Katherine Moennig Quotes

I love the stage - the fact that you only have one take to get it right, the interaction with the audience, and how every show is different even though you're doing the same thing.

Onstage, there's no hiding; you either can or can't act. There's no second take.

If I do a bit on stage, I prepare too much. Those bits are all really, really carefully written, and overwritten, and researched. I really don't feel like I can wing it. So I write it out word for word, and when I'm onstage I'll improvise around it.

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.

There's real drama in performing live. You never know how it's going to be.

The best thing that I bring in my live show is that it's not scripted. It's more of a conversation with my audience. And that's what people like about the show - it's very real. There are mistakes and laughter.

There's a certain truism that you can't be self-conscious in comedy.

Television is very instant. Theatre is much more free, but you are very much on your own up there on stage and in control of your own performance.

I like a performance, a live performance, so I like little mistakes because that's what makes perfect - the mistakes.

That's why people come to live music, right? To see something go wrong, something human, something vulnerable.

Theatre is a living organism. You only know if your show is working when you see it with an audience. You can also tell when it isn't working - it's horrible, and you desperately try to figure out how to make it connect.

When you're on Broadway, what's kind of the whole point is that you find something new in the show each night.

When I do an hour-and-a-half show, if I don't improvise 20 minutes worth of new material each night, I feel I've let myself down.

I love TV now, and 'Modern Family,' but what draws me back to theater is that initial instinct of wanting to be a theater actor. I love the challenge of starting a play and not stopping until you finish. I love the immediacy of trusting your instincts.

I'm unable to do the thing that Broadway actors do in plays, sometimes for years. The same exact blocking, the same exact lines. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with that. Every night I'm looking for ways to try something else.

I don't do anything on stage that allows me to become a trained seal, where you're just doing the same thing over and over.

With a play, for me, there's no time to sit back on it. You're living on your instincts. And every night there are subtle changes and adjustments, because what's in front of you is a living, breathing audience.

I don't like the actors to work together beforehand. I trust my intuition, and I like when the actors are the same.

I love acting with kids, cause they're great acting partners. They're totally present. Even when they're acting, they're still available and you can crack them up or something weird will happen and they'll go with it.

I don't like improv at all. It terrifies me. I like to know exactly what I'm going to say. Being surprised does make me a better actor. Anytime I'm afraid of something that makes me rise to the occasion, it scares me, but it's what makes great actors - being in the moment.

I tend not to have any references to anything. I just jump into the script in front of me. If you reference too much, you have no idea if the performances are right.

Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.

I guess there's this mind shift that happens once you're on stage. I don't know, chemicals, something happens and you just... I just become completely in control of where I am. And it's all about trusting the people that you're on the stage with, listening... and it just falls into place really easily.

There's something interesting about playing live; you're in the moment, and I think it would be beneficial.

And you can't hide in a comedy scene either. You have to give in to the scene and commit.