Quotes by Robert Lepage - Page 2

When we were working on 'River Ota' in the '90s, I learnt to read Japanese, which was how I discovered that it incorporates elements of Chinese calligraphy.
Robert Lepage /
Chinese
Elements
Discovered
Japanese
Learnt
River
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When we did 'The Dragons' Trilogy,' China was a big, mysterious piece of rock that we never thought would even move. It was impenetrable, impossible to deal with.
Robert Lepage /
Dragons
Mysterious
Trilogy
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Everybody loves Vegas, and everybody puts it down, especially intellectuals and artists. We have to rub our feet on it, but we're all secretly thrilled to be there.
Robert Lepage /
Feet
Vegas
Artists
Intellectuals
Loves
Puts
Rub
Secretly
Thrilled
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The first time someone stood up in front of the fire and told the story while illustrating it with shadows on the walls of the quarry, that was the birth of theater.
Robert Lepage /
Birth
First Time
Illustrating
Quarry
Theater
Front
Shadows
Stood
Walls
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'The Blue Dragon' uses very filmic language and involves a lot of technology. It is more cinematic than theatrical and was inspired by comic strips and graphic novels.
Robert Lepage /
Blue
Cinematic
Comic Strips
Graphic Novels
Theatrical
Involves
Strips
Uses
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With the social media phenomenon, where people's opinions inform so much of what we do with our lives, where the number of 'likes' decides what we should program, I cringe.
Robert Lepage /
Cringe
Phenomenon
Social Media People Media
Inform
Opinions
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There's not a system better than another. There are some people better than others. I'm not anti-democracy, but there's no real system yet that has proven itself to be the right one.
Robert Lepage /
Proven
Right One
Some People
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I remember my first review in London said I was the next Peter Brook. I said: 'No way. I'm not Peter Brook. I don't have the maturity, the experience, the intelligence. Don't burden me.'
Robert Lepage /
Burden
Maturity
Peter
Brook
Review
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During the tour of 'Circulations,' we spent a lot of time in Canadian Chinatowns. I was fascinated by the idea that you can cross the road and enter this dream world, this vision of China.
Robert Lepage /
Dream World
Fascinated
Cross
Enter
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As a kid, my dad moved us to the upper town, which was in a higher class of people, and we would see the lower town below. Every day, we could see where we came from and where we were now.
Robert Lepage /
Below
Upper
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When I directed the 'Ring' cycle at the Metropolitan Opera in New York recently, there were people texting all through the show. But theatre isn't a communication device: it's a communion.
Robert Lepage /
Communication
Communion
Metropolitan
Opera
Texting
Ring
Cycle
Device
Directed
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The great advantage of the circus, and the reason it is so popular, is really the ideal combination of art and sport. It's the ideal art form, in a certain way, if you want to be accessible.
Robert Lepage /
Circus
Combination
Accessible
Art Form
Certain Way
Great Advantage
Ideal
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The same critics who destroyed 'Seven Streams' when we opened in Edinburgh - and yes, it was horrible - called it one of the most important shows of the 21st century six years later in London.
Robert Lepage /
Critics
Destroyed
Edinburgh
Horrible
London
Six
Streams
Opened
The Most Important
Yes
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Theatre's still expensive compared to downloading on Netflix; that has to be addressed. It doesn't mean it has to be over-subsidised by the state, but it's something we're trying to figure out.
Robert Lepage /
Expensive
Downloading
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Why is it that I can remember so easily the lyrics to the opening theme song of 'Gilligan's Island?' Why do I remember these trivial things, and I can't remember the names of important collaborators?
Robert Lepage /
Collaborators
Opening
Theme
Easily
Island
Theme Song
Trivial
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Theatre is different. We can spend two weeks around a table talking about subtext. In opera, there is a score, and people already know their parts. And they move differently. I find all this liberating.
Robert Lepage /
Liberating
Opera
Score
Subtext
Two Weeks
People Find Know
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If you're going to do a show about somebody who dumped you, it's much richer if you have three characters dealing with different aspects of that theme. There is more space for people to identify with it.
Robert Lepage /
Dumped
Space People More
Aspects
Identify
Richer
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My father had barely any education. He could hardly write or count. But his great pride was that he was perfectly bilingual. In the household, he entertained this idea that we had to speak both languages.
Robert Lepage /
Household
Barely
Bilingual
Languages
Count
Entertained
Great Pride
Hardly
Perfectly
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I'm trying to tell history with a capital H through histories with a small h. It moves people, because you know in your own personal relationships, your own story, there's an echo to a much larger reality.
Robert Lepage /
Personal Relationships
Echo
Histories
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Opera should be a place for art forms to meet. I've worked a lot with Peter Gabriel; his music isn't operatic, but he creates big, popular gatherings to which architecture, dance, and music are all invited.
Robert Lepage /
Dance
Architecture
Gabriel
Invited
Opera
Peter
Art Music Architecture
Art Forms
Forms
Creates
Gatherings
Popular
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Without meaning to sound crass, I've never had any psychological... help. It's because I feel my work is so revealing about who I am and what I am trying to understand about myself. It's a therapeutic process.
Robert Lepage /
Psychological
Revealing
Therapeutic
Work Myself I Am
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Of course I had friends, but it was very limiting because there was always a chance that at every corner, someone would be laughing at me or waiting to beat me up. I had a very lonely childhood because of that.
Robert Lepage /
Chance
Childhood
Laughing
Lonely
Waiting
Beat
Corner
Course
Limiting
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I admire people who can spend every aspect of their life in one discipline and really go all the way. I feel the only way I could achieve some type of excellence is if I connect to other people, other disciplines.
Robert Lepage /
Achieve
Admire
Aspect
Discipline
Excellence
Type
Connect
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All of Vegas is false. There's a false Paris, a false Venice, a false Baghdad - in fact, all of the early Vegas aesthetic is Baghdad, which is also the irony. It's 'Aladdin,' the sands, 'One Thousand and One Nights.'
Robert Lepage /
Aesthetic
Baghdad
Irony
Thousand
Vegas
Venice
Nights
False
Sands
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People talk about fantastic memories of childhood, but I remember children being cruel to me and wanting to come out of childhood as soon as possible because I knew adults were generally more contained in their cruelty.
Robert Lepage /
Memories Childhood Me
Contained
Cruel
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We tend to forget that in those days before the Internet and HBO and Imax and 3-D cinema, opera was the thing. Opera and theatre. If you were a man of the world and you mingled among the happy few, you would be at the opera.
Robert Lepage /
Hbo
Opera
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In real life, I am not a lonely person; I have lots of good friends and am active socially. But there are certain aspects of my life when I have felt very alone, utterly alone, and one of them is when I am performing on my own.
Robert Lepage /
Lonely
Aspects
Life Alone Good
Good Friends
Socially
Utterly
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The real writing of a piece comes only when you are performing it. It is why I like theatre. In film and TV, the image is locked forever, but in theatre, there is constant change; each performance is part of the writing process.
Robert Lepage /
Constant
Forever
Locked
Performing
Theatre
Writing Process
Film And Tv
Performance
Piece
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Of course theater will always be associated intimately to literature, but the themes or whatever have to penetrate you by the senses. Theater is a sensuous experience, and that's its main difference from film or any other dramatic art.
Robert Lepage /
Dramatic
Penetrate
Senses
Associated
Themes
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I studied as an actor at the theatre conservatoire in Quebec, but by the time I got to my third year, I was more interested in directing. There's more to it than helping actors get round a stage: it's a wonderful way of telling stories.
Robert Lepage /
Quebec
Time Way More
By The Time
Directing
Round
Wonderful Way
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Every time we make a new invention, we think we're going to save the world, but eventually, we understand that the real virtues of that new invention have mostly to do with commerce. Then we feel a huge emptiness, and we want to fill it with beauty.
Robert Lepage /
Commerce
Emptiness
Invention
Save The World
Beauty Time World
Fill
Virtues
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I always thought I was more of a mommy's boy, because she was charming, talkative, a great storyteller. But as I dug back into my past, I realized I am exactly like my father on so many levels, although I never thought I inherited anything from him.
Robert Lepage /
Charming
Levels
Talkative
Great Always Past
Great Always I Am
Dug
Inherited
Many Levels
Mommy
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Vegas is the city of temptation. I think, perhaps, it is an experiment by NASA. If we're going to send people to Mars, how will we create false economies and cultures to satisfy them? Vegas has the answer. People go there when they've nothing left to lose.
Robert Lepage /
Mars
Nasa
Temptation
Vegas
Cultures
False
Satisfy
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Vegas is a testing ground for the human soul. What are our values, especially in a time of crisis? Work with Cirque du Soleil, and you learn that quickly. The former socialist street performers who now throw parties by the pool with Brazilian models, oh yes!
Robert Lepage /
Crisis
Former
Human Soul
Models
Performers
Pool
Socialist
Vegas
Brazilian
Street
Parties
Quickly
Throw
Yes
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Often, particularly towards the end of the process, I think of myself less as a theatre director and more as someone who just directs the traffic. My job is to move the ideas and bits of the show into the places where they work best. Sometimes my job is also to say, 'No.'
Robert Lepage /
Bits
Traffic
Best Work Myself
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I was a privileged observer to be there when Celine Dion opened at Caesars Palace and then the second Gulf War started. It was an odd thing to see the impact both events had on Vegas. The place was riding high after Celine, but overnight, once war was declared, it was deserted.
Robert Lepage /
Deserted
Gulf War
Odd
Privileged
Riding
Vegas
Gulf
Observer
Odd Thing
Opened
Overnight
Palace
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I don't think there is any kind of magic about what I do. All of the connections are there, somewhere in the subconscious or in the collective unconscious. If I let the elements speak to each other, then these coincidences will happen. And they do happen. They happen all the time.
Robert Lepage /
Connections
Elements
Subconscious
Unconscious
Coincidences
Collective
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I think theatre must be an event, an experience, not compete with cinema. When people are able to download stories on Netflix, you need to give them a good reason to jump into the car and drive two hours. It has to be something you can only see in the theatre, and it has to be worth it.
Robert Lepage /
Experience
Car
Able
Cinema
Hours
Reason
Stories
Theatre
Two
Worth It
Good Experience Car
Drive
Compete
Download
Event
Give
Car Experience Good
Good Reason
Must
Jump
See
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My taste comes from when I was 12 years old and saw Genesis or Laurie Anderson or some performance artist who had put paint on himself. I've seen a lot of theater, but that's not what woke up my taste to become a director; nontheatrical things were much more theatrical than the theater I was seeing.
Robert Lepage /
Genesis
Paint
Theatrical
Anderson
Woke
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A puppet, for example, is just a piece of wood, a couple of rivets, but put them together, and if you know how to do it, and the audience's imagination joins in with this, then a miracle will come out of that machine. That is what we and the audience do in the theatre - we create miracles in that space.
Robert Lepage /
Imagination
Couple
Example
Theatre
Puppet
For Example
Miracles
Piece
Wood
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In Grade 2, when we had to do a presentation in front of the class, I'd always do things about Ireland or Italy. I could draw maps; I could name all the capitals: I was completely drawn to other lands. I discovered with time that it's a thirst for other people, for otherness, for something fascinating and mysterious.
Robert Lepage /
Fascinating
Ireland
Maps
Mysterious
Presentation
Thirst
Time Always People
Time People Name
Drawn
Grade
Italy
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I find it very strange when people say that they are trying to solve 'Uncle Vanya' or find a solution for 'Henry V.' Plays aren't puzzles. They are about playing. But so much theatre has become about performing and acting rather than playing, which is a great pity because audiences are captivated by watching people play.
Robert Lepage /
Captivated
Pity
Puzzles
Great People Find
Audiences
Henry
Solution
Uncle
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The extraordinary context of 'Coriolanus' is that it's the first republic - it's the first attempt to create a society not ruled by a monarch. It changes the whole system, and you see how the establishment reacts to that, how they have disdain but play along - and you recognize this is the whole American republican system.
Robert Lepage /
Disdain
Republic
Attempt
Context
Monarch
Ruled
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I wouldn't be happy to be a specialist. There are some very interesting artists in history who refused to be nailed down into a category, like Da Vinci or Jean Cocteau. You could say Cocteau was a great poet but also a film-maker, interested in theatre, sculpture, and could never identify with any of these forms exclusively.
Robert Lepage /
Sculpture
Category
Be Happy
Identify
Jean
Nailed
Refused
Specialist
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I was interested in theatre, and the only experience that I had in high school was as an actor. But when I got in Conservatoire, my teachers would give me a lot of flack because I wasn't rehearsing my lines; I'd be doing stage management. I was interested in sound. I was interested in architecture. I was interested in every aspect of theatre.
Robert Lepage /
Architecture
Aspect
Give Me
Management
Rehearsing
Experience Me Doing
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Robert Lepage Quotes - Page 2

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