Marianne Elliott Quotes
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I was 28 before I started putting on productions. I got in the back door by doing fringe shows and a lot of assisting, and I learned on the job. There weren't many female directors when I was starting out. I slowly gained confidence and understanding of the theater, but on my own terms.
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I suppose that I'm excited by exciting theater. It takes a risk to show us the world in a new way.
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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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What I really would like to see is more female stories out there. Particularly older female stories, because women are predominantly ticket-buyers.
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I believe that theater has to be utterly life-changing for the people watching it.
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I'm interested in teasing out the contemporary issues in what I'm working on, however old the piece might be, whenever I'm working on it.
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It would be quite interesting to use Kermit the Frog to act like a real frog. But it wouldn't produce captivating theatre.
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It is draining when you have a child, and there aren't many women directors with kids out there as role models.
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I feel that if you're going to do theater, you've really got to throw yourself into the deep end. You have to commit your whole life and soul to it to make it the best it could ever be because theater can truly change people in lots of different ways. But I also think it can bore people to death, and it's quite a fine line between those two things.
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If you are working in a publicly subsidized building, then you have a responsibility to deliver truly interesting, risky, innovative, even provocative work. Work that speaks to your audience in many resonant ways. The priority is less about the financial rewards.
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I am still very observant. I am absorbed by people and why they do what they do.
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Directors have this mask of being in control and in charge, but underneath, I'm terrified.
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I'm very much of the opinion that theatre is a collective art form, not just one person's vision.
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I never wanted anything to do with the theatre as a child. I was dragged there under duress.
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I didn't want to just be remembered for 'War Horse.'
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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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I worked in casting for about five years before I became a director, and that taught me a huge amount because you never actually will see the character walk through the door - and if you do, then you have to be slightly suspicious of that.
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Often during rehearsals, I catch myself thinking, 'God, this is hard. Why am I always choosing such difficult plays to put on?'
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For me, it's life or death doing plays: there's this perfectionist thing about me that it has to be brilliant - anything less than that is a failure.
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It's impossible to feel the creative juices flowing if you're always worried about the end result. I think really, really good work comes out of people being quite open, not stressed, really exploring, trying to be imaginative, without worrying too much about the end result.
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I'm aware, as I get older, there are less and less stories that really pertain to me and who I am and where I'm going.
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Having a child is all-consuming; so is doing a play.
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Horses are wild animals, essentially, and they're not there to do what humans want them to - they can be browbeaten or cajoled or trained, but they don't hear English; they're not obedient most of the time.
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Staging any play is very exposing because, if you are going to do it well, you have to put so much of yourself into it.