Laura Benanti Quotes

In school, when we lived in New Jersey, we went to Broadway a lot, so I saw a lot of Broadway plays, and I just loved being able to see people play a different character and, you know, be able to be themselves at the end of the night. So, I've always wanted to do it.

Obviously I love working in film and television, but I started in theater and I'd love to be on Broadway.

I always ended up having the funny part in Shakespeare, but I really thought I'd be doing theater. That was my ambition for myself.

My mom started working at the California Shakespeare Theater in Oakland when I was two years old, so I've always grown up around theater.

If you drugged me with truth serum and said I can only do one thing, I would probably have to say that I would be an actor in the theater. And then I would have you arrested for drugging me.

At the moment, my trajectory isn't to think about acting. I'm absolutely devoted to The Imaginarium, our projects and directing. And watching and enabling other actors do their thing in our studio is hugely rewarding. I expect at some point I'll probably want to go back on stage and do some theater, because I've not done theater in 10 years.

I wanted to be a theater actress, and initially, I wanted to work in musical theater

I love the theater. I love being on stage; I love the live audience. I also love dressing up and all of the make-believe.

I left the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin in 2004, and I did five years of theater after that.

I've been performing my whole life. My mom signed me up for a theater program when I was five - I was the evil queen in 'Once Upon a Mattress.'

I wanted to be an actor because I wanted to be onstage. I wanted to do musical theater, and from that I realized I was interested in plays. I never imagined myself on television. I was so lucky to be onstage my whole life.

I just thought I would work in a hair salon and do community theater.

I think theater is more about living and breathing, versus TV, which can vary.

Prior to joining NSD, I was briefly associated with a small theater group in Delhi called Sakshi. Saurabh Shukla, Manoj Bapayee were my seniors in that group. I performed a few supporting roles in Sakshi plays.

The biggest impact that acting and theater had was, of course, stage presence, but it also had a big impact on my writing.

I think theater is very much my natural home. But the truth is that the older I've got, and the more I've written film and television, I find it incredibly hard to write theater.

I'm not a Shakespearean actor really, or a Shakespearean director.

In Partho's comedy, 'Ami Montri Holam,' I am a minister. This is basically a play and a great actor like Jahor Roy had essayed this role years back. I hope I can deliver five per cent of what he did.

I want to get into the theater. I really wanted to be a theater director, but I turned out to be a movie director.

I will do plays as long as they're interested in having me do them. It's the biggest opportunity to learn the most about how to act. Something I discover every time I'm doing one is how little I know about acting - how important the art of listening is, and how important it is to listen with your entire body. You can tell so much of a story with stillness, and a lot of that can be from really actively listening to your scene partner.

I always loved theater and acting in plays and directing, writing little plays and directing friends in plays.

Most of the theater I've done in the past was when I was a kid or a teenager so it feels like being a kid again. I'm happier than I've ever been. You really get to go to work every day and play, and try different things. I don't know, I've never felt so lucky to do this job. So I hope to do a lot more theater.

I played Winnie the Pooh in first grade. I was an early adopter of standing in front of people and looking like an idiot.

I started doing regional theater. My first job was 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at Dallas Theater Center.

There are so many huge roles in the theatre: if you've got the option to play Hedda Gabler on stage, why wouldn't you choose that over a three-line part in a Hollywood film as somebody's maid or somebody's wife or somebody's best friend?