Daily Inspiration Quote by Nicholas Lea

There is a quiet defiance tucked into Nicholas Lea's line: it frames theatre not as a marketplace he serves, but as an ecosystem he intends to reshape. "Trying" does real work here. It signals ambition tempered by the realities of casting, budgets, gatekeepers, and the actor's usual position as hired labor. He's not claiming control; he's claiming agency, which is often the more radical move in an industry built on permission.

The phrase "projects that I want to see" also flips the usual actor's pitch. Instead of "I want roles that showcase me", it centers the audience experience. That's savvy and slightly strategic: it reads as taste, not ego. Lea is aligning himself with theatre as a civic space - a place where stories can be tested live, where risk is felt in the room, not flattened by an algorithm. In an era where screen work dominates and "content" is endlessly replicable, theatre becomes the medium of choice for someone chasing specificity: the kinds of plays that don't survive development notes, that can't be binge-watched into background noise.

There's also an implied critique of what he isn't seeing enough of. The line suggests dissatisfaction with the current menu: too safe, too familiar, too driven by brand-name reassurance. By positioning his career choices as a form of curatorial pressure, Lea casts the actor as a cultural participant, not just a performer. It's a modest sentence with an outsized claim: if the stage isn't offering the work you crave, you don't wait for the invitation - you help build the night you'd buy a ticket for.