Marianne Elliott Quotes
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If you put a blank canvas in front of Matisse and say, 'This has to be a success,' who's going to pick up a paintbrush?
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If it is just another run-of-the-mill show, then what is the point?
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A bad audition is usually the director's fault, not the actor's. It's up to the director to get the atmosphere right to get the best out of your auditionees.
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We're always steered towards what is good in the canon by a male perspective. I like to do plays with a female protagonist who finds her way through. My way is unusual.
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I felt like that growing up - that I didn't have a voice.
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I had a very embarrassing time acting extremely badly at university, which is when directing suddenly became so attractive.
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In subsidized theater, you are encouraged to take risks. It's about being imaginative and artistic. That's the priority. It might not be a success, but let's try.
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I find theater emotionally expensive and all-involving. You have to pour so much blood and passion and heart into it. And so much time. Why do that for something that's only vaguely interesting and anyone can do it?
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I always loved and secretly wanted to do 'Company.' It was produced on Broadway in 1970, and it's about a successful 35-year-old guy who's starting to think he should get married.
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For me, 'Angels in America' is not really about AIDS. For me, it's a metaphor for anybody who is struggling with serious illness or having to face their own demise. All of the characters face some form of destruction in themselves.
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I just think that you have to approach anything you do with a huge amount of integrity - I don't really care where it comes from, whether it's a children's piece or an adult piece.
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Having a child is all-consuming; so is doing a play.
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It's difficult to find an actress prepared to play a fading star.
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I never want to see 'Hamlet' ever again! Never ever!
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I'm always drawn to female stories with female protagonists, and I particularly yearn for more older actresses to take centre stage in 2018.
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Whether you're a man or a woman, life can be very, very difficult and confusing and desperate, and it's life-enhancing to know that somehow, there is a way through it.
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My dad had a big influence on me, and although I was never very bright at school, I used to love philosophising with him about big universal things - and I think that's what directing is.
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The better the acting is, the less visible the director and the less visible the actor.
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My father was a director, and my mother and grandparents were actors, so I spent a great deal of my time as a teenager trying to get away from the theatre.
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I'm quite unusual in directing terms: I'm a woman. I'm quite a girly girl. I was never academic.
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I've enjoyed lots of productions, and it's always been down to the actors I've been working with.
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You have to lead by example. You have to be the calmest person in the room. You have to be very open. I think the qualities of a director are to enable and to find the best in everybody.
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The plays I choose to work on are about having masks. We all have masks in life, but there is a different inner life going on. The audience has to work hard to see what is going on. I love what is not on display.
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'Friends' is easy to dismiss, but it's really good television - the art with which those actors play with comedy shouldn't be denigrated. And they also know how to play irony, which I think a lot of English actors might find quite difficult.