Actor Quote by Terry Teachout
“The wonderful thing about theater is that anything, no matter how tendentious, no matter how stupid it sounds at first glance, can be made to work if it is charged with freshness and originality. You can have an entirely political Shakespeare production and I'll be sitting on the edge of my seat as long as it's surprising, as long as it's not just the standard, "out of the box" pseudo-transgressive production that we just see too much of nowadays.”
About This Quote
Source Interview: “The Art of Theater” on NPR, 2005
Freshness and originality can rescue even the most pretentious or silly ideas, making them compelling.
In simple terms: Originality makes bad ideas work.
Key Takeaway
Embrace novelty to revitalize any project.
Themes
creativity
artistic integrity
innovation
audience engagement
Mood
enthusiastic
critical
Type
artistic
inspirational
When to use this quote
- producing new plays
- directing classic works
- writing scripts
- teaching drama
Key Concepts
theatre studies
aesthetics
cultural criticism
Questions to Reflect On
- What makes originality feel authentic?
- How to balance tradition with innovation?
A Different Perspective
Risk of novelty can become gimmick if not grounded in substance.
![“What's crazy to me is that people now assume I'm behind [hip-hop] tracks that other people are putting out. They're just sitting on the edge of their chair waiting for me to put out [rap beats]. But it's not going to happen. I've graduated from that.” quote by AraabMuzik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0e1/araabmuzik-35069_assuming_what-s-crazy-to-me-is-that-people-now-as_717982.jpg)
