
in my soul.” Eleonora Duse
“Cultivate
a love of skill. Learn theatrical skills. They will give you continual
pleasure, self-confidence, and link you to fifty thousand years of
the history of our profession.” David Mamet
“I
think every American actor wants to be a movie star. But I never wanted
to do stupid movies, I wanted to do films. I vowed I would never do
a commercial, nor would I do a soap opera -- both of which I did as
soon as I left the [Acting] Company and was starving.” Kevin
Kline
“We
all have loads of information. What an actor does is bring it to the
surface. I jump without a net because that’s how I am. The information
comes out because I am brave enough to allow it. I’m not brave
as a human being in everyday life. I’m brave when I’m
acting.” Charlotte Rampling
'Acting
is happy agony.' Sir Alec Guiness/Jean Paul Sartre
"I
think acting is about forgetting yourself in order to give the best
of yourself. It's passing through you more than you're creating it.
You're not the flower, but the vase which holds the flower."
Juliette Binoche
“Let’s
talk about your part. You will work it out for yourself, and what’s
more, you’ll do it right. If you have done all the work you
say you have and if the part is within your range, you cannot fail.
Work and patience never fail.” Richard Boleslavsky
“We
all bear within us the potentiality for every kind of passion, every
fate, every way of life. Nothing human is alien to us. If this were
not so, we could not understand other people, either in life or in
art. But inheritance and upbringing foster individual experiences
and develop only a few of our thousands of possibilities. The others
gradually sicken and die.” Max Reinhardt
“Listening
is the key to total concentration. You listen as the character would
listen, closing the door on everything else. Then you are ready to
respond.” Jean Stapleton
'Nerves
are talent trying to get out' Robin Phillips
"When was the last time you tried a line sixty different ways,
believing and feeling it every time?" the Lunts
'To
grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret
it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.' Marlon Brando
"Acting
is not about dressing up. Acting is about stripping bare. The whole
essence of learning lines is to forget them so you can make them sound
like you thought of them that instant." Glenda Jackson
'And
because we are creatures of habit, we must practice. I urge you to
practice acting in spite of fear, practice acting in spite of inconvenience,
practice acting in spite of discomfort, and practice acting even when
you’re not in the mood.' T. Harv Eker
'Talk
low, talk slow, and don't talk too much. John Wayne
"Suit
the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special
observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature." William
Shakespeare
'Acting
is pretending to be someone else.' Anna Paquin
"Talent
is as common as horseshit in a stable. The cultivation of it is extremely
rare." Eric Morris
“Dream
as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.” James
Dean
"Truth
is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going
away." Elvis Presley
"It's
important not to indicate. People don't try to show their feelings,
they try to hide them." Robert DeNiro
"If
I accept you as you are, I will make you worse. However, if I treat
you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you
become that." Goethe
"Growth
as an actor and as a human being are synonymous." Stella Adler
"I've
read all of Shakespeare and practiced a lot of lines. … I am
going to do Juliet first. Don't laugh. What, with what makeup, costume
and camera can do, my acting will create a Juliet who is 14, an innocent
virgin." Marilyn Monroe
"Nobody
who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest."
Orson Welles
"Everything
should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. " Albert
Eistein
"You
can't just sit there and do the lines. You have to do something revealing
or unusual." Elia Kazan
"Great
acting is not easy; anyone who says it is is either shallow or a charlatan.
And one of the hardest things about acting is admitting that it is
hard." Robert Cohen
"I,
not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can
choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived
yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."
Groucho Marx
"You
feel completely in control when you hear a wave of laughter coming
back at you that you have caused." Gilda Radner
"Limitations
are stepping stones to creativity." Joel Corn
for more information
or to register, contact : alison (administrator)at 416 655-9125 or
email: contact alison,
or contact michael directly at:
416 766-9092 or email:
bongoproductions@rogers.com
bongo productions is a member of taas
(toronto
association of acting studios)
taped
auditions :
need
to send an audition dvd to l.a. or vancouver? i can tape your audition
at bongo productions, you'll read with a talented working actor and
coach and receive expert, supportive coaching. I book one-hour taping
sessions, at my reasonable private coaching rate and I'll supply the
dvd!
demo
reels :would
you like to put a monologue or scene on tape or dvd to show a prospective
agent? would you like to have expert coaching for the taping session?
ibook one-hour taping sessions, at my reasonable private coaching
rate and i'll supply the dvd!
suggested
reading:
the
intent to live- achieving
your true potential as an actor
larry
moss is brilliant, extremely generous
and articulate, his book is truly
helpful and wonderfully inspiring!
you can get it at theatrebooks!
also,
in my auditioning and self promotion class which
I teach in the acting for film and television program at humber college,
I've been usingmarcia chesley's book you got
the part! i have found it very helpful
and informative and an enjoyable read. it's particularly good for
us here in toronto because this is where marcia lives and works and
most of her references are our own. i highly recommend this book.
it's available at theatrebooks on st.thomas st. in toronto.
watch
for more as we build the new 'what's new' feature of our website!
coming
soon : 1) an audition checklist
2)
star student profile
for more information
or to register, contact : alison (administrator)at 416 655-9125 or
email: bongo.alison@gmail.com
or contact michael directly at:
416 766-9092 or email:
bongoproductions@rogers.com
bongo productions is a member of taas
(toronto
association of acting studios)
bongo
productions is a member of TAAS
(Toronto Association of Acting Studios)
