A Quote by Naseeruddin Shah

Learning a craft is up to you, whether you are doing theatre or movies. — © Naseeruddin Shah
Learning a craft is up to you, whether you are doing theatre or movies.
I had to spend a few years learning how to do movies. I wasn't really good at that. I was a theatre actor first and foremost. So I took my time learning that.
When I started out, I was very vociferously against theatre or what I saw theatre as being, so I tried to make my plays the opposite of that - something a bit more cinematic. I'm a film kid, so I'll never have the same love of theatre as I do of movies. It's just the way I was brought up.
I was crazy into performing when I was younger. I was obsessed with the craft of acting, and theatre, and stage. You know the term 'theatre geek?' I am the extreme theatre geek.
I'm a theatre person, that's who I am. I'm happy to make sojourns into the world of movies but I'm basically a theatre director that potters off and does a couple of movies.
Actually, I went from doing a lot of movies early on in my career, then to doing TV, and I don't know whether we'll get back to some movies or not.
Learning to write for the theatre is learning to be a human being, because the theatre by its very nature makes you deal with other human beings.
To be fair, when I started doing 'Verdict' I literally had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to do some theatre, as I wanted to do something different. I wanted to learn and get an understanding of the craft.
I love doing movies but I loved doing theatre just as much.
I was spending too much time thinking about how I was doing, if I was learning everything I was supposed to be learning during this difficult season, whether I was doing it right or not, taking my spiritual pulse, etc - my inner lawyer was working overtime.
It's very hard to just break into movies. I always felt like it would be giving up a theatre career to go and try and be in movies. So, I thought I'd exhaust the theatre thing, go as far as I can, and originate roles, be on Broadway, maybe win some Tony Awards, and then hopefully some door would open. Luckily, it did.
I pretty much got into theatre to do community theatre and things, but then I went to Williamstown and found an agent. I then went to New York and did a lot of theatre there, so I started doing only theatre.
Theatre is expensive to go to. I certainly felt when I was growing up that theatre wasn't for us. Theatre still has that stigma to it. A lot of people feel intimidated and underrepresented in theatre.
Learning the craft as an actor in Los Angeles is a very hard thing to do, in my opinion. We all come from a certain world and when you start learning the craft, you need material to read/study that you can relate to. We do not have too many Latino writers on the West Coast that I was able to relate to (or at least, I didn't know at the time). I came from the streets, so the most published authors had no relation to my world. As soon as I picked up Pinero & Guirgis, it was all over. It was my world, just in a different location. They cracked me open inside and out.
I'm doing The Physicists, which is great, and I do have my agent to thank for that because a lot of agents try and talk you out of doing theatre. They don't push theatre because you can make more money doing television, whereas theatre wages are pretty shocking. But it's something I've always been keen to do and have been encouraged to do so, which is nice.
Theatre has been a sort of hobby. I regret that I am not active, but given my job that is difficult. But those were learning days. The learning curve was the level of confidence, maturity, and reflexes that theatre teaches you is fantastic. You are alone in front of an audience for two hours and that gives you a different kind of confidence.
I did try theatre out when I was little. I did roles as a child actress. My parents didn't push me into it. But I was up for it. I didn't enjoy doing eight shows a week, though. That repetitiveness didn't appeal to me. I love doing something different every day and travelling. You can't do that in the theatre.
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