By the end of high school, I would do shows at the theater at night and then take the train home and go to school the next morning.
So my humor, I'd say, comes from a mixture of lowbrow comedy shows and highbrow theater. It's an interesting mix.
I gained a great deal from the period during which I worked in theater and I value those things a great deal.
I had a great drama teacher in high school, and that's when I started to learn about the history of theater.
I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.
In my view, the only way to see a film remains the way the filmmaker intended: inside a large movie theater with great sound and pristine picture.
My only close-to-game-plan is to follow good writing. If the writing is in TV or if it's in theater or in film, that's it. It doesn't really matter what the medium is.
I always think if it's a good story, the audience can't wait to run out of the theater and go tweet somebody with the gist of a story, in a nutshell, almost, because it was that interesting.
I didn't do improv in college, I never performed, I didn't do theater either. I was in student government, I was a history major.
It's funny because all through the '80s I didn't do TV and movies very much. I prided myself that I was making a living in the theater.
Originally, theater was my life. It was what I assumed I'd spend my working life doing - if I was lucky. Then along came movies.
The economics of being a playwright are abysmal. I like to think of the work I do out in Hollywood as a way to actually make a life in the theater easier.
I had a big part of my life in the theater in Philadelphia. Philadelphia's changed, but I love it.
I lost 100 pounds and embraced theater and music as what I was going to make for the rest of my life.
I learned about life before I went into the theater, which is why I've been so happy. I was a soldier.
From the time that I was in high school, my life really revolved around live theater, so it almost feels genetic.
I have so much respect for people in the theater. You can't do 10 or 15 takes. It's all live. It's like life in motion.
I'd love to do theater. I've done so many plays in my life. I still think of that as my main thing.
I saw a Shakespeare play when I was - I guess I was in junior high. And I just fell in love with the theater because, for me, it was a combination of big ideas and feeling.
I'm a theater actress. I love rehearsal. I could have six weeks of rehearsal and think it's not enough. But on film, you don't get that luxury.
And I think in theater, people don't really focus on the media unless there's a huge superstar doing a play or something.
