Annaleigh Ashford

“Performing outside, you have to wear sunscreen.”

“Sadly, I never really tell people what I think. So it's a real treat to play a woman who's able to speak her mind unabashedly.”

“I dreamed my whole life of New York being my home.”

“If you can change your mind, you can change the world!”

“Donna Summer was one of the strongest female singers in pop music. She was very underrated as a vocalist and a writer, and her songbook is just outrageous.”

“The people I see be the most successful are the people who have an inner confidence and an inner strength that comes from the character they display away from the stage and from what their parents taught them.”

“My first big show in Denver was 'Ruthless! The Musical.' I played Tina Denmark at the Theatre on Broadway. It was my big break!”

“The older I get and the more iconic the piece, I believe that it's wise to watch a bit and become inspired and take moments that feel so connected to the story and also connected to me that I feel like I can make a part of my own performance.”

“As an actor, I always think that if someone does pick up a phone during a performance, something dire must be happening in their lives that is more important than theatre - some kind of tragedy they were attending to, or something. It's very uncomfortable if you don't know why they would pick up a phone and talk in the middle of a show.”

“I feel that since I was a little, little person, I knew that one of my life goals was to tell stories and bring joy to people.”

“There's no better gift to an actor than when you walk into an audition, and the casting director is your partner.”

“Sometimes in a big theatre, you have about, probably, six yards sometimes between you and the first person in the audience. It's almost like you've got to jump across a little pond to get there and then keep moving.”

“I always try to have a positive and warm intention that is not about me. It is easy to make everything about yourself. But you take the weight off when we make it about the audience. It's about the joy you can bring to somebody else instead of the joy that you get from doing it.”

“I think part of becoming a wonderful actor and part of defining your craft is defining yourself and being confident in yourself, so when the hard knocks come, and you don't get a job for five years, and your ego is being kicked around, you can pull yourself out of it.”

“There are certain performers that the gay community receives and recognizes with love, and my whole life, I've always responded to those same artists.”

“In the late 1950s, the woman's place in society was second-class.”

“One of the great things that playwright A.R. Gurney does in 'Sylvia' is he gives language to the emotional gestures and energy that our dogs give to us when they're communicating.”

“Even as a little kid, I just loved to make my own music. So I loved singing, and I loved sharing it because it was a way to connect to people.”

“My go-go dancing was not your typical go-go dancing: I really was doing performance art. I would do dramatic, elaborate lyricals across the bar. I learned a lot, actually, as an artist during that time.”

“I loved reading 'Anne of Green Gables' and 'Little Women' and Jane Austen. Those were times when people really did have only one true love in their life.”