About Us

Photo by Audrey Bizourne

Snap-Elastic is an artist-led performance company based in Scotland. We make bold theatre, live art, cabaret, video and music.

The three core artists work collectively to imagine and produce art that disrupts convention and celebrates life. We collaborate with exceptional artists and technicians to make Gesamtkunstwerk - a total work of art where all elements come together to create beauty.

We’re inspired by operatic scores and reality TV; kinetic sculpture and video games; risk, classics, sensory saturation, failure and club culture.

We believe art is about feeling and that’s why it’s for everyone.

Care, awareness, sustainability and learning are important to us, and we are actively working to counteract patriarchy, hierarchy and inequality.

We are friends.

Our Vision, Mission and Values

  • That genre-defying, radical and multidisciplinary art is made, easily accessed and enjoyed by mainstream and marginalised audiences across Scotland.

  • To create an art that transcends boundaries between different forms, disciplines and hierarchical structures. A Gesamtkunstwerk, where the live space we share with the audience is our canvas.

  • Artistic Expression

    We draw inspiration from diverse art forms such as cabaret, film, club culture, opera, literature, and sculpture, and our aim is to create Gesamtkunstwerk - a ‘total work of art’, which combines multiple mediums or experiences into one singular whole.

    Engagement

    We work in many different settings, and believe that art should be brought to the doorstep of those it is intended for, sparking curiosity and igniting imagination.

    Collaboration

    We collaborate with people from across the sector, as well as those outside of it, challenge and re-imagining our viewpoints, working practices and expectations.

    Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity 

    We use our work to promote an equitable society that is built on inclusion, generosity and care.

Who We Are

Claire Eliza Willoughby

Co-Artistic Director

“I am excited by colour, texture, sound and bodies in space. Having originally studied music and then clown, I enjoy the friction created between traditional art forms and the opportunity to undermine them / fail / leave elements to chance.

The fellowship with Oily Cart and Imaginate has led to a new passion for interrogating the different ways in which we can approach live performance, collective gatherings and intimate experiences that build from access as the key artistic seed - creating saturated and lush spaces that speak to individual needs, a collective longing and a celebration of what it is to be human.”

Claire is a multidisciplinary artist based in Glasgow. She was recently a Jerwood Fellow with Oily Cart and Imaginate - a period of funded research to explore making sensory work for young audiences with additional support needs.

Eszter Marsalko

Co-Artistic Director

“I’m interested in collaborative, multi-disciplinary ways of working and experimenting with form. I often make things that take on a form of their own  – environments that feel novel, adventurous and immersive - not really like anything else. I find that this is a good way to help people respond in a way that is new to them as well, enhancing the liveness of the moment and allowing for experiences of rapture, transcendence and connection.

The through line across my work is my love of experimentation and a passion for finding and creating connections between ideas, forms, things, animals, people, places and times.

Eszter is an artist working in live performance, film and video. She primarily directs, writes, choreographs and works as a dramaturg across a wide range of genres, including theatre, opera, dance, puppetry, circus, film and site-specific performance.

Isy Sharman

Producer

Isy is a theatre and dance producer based in Glasgow. Alongside her work with Snap-Elastic she produces for a number of independent artists and small organisations.

“I have a commitment to supporting ambitious artists to make rigorous, socially responsive and theatrically exciting work. I love that the projects I produce, wether for young or adult audiences, always engage with the the essence of live performance, and all the magic that comes with it.

My recent productions have also been in dialogue with the international community, and I’ve enjoyed opportunites to travel within the UK and further abroad to develop an understanding of where Scottish work sits within the international performance sector.”

Photos by Audrey Bizourne