Quotes from Marianne Elliott

It is draining when you have a child, and there aren't many women directors with kids out there as role models.

There's a certain type of theatre that I haven't got any time for at all - established, boring, same-old stuff without any reason or passion. There's quite a lot of it about, and it motivates me to try to do something different, something risky, raw, ugly, and challenging.

My generation feels it has been lied to a great deal.

Directors have this mask of being in control and in charge, but underneath, I'm terrified.

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.

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.

I am still very observant. I am absorbed by people and why they do what they do.

I'm really fascinated by other directors' methods. I've done a lot of learning by observation.

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.

I'm quite unusual in directing terms: I'm a woman. I'm quite a girly girl. I was never academic.

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.

I would like to see more female stories out there, particularly older female stories.

I believe that theater has to be utterly life-changing for the people watching it.

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.

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.

I never wanted anything to do with the theatre as a child. I was dragged there under duress.

The better the acting is, the less visible the director and the less visible the actor.