Quotations: Volume 24

Here are some of the educational, inspirational, and humorous quotations from my classes this week:


"I'm sure you know more than I do about something. It's not voice." - Voice Professor, to D-Train

"This is [Voice Professor] time. One minute could be ten. Three minutes could be half. It could be to your advantage, or to your disadvantage, depending." - Voice Professor

"Next you can move into your spine twists... with your customary moaning and groaning." - Voice Professor

Voice Professor: We're going to take three minutes to find our support, forward placement, space in the back of the mouth... What else?
Killer: Rib swing.
Voice Professor: Good. Rib swing. What else would you like to find?
Wifey: Nirvana.
Voice Professor: That might take five minutes.

"We treat Másha like she is a piece of furniture. She is a part of the room. She is like a sofa or a chair. The sofa is beginning to smell like Másha." - Acting Professor, on Three Sisters

"You're beginning to get like monkeys always grooming each other, except one of the monkeys is sick." - Acting Professor, on the ways the actresses playing the sisters in Three Sisters had been reacting to each other

"No matter how big other people's problems are, mine are always bigger." - Acting Professor, on the mentality of Chekov's characters

"Go ahead and use this opportunity to locate your toes. You might as well find them this year." - Movement Professor

"[Thrill], don't shake your head. You know exactly what I'm talking about." - Voice Professor

"Okay. You feel awkward. It's okay to feel awkward. But it's not okay to shake your head at me when you know what I'm talking about." - Voice Professor

"Being able to receive and respond subconsciously, that is a great skill. Some might even call it genius. That is the goal." - Acting Professor

"Why not strive for genius? Why strive for anything less than that, even just talent? Let's strive for genius." - Acting Professor

"You're making them look so good in front of their friends. 'She didn't cite your work, did she, Larry?'" - Big Show, about Voice Professor giving a speech in front of people that she had cited in the speech

"There is nothing more serious than the creative process." - Acting Professor

(on the romance budding between Newbie and Big Show's characters in a scene from Three Sisters)
Acting Professor: When Kulygin got there, there was not much between you yet. There was no elephant in the room.
Newbie: No, no. More like a squirrel.

"Sometimes an expression of love is incredibly rude." - Acting Professor

"The question is, 'Can we get uphill by going downhill?' The answer is, 'No.'" - Acting Professor

"That airplane wasn't out of gas, so why do we need to make an emergency landing to refuel?" - Acting Professor, using a metaphor about following impulses

"You must yield to your subconscious, even if you are Einstein. Your subconscious is not just Einstein, but a thousand Einsteins. It knows what's coming." - Acting Professor

(after a confusing metaphor about hot air balloons)
Acting Professor: I'll never be a specialist in balloons.
Iceman: Who is?
Acting Professor: The first time I learned how hot air balloons worked was when I came over to the U.S.
Thrill: You came over in a balloon?