I Think it's Time to See Glengarry Glen Ross Again
'Don't compromise yourself, honey. You're all you've got.'
--Janis Joplin
'Stanislavsky once wrote that you could play well or badly, but play truly. It is not up to you whether your performance will be brilliant--all that is under your control is your intention. It is not under your control whether your career will be brilliant--all that is under your control is your intention. If you intend to manipulate, to show, to impress, you may experience mild suffering and pleasant triumphs. If you intend to follow the truth you feel in yourself--to follow your common sense and force your will to serve you in the quest for discipline and simplicity--you will subject yourself to profound despair and loneliness and constant self-doubt. And if you persevere, the theatre, which you are learning to serve, will grace you, now and then, with the greatest exhilaration it is possible to know.'
--playwrite David Mamet
1 Comments:
These words are among the most inspiring ever written about the theatre. I often end a rehearsal period by reading them to my cast, and in the past have been asked to read them to clergy (who found the passage useful). The whole chapter ('An Introduction to a Practical Handbook for the Actor") is well worth tracking down.
Samuel West, English actor and director.
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