Who We Are.

Eszter Marsalko

I work as a dramaturg and director, but really, I am a bit of a shape-shifter and enjoy adapting to the project and the people I'm working with. I enjoy thinking about form and concept while I also like to be simple and specific and direct.

I love theatre when it's artistically complicated. I love conflicting thoughts, strong emotions, music, movement, unusual scenic languages, powerful visuals, contrasts in scale, the illusion of time expanding, magic, variety, provocations, snow, glitter, haze, the big theatrics.

Theatre should feel like a celebration, as special as a wedding day or a wake or a 6th birthday. Theatre is meant to be a celebration of life – the lows and the highs - the day-to-day slog, the companionship, the anxiety, the spiritual depths, moments of beauty, the excitement and anticipation.

Theatre for me is about working together and making something no one of us could have made on our own. About creating something that would make no sense without our audience and which only exists in that limited time we all share together. Theatre represents a belief in values such as community, beauty, humour, courage, non-conformism, complexity, responsibility, silliness, vulnerability – values I feel are often underrated in our current day society.

Theatre gives me a reason to live and plan and hope and try to do better. I'm very lucky to have found a work family in Isy and Claire who inspire me through their kind, brave, playful, resilient, creative selves.

To find out more about Eszter’s practice, check out her website: www.esztermarsalko.com

Isy Sharman

I spent a long time trying to decide which thing I should be - performer, producer, writer... and it’s not until recently that I realised I don’t actually have to choose. Working in a collective like Snap-Elastic means getting to lead on, or be involved with, so many different projects in all sorts of ways. Which is so great for someone like me who never liked to pick just one thing to enjoy.

I love the challenge of putting all the puzzle pieces together to allow someone else to bring their art to life. I’m so inspired by the fantastic artists I get to work with every day and the ideas that emerge every once in a while that we can pore and delight over. I’m lucky enough to work with some of my best friends, and to have met the most inspiring, weird, exciting people through the art we’ve made.

It’s the design of a production that gets me itchy to create my own work. A fantastic performance will make me weep and cheer, a great story will stay with me forever, but it’s the set and the lighting and the sound design which will have me walking out of a venue desperate to make something myself. I’m a very visual person, and very responsive, so being immersed in a world in that way really lights a fire under my skin.

Quorn Picnic Eggs are the perfect rehearsal snack - one that featured strongly in the Eat Me rehearsal room - and there’s nothing quite like the ritual of the mornings when you’re working on a project. Lights on. Kettle boiling. Stretches and new music. If the window’s open all the better! I’d start my morning like that every day if I could - shaking off the cobwebs as the frost melts in the car park.

Claire Eliza Willoughby

I love playing and fooling around - trying different ideas, failing, trying and failing again. Seeing if there may be a tiny gemstone at the very centre surrounded by mud and slime - just stuff we have to work through and trim down and wash off.

When I get excited I have to stand up and pace around the rehearsal room - I find it really hard to articulate my ideas if I am sitting, as they are often very visual and spatial.

I am constantly intrigued in the alternating ways we can layer different mediums in theatre over one another – a bit like a canvas on stage with different colours and paint brushes and textures of paint. And then scrape it back and reveal the canvas underneath.

A typical start to the day is Eszter getting very competitive at four-square, and Isy putting the kettle on and picking a tune. We like to play keepie - uppie and I think our record is 104. I am normally happy to go along with most things, but I don’t feel I can come alive until I’ve had a a proper dance in the morning. Preferably to something that rattles my bones and makes me want to set things on fire, like 4 Degrees by Anohni.

To find out more about Claire’s practice, check out her website: www.clairewillo.com