A Quote by John Lahr

In Britain, the theatre has traditionally been where the public goes to think about its past and debate its future. The formation of the National Theatre, at the Old Vic, near the South Bank, in 1963, institutionalized the symbolic importance of drama by giving it both a building and state funding.

John Lahr

Quote Topics

About Bank Been Both Britain Building Debate Drama Formation Funding Future Giving Goes Importance Institutionalized National Near Old Past Public South State Symbolic Theatre Think

Quote Author

John Lahr
American - Critic
Born: July 12, 1941

I stayed a year in the sixth form and there was talk of Cambridge, but I wanted to go to drama school. At 17 and three months I went to the Old Vic School in London. This most remarkable and brilliant drama school lasted only six years because the Old Vic Theatre hadn't the money to go on funding it.

Prunella Scales

I've done a lot of costume drama and theatre - the National Theatre and In fact, most of my work at the theatre, at the National Theatre anyway, was period.

Brenda Blethyn

I came to theatre as a teenager by going to the National Theatre when it was at the Old Vic and sitting on padded seats in the gallery for 15 pence, which was the price of a bus fare.

Roger Allam

Compare the cinema with theatre. Both are dramatic arts. Theatre brings actors before a public and every night during the season they re-enact the same drama. Deep in the nature of theatre is a sense of ritual. The cinema, by contrast, transports its audience individually, singly, out of the theatre towards the unknown.

John Berger

After studying theatre from National School of Drama, theatre became a passion, an ambition.

Atul Kulkarni

Above all, I am a theatre person, from the National School of Drama, I want to promote theatre.

Himani Shivpuri

After graduating from National School of Drama, I started doing theatre in Delhi. But there was not much money in Hindi theatre.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Working at the National Theatre is just wonderful. There is no place like the South Bank on a summer's afternoon.

David Harewood

I studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which was founded by Laurence Olivier and has alumni like Jeremy Irons and Daniel Day Lewis. It's a very erudite institution; its ethos, really, was always theatre-based.

Mark Strong

I had done some acting at school, but I wasn't particularly good at it. What inspired me was going to the Old Vic in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the National Theatre was based there.

Roger Allam

I was always far more into anything creative that called for a bit of active participation, like reading aloud in class. Then, having left school shortly after my GCSEs, I auditioned for the National Youth Theatre of Wales and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain as well as the Welsh National Youth Opera. I ended up getting into all three.

Morfydd Clark

When the National Theatre was built, it was a public building. If you wander round that building now, there are bits hived off for people who pay more money. That's happening across the arts.

Roger Allam

The Old Vic has always been first and foremost an actors' theatre, a home for great talent and memorable performances.

Kevin Spacey

The Old Vic has always been first and foremost an actors theatre, a home for great talent and memorable performances.

Kevin Spacey

I loved English at school and realised I would enjoy studying plays. I got into Royal Holloway. They had a little studio theatre where we put on plays, and that's what I realised I wanted to do. So from there, I went to the Old Vic theatre school to learn how to do it properly.

Mark Strong

I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection.