"I like working on stage because there's something very immediate about it, that interaction with an audience where you immediately hear their reaction, or feel them, whether they're with you"
About this Quote
Burrows is praising the stage not as some sacred temple of craft, but as the one place an actor can’t hide from the weather. Film and television let you postpone judgment: you perform into a lens, the response arrives later, filtered through edits, sound mixes, reviews, and algorithms. On stage, the feedback is instant and unedited, and that immediacy becomes the point. The line is less about applause than about risk: the audience is a living scene partner, capable of lifting a moment or draining it of oxygen.
Her wording does a lot of quiet work. “Hear their reaction, or feel them” stretches beyond laughter and clapping into something more visceral: the room’s temperature, attention, and skepticism. Actors talk about “holding” an audience; Burrows frames it as being held back. “Whether they’re with you” is the tell. The stage is a referendum conducted in real time, and she’s admitting that the performer’s confidence is partly borrowed from the crowd’s consent.
There’s also a cultural context embedded in the admiration. In a media landscape where celebrity often means distance and branding, theatre offers a rare form of proximity: you can’t mute it, scroll past it, or watch it at 1.5x speed. Burrows’ affection reads like a defense of liveness itself, a reminder that performance isn’t just delivery - it’s negotiation, nightly, with a room full of strangers who can decide, moment by moment, to join you or leave you alone.
Her wording does a lot of quiet work. “Hear their reaction, or feel them” stretches beyond laughter and clapping into something more visceral: the room’s temperature, attention, and skepticism. Actors talk about “holding” an audience; Burrows frames it as being held back. “Whether they’re with you” is the tell. The stage is a referendum conducted in real time, and she’s admitting that the performer’s confidence is partly borrowed from the crowd’s consent.
There’s also a cultural context embedded in the admiration. In a media landscape where celebrity often means distance and branding, theatre offers a rare form of proximity: you can’t mute it, scroll past it, or watch it at 1.5x speed. Burrows’ affection reads like a defense of liveness itself, a reminder that performance isn’t just delivery - it’s negotiation, nightly, with a room full of strangers who can decide, moment by moment, to join you or leave you alone.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|
More Quotes by Saffron
Add to List
