Marianne Elliott (director)

Marianne Elliott (born 27 December 1966, London) is a British theatre director.

Early life

Elliott was born in 1966 in London, the daughter of Michael Elliott, theatre director and co-founder of the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester, and actress Rosalind Knight. Her maternal grandfather was the actor Esmond Knight. The family moved to Manchester when she was eight years old and attended St Hilary's School, Alderley Edge, Didsbury Road Junior School in Heaton Moor and later Stockport Grammar School.

She has said she "hated" the theatrical professions as a child "and used to ask [her parents] not to talk shop".^[1] Despite this early ambivalence, she studied drama at Hull University.^[2]

Career

After leaving university Elliott was, initially, determined not to go into the theatre and had a number of different jobs including casting director and drama secretary at Granada Television. In 1995 she began to work at the Royal Exchange and was appointed artistic director in 1998. In 2002 she left the company and became associate artistic director at the Royal Court and in 2006 joined the National Theatre. In 2011 she won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for the Broadway production of War Horse, along with co-director Tom Morris.^[3] In 2015, she won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for a second time, winning for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which also won Best Play and Best Actor for Alex Sharp. In 2016 Elliott teamed up with theatre producer Chris Harper to set up an exciting new theatre company, Elliott Harper Productions.

Selected theatre productions

Her productions include^[4][5]

• I Have Been Here Before by J B Priestley at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with David Horovitch and George Costigan (1996)
• Poor Super Man by Brad Fraser. British premiere at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (MEN Award) with Sam Graham (MEN Award) and Luke Williams (MEN Award) (1997)^[6]
• The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Susan Wooldridge and David Fielder (1997)
• Martin Yesterday by Brad Fraser. European premiere at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Ian Gelder and Ben Daniels (1999)
• Nude With Violin by Noël Coward at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Derek Griffiths, John Bennett and Rosalind Knight (1999)
• A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Gaye Brown (2000)
• As You Like It at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Claire Price, Tristan Sturrock, Jonathan Slinger, Fenella Woolgar and Peter Guinness (2000)
• Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry. Directed by Greg Hersov and Marianne Elliott with Paterson Joseph (2001)
• The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman at the Donmar Warehouse with Penelope Wilton, David Calder, Peter Guinness and Matthew Marsh (2001)
• Design for Living by Noël Coward at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Victoria Scarborough, Ken Bones and Oliver Milburn (2002)
• Port by Simon Stephens (Pearson Award). World premiere at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Emma Lowndes (MEN Award) and Andrew Sheridan (2002)
• Pillars of the Community by Henrik Ibsen (Evening Standard Award for Best Director) at the National Theatre with Damian Lewis, Lesley Manville and Joseph Millson (2005)
• Therese Raquin adapted by Nicholas Wright at the National Theatre with Charlotte Emerson, Ben Daniels, Patrick Kennedy and Judy Parfitt (2006)
• Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw at the National Theatre with Anne-Marie Duff (Evening Standard Award), Angus Wright, Michael Thomas and Paterson Joseph (2007)
• War Horse adapted by Nick Stafford (co-directed with Tom Morris) at the National Theatre with Angus Wright with Bronagh Gallagher, Patrick O'Kane and Alan Williams (2007)
• Harper Regan by Simon Stephens at the National Theatre with Lesley Sharp and Michael Mears (2008)
• Mrs Affleck by Samuel Adamson at the National Theatre with Claire Skinner and Angus Wright (2009)
• All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare at the National Theatre with Michelle Terry, Clare Higgins, Oliver Ford Davies, Conleth Hill and George Rainsford (2009)
• Women Beware Women by Thomas Middleton at the National Theatre with Harriet Walter and Raymond Coulthard (2009)
• Season's Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn at the National Theatre with Oliver Chris, Mark Gatiss, Catherine Tate and David Troughton (2010)
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the National Theatre (2012) with Luke Treadaway, Nicola Walker and Niamh Cusack and which won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.
• The Light Princess (Musical) by George MacDonald adaptation by Samuel Adamson and lyrics and music by Tori Amos at the National Theatre (2013)
• Husbands & Sons by D. H. Lawrence. A co-production between the National Theatre and the Royal Exchange with Anne-Marie Duff, Joe Armstrong and Lloyd Hutchinson (2015)

Personal life

Elliott married the actor Nick Sidi in 2002; they have one daughter.

Bibliography

• Murray, Braham (2007). The Worst It Can Be Is a Disaster. London, UK: Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-0-7136-8490-2. 

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marianne Elliott (director).

• Marianne Elliott at the Internet Broadway Database