It's just a challenge doing live television every week; you know, it's a challenge to come up with new material every week and stuff like that and try to keep it current, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, you know, it's a kind of a stressful environment.
My job is the same if I'm making a new musical or making a play for sixty-five people or doing a live television broadcast. The job is to take care of the actor; the job is to create an environment where they can excel and try to access all their attributes.
I'm energized by this idea that's live television. In the same way as an athlete when they get on the field or on the court, you have to perform in that moment or it's past you and you've missed.
I mean, there's definitely a difference between film and live performances or live television. But at the same time, it's just performing. No matter what, it's performing.
A lot of what I do on WWE TV is what I was doing on the NXT Live events. That wasn't really seen by anybody. But now I get to do it on live television.
Some players don't like to speak to the media or prefer to talk on live television so people can hear for themselves what is said, in real time.
Live theater to me is much more free than the movies or television.
People predicted in the 1910s that live theater was going to be all gone and that we'd just be watching movies. No, live theater is still around, because it does things that are specific to it.
Playing in front of an audience was just such a turn-on for me, and you have 200 people in the audience and it's like doing live theater. And filming something that goes to millions of people several weeks later, it's an interesting dynamic.
I've never been bored in live theater.
I went to a theater arts school, so I'm interested in many different projects, whether it be film, television or even live theater. I'm a performer. That's what I do. That's what I want to do.
Live theater is just an incredibly powerful medium, and I think anyone who goes, whether they know about it or not, if they see something that sort of fits with them, it's kind of hard to deny that they had a good time.
I like roles that are on the extreme ends of the spectrum, and there's special appeal in exploring these slightly forgotten plays that people might think of as subjects for academic term papers instead of live theater.
For my part, I like live theater best when it's taut, concentrated and intimate.
Unlike film and TV, theater is a luxury object, but one that ordinary middle-class people can still afford. Above all, it isn't a mass medium: Live theater is a small-scale, handmade art form. Intimacy is what makes it special.
Theater in Chicago will always be my first love. It started careers for me and about 50 of my friends. We all love coming back. As soon as the TV show is over, I'll be back in Chicago, doing live theater.
When I was around 13 or 14, there were visits to the theater, which really ignited my passion. Going to see live theater is when I properly got the bug and hoped I'd be able to do it for a living one day.
I went into performing for the community. Being backstage with your company of fellows is the best part of working in live theater. That energy, that combined focus, the synergy - it's addictive.
There's nothing like the buzz of live theater. You put it out there and receive an instant reaction: laughing, crying, yelling, applauding.
On a soap opera, you'll do an episode and a half a day, and in prime time television, you're hustling to get an episode done in eight days. That's a little bit frustrating sometimes. But there's also something exhilarating about it. It's kind of like live theater in a way, where you get one crack at it.
