The Saunterer

Lillian Hellman on how the theater promotes freedom of speech

    She says,

    You can say what you like in the theater within any reasonable bounds. You have a liberty of speech and editorial expression you can’t find in any other dramatic medium. And you can present an idea for the consideration of intelligent audiences, which, of course, is completely outside the gaudiest opium dreams of possibility in Hollywood. They wouldn’t know an idea if they saw it on the Coast, and if by any chance they should recognize it the film people would be frightened right out of their suede shoes. I’m not patronizing in my attitude toward the films, just realistic. And I say again that the presentation of something besides mere entertainment and spectacle is the great function of the legitimate theater of the world today.

    (Quoted from page 4 of Conversations with Lillian Hellman, edited by Jackson R. Bryer. University Press of Mississippi, 1986.)
    For a brief biography of Lillian Hellman, click here. For images of or relating to Lillian Hellman, click here.

How to assure yourself of having a home

    Get a cat. As someone unknown once said,

    A cat makes all the difference between coming home to an empty house and coming home.

    (Quoted from page 211 of Making Rounds with Oscar, by David Dosa. Hyperion, 2010.)

Patti LuPone on how technology can produce social misfits

About a women texting during a theater performance, Patti LuPone said this:    

    I don’t know why they buy the ticket or come to the theater if they can’t let go of the phone. It’s controlling them. They can’t turn it off and can’t stop looking at it. They are truly inconsiderate, self-absorbed people who have no public manners whatsoever.

    (Quoted from page C5 of The New York Times, July 10, 2015.)
    For a brief biography of Patti LuPone, click here. For images of or relating to Patti LuPone, click here.