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!'Collection: Women
I'm very much of the opinion that theatre is a collective art form, not just one person's vision.Collection: Art
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.Collection: Travel
I suppose what's so amazing about working at the National Theatre is that, because it's a subsidized theatre, you're not trying to create a product that's going to have a mass market in order to make the money back.Collection: Amazing
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?
I am still very observant. I am absorbed by people and why they do what they do.
I never want to see 'Hamlet' ever again! Never ever!
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.
It would be quite interesting to use Kermit the Frog to act like a real frog. But it wouldn't produce captivating theatre.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When I was a kid, I never spoke. I would sit under a table and not speak to anybody. No words for years.
With everything I do, there always seems to be a massive risk involved.
I felt like that growing up - that I didn't have a voice.
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'm quite unusual in directing terms: I'm a woman. I'm quite a girly girl. I was never academic.
I didn't want to just be remembered for 'War Horse.'
It's difficult to find an actress prepared to play a fading star.
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.
I hope that subsidised theatres continue to be rewarded for the wonder of talent they provide to this industry, on stage and off.
I believe that theater has to be utterly life-changing for the people watching it.
I think theater is so undervalued. I have seen things there that have been far more vivid than things that actually have happened.
I never wanted anything to do with the theatre as a child. I was dragged there under duress.
Directors have this mask of being in control and in charge, but underneath, I'm terrified.
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 always wanted to beat my own path.
I suppose that I'm excited by exciting theater. It takes a risk to show us the world in a new way.
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.
'War Horse' is just an extraordinary being.
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.
Some directors have the gift of the gab, but I don't.
I am quite an insecure person, and I think that, like any director, if I'm asked about my vision for a piece, I feel very vulnerable.
My generation feels it has been lied to a great deal.
I used to love getting older.
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.
I would like to see more female stories out there, particularly older female stories.
It's predominantly a male society, predominately a male culture, predominantly a male theatre, and predominantly male critics, but that's changing, definitely.
I'm always drawn to female stories with female protagonists, and I particularly yearn for more older actresses to take centre stage in 2018.
I hope for continued bravery and risk-taking for all theatremakers in 2018 and beyond.
Often during rehearsals, I catch myself thinking, 'God, this is hard. Why am I always choosing such difficult plays to put on?'
If it is just another run-of-the-mill show, then what is the point?
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.
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.
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.