Quotes

Every actor needs a director who believes in him but he also needs a challenging play, something that makes him wrap his gums around the part.

The different mediums emphasize different training methods but it's all applicable toward an effective performance. You have to tap into it.

I applied for a graduate fellowship to New York University to study directing. I had never completed an undergraduate degree because I had dropped out to join the cast of Fiddler on the Roof [the Broadway production of 1968] so I had to make up some course credits. I managed to earn both my BFA and MFA over the next three years.

I ran the Springfield Theatre Company in Massachusetts for three years at the same time I was working with ETC Theatre Company in New York. I'd drive back and forth, spending Sunday and Monday in New York, the rest of the week in Springfield. It wasn't tiring because there was too much excitement in both venues.

I got a call from Jane Deknatel in Australia who had some money pledged toward the arts by newspaper tycoon Kerry Packer. Jane said, "I can't get actors, directors and producers down here to talk to each other. Will you come down and help me develop a program for better communication?" When I went there, we interviewed 200 people for our class and accepted 30. We developed a radical approach to film acting which led individuals to a camera breakthrough with a maximum of self.

My father was an opera singer. His brothers performed in vaudeville. I had an aunt who was a soprano. From a young age I had all this art around me so I joined them. When I was seven, I sang Danny Boy at a school event. A few years later the Hearst newspaper chain sponsored a public speaking contest with the topic on John Paul Jones. Why they chose him as their subject, I don't know. Thousands of kids from all over the country participated. I won.

I joined the Sullivan Company in Greenwich Village as Buttercup in "H.M.S. Pinafore". I was about 15 at the time and the youngest person in this company. I wondered why. I guess they didn't have a mezzo.

[on George Abbott] Responsible for my having a career. Years later when I began to direct, he said to me, "Brucie" -- he called me that from my family name, Abruzzo -- "Brucie, I hear you're my competition now." I wouldn't identify myself as his competition. In fact, whenever I'd run into a problem directing a show, I'd ask myself: What would Mr. Abbott do? He was a remarkable man.