Marianne Elliott Quotes
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I would like to see more female stories out there, particularly older female stories.
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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.
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I'm really fascinated by other directors' methods. I've done a lot of learning by observation.
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The better the acting is, the less visible the director and the less visible the actor.
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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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The actors work out how to create the show with me during the rehearsals. They owe it to themselves and each other to maintain that contract regardless of what the critics say.
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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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My generation feels it has been lied to a great deal.
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It's incredible how London-centric the theatre world is. Certain actors won't travel away from London anymore for work; practitioners often aren't taken seriously enough unless their work is seen in London; and it's sometimes very difficult to get national critics to review shows - especially if there's a clash with a London press night.
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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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I had done drama at university, but I never thought I could be a director. There were so few female directors then. I just assumed you had to be a man to be a director. I also assumed you had to be extremely authoritarian and extremely intellectual, none of which I was.
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If you can't see it, you can't be it. It's just having those brilliant women break out and do something - then other girls can say, 'I can do it, too!'
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I'm drawn to female stories, of which there aren't that many, and particularly to stories now about older women. The things they have to confront and override is really fascinating. That's a whole untold part of our world.
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I've seen many shows ruined by bad reviews and good reviews, so I always tell my actors not to read the reviews until after the run is over.
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I hope that subsidised theatres continue to be rewarded for the wonder of talent they provide to this industry, on stage and off.
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You need to see yourself in what you direct, I think - directing is quite self-indulgent from that point of view.
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With everything I do, there always seems to be a massive risk involved.
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I used to love getting older.
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The less subsidy we have, the more the 'producers' take over, and the 'bottom line' becomes the raison d'etre. That's quite an unappealing landscape for artists.
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I think theater is so undervalued. I have seen things there that have been far more vivid than things that actually have happened.
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When I was a kid, I never spoke. I would sit under a table and not speak to anybody. No words for years.
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As you get older, you realise that your identity becomes more important - the environment in which you have grown is actually part of who you are just as much as your family or your school.
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Some directors have the gift of the gab, but I don't.
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I suppose I always find a lot of characters that are deeply, deeply keening with a sense of yearning and desire through sadness, but they have a bravery that keeps them going despite that.