Quotations: Volume 39

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

(Disclaimer: quotations are often taken out of context and may not accurately reflect the way they were originally intended)


"Never neglect inflection... Words to live by."
- Wifey, after mentioning that she had neglected to mark some of her inflections in her monologue

"Don't say it's awful. It's called learning."
- Movement Professor, in ballet

"Don't try to think about this logically. It doesn't really work that way."
- Movement Professor, in ballet

" Try to keep some sparkles in your eyes. It helps you do ballet, actually."
- Movement Professor, in ballet

"In my experience, the people who do the best at auditioning are those who find a way to enjoy it."
- Acting Professoressa

"Miss [Acting Professoressa], would you try that again, but this time try it as a pregnant... donkey."
- Acting Professoressa, giving a hypothetical example of how one might be given ridiculous direction during an audition

"Everyone in New York has to carry their life with them, but you just can't come in like Mother Courage and Her Children."
- Acting Professoressa, on not bringing in a ton of stuff to an audition

"Before you come in, just say to yourself, 'F*** 'em.' You're there to solve their problems."
- Acting Professoressa, on auditioning

"Do you know how often you're sitting behind a casting desk and you have half an hour left and haven't seen anyone who looks like they could play Bob Cratchitt in a heartbeat? And if you give it to them, they'll love you."
- Acting Professoressa, on auditioning

"The great speeches are great speeches because they're great speeches. You don't have to ignore them because you want something unurual. It's like, why would you choose to take a jalopy instead of a limo?"
- Acting Professoressa, on choosing a Shakespeare monologue

"Assume that people like you. Always, if you can. Not if someone's driving a truck over you... But in general, in life. We never really know what people think of us, so why not just assume that they like us?"
- Acting Professoressa

"If you can imagine being Macbeth, then you can imagine yourself doing an Adagio. And if you can imagine doing an Adagio, then you can do an Adagio."
- Movement Professor

"That's a special kind of double-dipping. A 'double-dripping', let's call it."
- Acting Professoressa, on continuing to work a note you've already taken to a point that you go too far

(when trying to determine whose sonnets we had already heavily delved into)
Acting Professoressa: ...and [Iceman] claims he already went. (raises eyebrow incredulously)
Iceman: Jedi mind trick. This is not the sonnet you're looking for.

(Acting Professoressa began to clarify All-The-Way's scenario for her sonnet)
Acting Professoressa: So your 'Need' is to break up with... what did you say his name was? Horatio?
All-The-Way: Liam.
Acting Professoressa: Right. Liam.

"Always choose to be a mensch."
- Acting Professoressa

"He's torturing me. No, wait, I'm torturing myself. I'm doing it to myself... 'Therefore, buddy, all the more reason we should break up. I'm not into torture.'"
- Acting Professoressa, on All-The-Way's inner-monologue for Sonnet 61

(while discussing Big Show's scenario for Sonnet 97)
Acting Professoressa: I thought that 'Need' worked well. To get her to come home. (to the class) How did you feel?
O.D.: (to Big Show) I'd come. I'd come running.
Big Show: Next time we break up, [O.D.], I'll make sure to read this sonnet to you.

"It's like a rond de jambe crossed with a tilt-a-whirl."
- Angela, describing a bit of choreography in Movement class

(discussing Two-Shots-Up's work on Sonnet 62)
Acting Professoressa: How do we account for the first eight lines of the poem being her talking about how vain she is?
Angela: She prob'ly thinks this sonnet's about her.

"Well that sounds like a f***ing sarcasm-fest. Is that what you were intending?"
- Acting Professoressa, on Angela's original too-harsh premise for Sonnet 115

"It's like she's writing, '[Big Show] and [Killer] disagreed with me.'"
- Big Show, when Acting Professoressa was noting something down in class right after a Big Show and Killer disagreed with her

"God, don't you just want to get on that set with a pair of scissors and cut her hair? And cut John Barton's hair?"
- Acting Professoressa, talking about an actress in the Playing Shakespeare DVDs

"You're going to go off the railroad tracks unless you start with a 'Need'."
- Acting Professoressa