David Rabe Quotes

Working on a play is a vibrant and collaborative business. Everyone from the choreographer to the music director to the director to the writers work together toward the same goal, and everyone chimes in on everything.

I went into performing for the community. Being backstage with your company of fellows is the best part of working in live theater. That energy, that combined focus, the synergy - it's addictive.

When I was going through school, I joined the Lyceum Youth Theatre, and that kind of cemented it. Through being in and around the building and watching shows, I realised that there was something I really loved about it, so I went into the stage management side.

I got a job right out of drama school as assistant stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic. I've been lucky enough to stay in work ever since.

I think for me, I just love that trust you have with theater and your ensemble and people you are working with.

On Broadway, you are working with some incredible people, and they have great reasons for doing things the way they do.

The relationship with the cast has everything to do with how a performance develops, and in a sense that while you're discovering a play in the course of rehearsal with the director, you're also discovering it with your fellow actors. We're all in it together.

I want to toy around with producing a Broadway show.

I've directed a couple of times in the theater, but I wouldn't make a habit of it because it's too consuming.

But, you know, we spent two years putting our act together.

I depend on good editors and a good director.

I've always been very comfortable in a set environment. All the collaborating going on, seeing how actors work - it all excites me.

There's such a work ethic involved in theatre that you can't learn in L.A.

Acting isn't a singular profession, it is a collaborate profession.

I see a ton of theatre whenever I'm not working to stay inspired. I love feeling like I'm a part of the theatre community and following the work of actors and writers I admire. I'm a big reader, too.

My main ambitions, really, are in the theatre.

The theater business has allowed me, in a way the movie and TV business has not, to do very, very interesting work. So that's what I do.

My first project was 'Hunchback of Notre Dame'. I co-produced that.

Really, I'll go anywhere at any time to continue working in theater - it's a passion that I'm thankful I still have. It keeps me creative and on my toes and meeting great people. I can't imagine a better way of working than on a play.

Necessarily, I'm always involved in casting, as any playwright is, because the whole process of putting on a play is a collaborative, organic effort on the part of a bunch of people trying to think alike.

To be able to work with actors who are doing such good work, not only makes it easier for you, but it makes you better.

I was with the Jessie Bonstelle Stock Company in Detroit and Buffalo for three seasons - 10 performances and a new play every week. She was an amazing woman who did a great deal for me.

That said, everything's important, and every musician who plays on the record is an integral part of it.

I did theater at Carnegie, and in Pittsburgh and New York.

Theater is very much the world I'd like to get back to, particularly in New York, both as an actor and director.