An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance (also actress; see below). The actor performs “in the flesh” in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally “one who answers”. The actor’s interpretation of a role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. This can also be considered an “actor’s role,” which was called this due to scrolls being used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is “playing themselves”, as in some forms of experimental performance art.
Actor quotes:
My mom says that when I was a little kid, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I don't remember that.
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I get more fulfilment from being a father than I do from being an actor.
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Why does 'writer' have no gender, but 'actor' has a gender? What is that?
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'Girls' feels very active and stirring a conversation and controversial, and you can't really ask for more as an actor.
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I'm not an acting monk or anything. I'm not, like, the most well-adjusted actor.
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It was very clear to me I wanted to be an actor when I got out into civilian life.
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I was always interested in it when I was younger, but it was when I was at university, getting together with other like-minded theatrically inclined types, that I admitted to myself that I wanted to be an actor.
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I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.
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Auditioning is extremely bizarre. Just being an actor is extremely bizarre, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
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In every shoot, between the actor and the director there is manipulation. I'm not saying that negatively. It's healthy.
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I used to do a lot of plays in English, Hindi, and Urdu. I wanted to be an actor since I was three and a half.
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As an actor with a star status, I can't restrict myself to one type of films and roles.
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For everybody, the tide comes in, the tide goes out - if you're an actor, particularly.
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Directors have a tendency to use their hands like orchestra conductors. They don't realize that the actor is looking at their faces, anyway.
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I'm a quite serious actor who doesn't mind being ridiculously comic.
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I trained as a stage actor and was given a lot of technical tools to play with.
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When I told my parents, 'I'm going to be an actor,' they screamed and wept and freaked out.
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I always have considered Michael Keaton to be a phenomenal actor because he navigates drama and comedy.
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I guess I've always wanted to push the boundaries as an actor.
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The thing with being able to do accents is that it's still completely separate from being an actor.
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I can be a horrible actor, but I make a move that makes a money I'm secured a job.
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When I'm shooting, I don't care who the star is. I have an actor playing a part, and I'm serving the script, not serving anyone's career.
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I wasn't like a Hollywood child actor - 'I'm five! I can sing, I can dance, I can act! I wanna be a star!'
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By the time I had finished my studies at St. Paul's School, I knew I wanted to be an actor.
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I'm here to be an actor who wants to be remembered for her roles and her films rather than her looks.
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You don't want to remake something that's just been made, as an actor.
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I always say this - As an actor, we're lucky to get a job. Then we're lucky that anybody gives a damn to watch the thing that we're in.
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I'm an actor, but I'm also a feminist, and a lot of times in movies there are things that I cannot imagine happening that are on the screen and totally accepted. And I just go, 'Whaaat?'
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It's easier to get an actor when you just ask them to do a day on something rather than have them come in, audition, get picked.
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There are definitely reasons to do certain things, but I like to stick to good director, good actor, good script.
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I don't use any techniques, I'm not trained to be an actor. I just enjoy working in films.
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I think no actor should be ever satisfied because there is always something new to do, something fresh to get challenged by.
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At a very early age I knew I wanted to be an actor and then more specifically that I wanted to be on Broadway and be in musicals.
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I've been on stage and been an actor for many years and used different mediums.
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I don't want to just fall back on the fact that I was on the cover of 'GQ' for being an actor.
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I'm not a comedian. I'm an actor who just happens to be funny on occasion.
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Some of these guys... I've worked with Ice Cube, I think he's an immensely talented rapper and actor.
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Oh yes. I'm an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought.
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I like the Baldwin boys a great deal. Alec is super-smart, super-articulate, almost too smart to be an actor.
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In Europe an actor is an artist. In Hollywood, if he isn't working, he's a bum.
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I wanted really to make it moment to moment, partly because I'm an actor and that's how I operate - actors are all about creating the moment.
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As an actor, you are always looking for subtext, for layers, for what's going on underneath.
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For me, as an actor, it is brilliant that I can do both song-dance films and also something like 'NH10.' It is versatility which every actor aspires.
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I was never treated differently. I never felt like I was lesser or I was discriminated against. I've only experienced that after I became an actor.
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I am an actor and mouldable enough to do films like '2 States,' 'Gunday,' and 'Finding Fanny.'
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I didn't even know I would be an actor, I always wanted to be a cameraman.
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I like my films to have a certain amount of realism - something that's thought provoking and intelligently written. More than the amount on the pay cheque, I look for a level of respectability as an actor.
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I don't possess a lot of self-confidence. I'm an actor so I simply act confident every time I hit the stage.
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I didn't really have any aspirations to do TV when I first decided to be an actor.
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I'm getting the training I need to progress as an actor. If something comes up and I have to drop, I'll drop.
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Even in the big movies, if the scenes are very big, I'm not fond of them as much as I'm fond of small actor scenes.
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I always knew I'd be more of a character actor than a leading man, and I always wanted to take that and run with it.
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In the 60s, if you wanted to be an actor, you couldn't do just one thing.
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Craig Nelson who is an actor and is in a show called Coach in the United States. We began to do some improvisational stuff and we used to get laughs and things.
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Being an actor is well paid, but it's a bit like being a circus traveler.
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As an actor there's no autonomy, unless you're prepared to risk the possibility of starving.
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I was fortunate as a young actor, to go straight to the RSC, where I learned that being an actor can bring with it wonderful responsibilities.
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At any period of an actor's life, it's fairly likely that they'll be cast in ways that are reminiscent. That's the way it goes.
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If I could work with any actor it would have to be Johnny Depp. He is cool.
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Keats himself spoke about how Shakespeare was capable of erasing himself completely from the characters he had created. As an actor, that is what I'm trying to do.
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One of the best things about being an actor is that it's a meritocracy.
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I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.
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I always wanted to be an actor. I always wanted to be John Wayne.
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It can't be overstated how wonderful it is not to have to audition any more. Any actor will tell you, it's like Christmas.
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I'm an actor who plays an intriguing character, not a political pundit.
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Wanting to be an actor and wanting to be famous are different.
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Actors are just entertainers, even the serious ones. That's all an actor is. He's like a serious Bruce Forsyth.
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It's essential for an actor to have a hobby for the time when the telephone doesn't ring.
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Whatever you do, make sure you want to write more than you want to be a writer. Make sure you want to act more than you want to be an actor. That is what will sustain you.
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I took a gamble in becoming an actor and my dream job has been realised.
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As sophisticated as the technology gets, the less sophisticated you have to become as an actor.
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I was 3 when I told my mom that I knew what my dharma was and that I wanted to be an actor.
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When I was seven, I had been very vocal about wanting to be an actor. And my mom decided that we would try it out for a couple weeks and come to L.A. from Sacramento.
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I like the wild characters. I like the idea of being a character actor without being a character actor.
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A good actor is somebody who can be truthful and fascinating and interesting and enlightening.
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Mostly in movies an actor has to come to a mark, an X, and deliver his line - but that's so artificial, that's not how people really behave.
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My problem with being an actor was that I was far too shy to actually do it.
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Each role demands the right actor. To play an artist, one must be an artist.
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When are we going to stop labeling everyone? How many times have I been referred to as 'out gay actor?' Do we say, 'out heterosexual actor' when we refer to Tom Hanks?
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Being a day player, period, is one of the hardest things you can do as an actor.
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I didn't go to L.A. because I wanted to move to California. I went to L.A. to work as an actor.
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It's, like, sort of a dream thing for an actor when they're told to gain weight.
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Working with Jon Hamm was super-fun because he's a brilliant actor and he's very kind. I would hang around sets for scenes that I wasn't even in because I wanted to watch how he worked.
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Script for an actor is like a bible. You carry it with you, you read it over and over, you go to your passages.
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I worked as an actor for many years. Then I segued to some non-fiction writing.
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I kind of knew it wasn't going to be until my 30s that I really hit my stride as an actor.
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I like being able to marry the actor and the technician inside of me. It's really fulfilling. It exercises all of my creative muscles.
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Being a working actor, you're going to do a Spelling show. It's hard not to.
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I think the more you do as an actor, the more facility you have to switch on and off.
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Being a film actor is very different from a theatre actor.
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The truth is, ever since I was little, I've wanted to be an actor more than I ever wanted to be a movie star.
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When actors are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor.
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As a director, it is important to understand the actor's process.
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As an African-American actor, a lot of our stories haven't been told.
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I'm excited to flex my Broadway muscles - it keeps you alive as an actor.
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I phoned this number and said, Please, sir, I want to be an actor.
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I've got a range as an actor! There was a time I played dramatic leading men.
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I've always been slightly self-conscious as an actor, and I guess that sometimes reads as pomposity. Starting when I was 30, I somehow gave off an impression at an audition that had them mentally put me in a three-piece suit or put an attache case in my hand. If there was a stiff-guy part, the director would brighten up when I came in.
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I still make more money as I do as an actor than director, however I don't want to be a commercial director.
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When an actor has money, he doesn't send letters, but telegrams.
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Any good actor has to have a good sense of humour, too, they have to be able to manipulate people.
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I just went into this business for laughs. I guess I don't mind being an actor so much now.
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As an actor we're just like workers in a factory, we provide our services to directors. But I must do my job perfectly, and I love what I do.
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I'm just like James Stewart, because I never studied to be an actor.
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Having a director who is also an actor makes for that very relaxed way of working and it's empowering.
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It is often difficult to watch yourself onscreen, especially 60-feet high. As an actor, it is an uncomfortable experience.
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I love being an actor, and that's really the bottom line - in any medium, in any genre - and I want to do it.
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I learned so much about being an actor by being a director. More than I ever thought I would.
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It's OK if Tim McGraw goes and does a movie, and it's OK if Justin Timberlake does a movie, but it's not OK for an actor to become a singer. I never understood that.
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My favorite actor is Steve McQueen, and he did his own stunts.
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You are always damned by things that you do well as an actor.
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I didn't go to film school. I had been an actor in movies, I had been in plays, and then I just sort of jumped into it.
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Now I don't want to feel cornered as an actor, because I've got a wider range than that.
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Every actor has to make terrible films from time to time, but the trick is never to be terrible in them.
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I wanted to be a doctor when I was young. I also wanted to be a paramedic, but I always wanted to be an actor as well. I didn't have kids or something that I needed to provide for.
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An actor really is a kind of intermediary between an audience and the piece, whether it's a play or movie.
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As an actor, I'm rather hit and miss, I throw a lot out there, and some of it works and some of it doesn't.
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Emotional power is maybe the most valuable thing that an actor can have.
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Every actor is a model to a certain extent, since they have to do so much press.
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I'm a people's actor, not a critics' actor, and I always have been.
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I look at smoking as a crutch, and as an actor I would like strip away as many crutches as possible.
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Simon Russell Beale is an incomparable speaker of Shakespeare and a superb all-round actor.
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I've always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he's been in front of the camera. He doesn't have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.
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Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre, a film actor probably thinks of that a little less.
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I'm not the kind of actor who goes into exhaustive research for each role.
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What use is there for a biography of myself? I'm just a movie actor.
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I don't feel secure at all. I don't know what actor would feel they've made it. I feel like I'm just starting.
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An actor is a person who portrays a atmosphere in a performance (also actress; see below). The actor performs “in the flesh” in the customary medium of the theatre or in futuristic media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally “one who answers”. The actor’s comments of a role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a genuine person or fictional character. This can as a consequence be considered an “actor’s role,” which was called this due to scrolls visceral used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even later the actor is “playing themselves”, as in some forms of experimental show art.
Formerly, in ancient Greece and Rome, the medieval world, and the era of William Shakespeare, only men could become actors, and women’s roles were generally played by men or boys. While Ancient Rome did allow female stage performers, only a little minority of them were complete speaking parts. The commedia dell’arte of Italy, however, allowed professional women to function early on: Lucrezia Di Siena, whose make known is upon a arrangement of actors from 10 October 1564, has been referred to as the first Italian actress known by name, with Vincenza Armani and Barbara Flaminia as the first primadonnas and the first well-documented actresses in Italy (and in Europe). After the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear onstage in England. In futuristic times, particularly in pantomime and some operas, women occasionally pretend the roles of boys or youth men.