Tony Kushner Quotes

I'm preparing for a multimedia theater piece, Airport Music, that's coming up in New York City.

Compared to film or television, theater is more interactive, collaborative.

A play is not a play until it's performed, and unless it's a one-person play that is acted, directed and designed by the author, many other people will be deeply involved in the complicated process that leads to its performance.

I love the simple poetry of theater, where you can stand in a spotlight on a stage and wrap a coat around you, and say, 'It was 1860 and it was winter...'

Theatre is like an actor's nectar, like how cinema is a director's medium.

Theatre is a very beautiful and interesting medium because it's a live show, unlike a film - once released, it's gone.

I did a brief stint with set design and stage design. And I tried playwriting, too.

Theater is so wonderful and brilliant but it lasts very much in the moment. It's there and then it's gone.

I've always really liked theater. It fascinated me. You can create a reality and get people involved in that reality. It takes place in real time.

Acting is ephemeral. You can't hang it on a wall. You can't throw it off. And you can't bring it out of a closet. It's there one night and it's gone the next, at least with stage acting anyhow.

I want to toy around with producing a Broadway show.

I think film and television are really a director's medium, whereas theatre is the actor's medium.

What I like about theater is its team work. Theater is also all-time creativity.

I think any actor would agree that you can't replace theater. It's immediate. You have the energy of the crowd and every single night it's different.

It's really interesting working in television as opposed to the theater, where you know the arc of the character and you are able to create this whole backstory.

The perfection in theater is that it's over the second it's done.

With a play, there's more of a definable arc because of the nature of theater: You know, there's no editing, so there's something more natural about the arc a character follows in a play. I think theater is more an actor's medium, whereas film is more a director's medium, because that's who controls the final feel of the film.

I always try to make sure that I stay connected to theater so I continue to be inspired. Not that I'm not inspired by television.

It's our approach to treat each show like an arena show. We over-invest in production to make the stage look bigger, turning the show into an experience and not just somebody standing around with a microphone rapping.

There's a romance and power to live theater.

In my heart of hearts, I love theatre. It's the joy and terror of putting a play on, the creativity of it. It is infinitely harder than film and television and more tiring. Your performance is heightened in the way it isn't with film.

I love the interactive nature of theater. I just craved it. As much as I love working on a film or TV set, most of the storytelling happens in the editing, whereas when you're doing a play, the storytelling is in your hands as an actor.

I was always into film, but theater was my entry point. I always felt like film didn't make sense to me as a kid. It was just so magical that I was like, 'There's something going on back there that I don't know.' But, when I watched theater, it was something that was happening in front of me.

Theater, especially musical theater, is a collaborative endeavor. The success of the venture is about the team.

Of all the mediums, theatre is the one where you really need to have something to say - because it's just you, the words, and the space.