Audra McDonald Quotes

The play is on top of me all the time, and I am constantly thinking about it. Even when I leave the theatre, I'll mumble the lines to myself or think about the way the character walks or holds himself.

Acting in a scene is easy.

As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride.

I'd also like to do a play. I've never done theater, and constantly changing and refining a performance is something I'd like to do, even though it may sound like work to some people - and it probably is work.

In school, I was Martha in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' I loved that.

There's nowhere to hide in the theatre. You can't be the one in rehearsal who doesn't know their lines.

I haven't played Hedda Gabler yet, but maybe if I did I might find the funny bits.

I was on a series for a number of years, and I got very used to only doing a mini-play per week. When I first came back to the theater, and I was suddenly doing eight shows a week again for three or four months, I had to find a new reason to do it.

I don't like going for more than a year without doing theatre. I don't mind falling flat on my face so long as I feel I'm open to the possibility of something extraordinary happening.

Theater is a way to keep challenging myself.

Acting is something I love to do. I love to perform and I love the art, the craft of it.

As soon as my foot is in the light onstage, I am home. It is what I love to do. It is what I have always loved to do.

When I first became an actress, I expected to do regional and classical theater; I just love the whole creative process.

I have, I think to do a play a year is very good if you can afford the time and the energy because it's difficult to do, it's really the actors medium of course, because you're really out there and nobody's yelling cut so, yeah I have.

I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.

Acting and performing is part of who I am.

During theatre, I had never faced problems with my lines and I was very proud of myself.

I'm doing a play at Trafalgar Studios with The Jamie Lloyd Company - 'The Maids' by Jean Genet with Uzo Aduba and Laura Charmichael, directed by Jamie Lloyd. It's one of my favourite plays by one of my favourite playwrights.

I don't know why, but I was really good in that first play.

I know that I want to consistently return to doing plays. That's one of the most important things because I think it's the best place for me to learn how to act.

You might be the best Hamlet of your generation in the bathroom, but unfortunately, you have to come out and do it on stage, and it's best to do it to people who would fill the house.

I always loved acting and improv and sketch comedy and theater, which I did at a local youth theater.

In theater, there's a lot of work to do to build the characters. It's a great experience.

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.

Directing is something I always wanted to do. I started when I was 13 directing scenes in high school and then plays in college with my theatre company.