Creative inspirational notes from director Anne Bogart

"One cannot look directly at the truly big human issues any more than one can look directly at the sun. In order to see the sun you look slightly to the side. Between the sun and where you are looking is the perception of the sun. In art and in the theatre we use metaphor as the thing to the side. Through metaphor we see the truth about our condition. The word metaphor comes from the Greek meta (above) and pherein (to carry). Metaphor is that which is carried above the literalness of life. Art is metaphor and metaphor is transformation.


"... most artists would agree that their work does not proceed from an idea of what the finished product will be; rather it emerges out of a passionate excitement about the subject matter.

"The poet’s poem is wrung from him by the subject which excites him."

- Samuel Alexander

"To generate the indispensable excitement there must be something at stake, at risk, something momentous and uncertain. A sure thing does not arouse us emotionally.


"There is no disgrace in not knowing what you are doing and not having all the answers. But your passion and excitement about something will take you the distance through uncertainty. If you are insecure and do not really know what you are doing, it’s fine. Just try to work with an interest in exactitude. Be exact with what you do not know. Realism on the stage is generated, not by a general feeling for reality or truth, but, rather, it emerges in the act of exactitude and decisiveness with something that excites you."

- Anne Bogart: A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre