"I started out in summer stock, and that's really what I prefer"
About this Quote
There is a quiet flex tucked into Andrea Martin's preference: summer stock isn't a nostalgic footnote, it's a value system. In an industry that sells prestige by proximity to New York, streaming platforms, or awards-season campaigns, she names the unglamorous training ground as home. The line reads like humility, but it lands as authority. She's not apologizing for where she came from; she's claiming that the so-called minor leagues are where the craft actually gets made.
Summer stock is speed, repetition, and risk: new audiences every week, sets that wobble, jokes that either hit or die in real time. If you can survive that, you learn timing, stamina, and ensemble instincts in a way that a single long run or a tightly managed film set can't replicate. Martin's wording - "started out" and "really" - suggests she's anticipating the cultural assumption that you'd naturally graduate from that world into "better" rooms. She swats that ladder-thinking away. Preference isn't just personal taste here; it's an aesthetic and ethical stance.
Given Martin's career - broad comedy, character work, the ability to turn a line into a lived-in person - the context sharpens: she's pointing to a pipeline of performance that rewards versatility over branding. The subtext is almost political in showbiz terms: give her the messy, communal, high-wire environment where actors earn their chops, not their myth.
Summer stock is speed, repetition, and risk: new audiences every week, sets that wobble, jokes that either hit or die in real time. If you can survive that, you learn timing, stamina, and ensemble instincts in a way that a single long run or a tightly managed film set can't replicate. Martin's wording - "started out" and "really" - suggests she's anticipating the cultural assumption that you'd naturally graduate from that world into "better" rooms. She swats that ladder-thinking away. Preference isn't just personal taste here; it's an aesthetic and ethical stance.
Given Martin's career - broad comedy, character work, the ability to turn a line into a lived-in person - the context sharpens: she's pointing to a pipeline of performance that rewards versatility over branding. The subtext is almost political in showbiz terms: give her the messy, communal, high-wire environment where actors earn their chops, not their myth.
Quote Details
| Topic | Career |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Andrea
Add to List




