Unlike film, live theater is an anti-naturalistic medium in which character is mainly illuminated through speech and movement.

For my part, I like live theater best when it's taut, concentrated and intimate.

Unlike film and TV, theater is a luxury object, but one that ordinary middle-class people can still afford. Above all, it isn't a mass medium: Live theater is a small-scale, handmade art form. Intimacy is what makes it special.

The adrenaline of a live performance is unlike anything in film or theater. I can see why it's so addictive.

The backstage play, in which the private lives of theater people are put onstage for the world to see, is one of the diciest of dramatic genres.

Live theater to me is much more free than the movies or television.