About Eleanor Webster
I am a recent graduate of the BA Drama programme at the University of Exeter. My artistic practice covers a variety of mediums: I write, act in and direct new theatre; I am curating my own devising process; I act in radio, television and voiceover. I am also a teaching artist and interested in social practice in performance. I am a poet, playwright, and occasional photographer.
I was, once, a pretty quiet kid. Being vertically challenged, naturally introspective and pretty smart were a combination that left my mother worried that I'd have everything to say and no way to say it. So she sent me to stage school, which is where my love of acting was born, and I quickly became renowned as a chatterbox.
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I've always been insatiable: I don't have a bucket list because I want to do all the things, all the time. When I realised there were creative outlets that would let me live a thousand lifetimes (albeit only in my head), I realised this was the only thing I could spend the rest of my life doing. Although I have been writing stories since I could hold a pen, and creating lavish productions with all my stuffed animals for just as long, it only recently occurred to me that I could have my cake and eat it. I didn't have to choose between acting, directing and writing; I didn't have to be restricted to roles that other people chose for me. I could write my own stories.
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One of the driving forces in my life has been a desire to help people. My relationships with people are, ultimately, my greatest passion. My father's life motto is very simple, but I try to live by it: 'Be Kind'. This was a conundrum for teenage me, because acting felt rather self-indulgent and perhaps not as humanitarian as I'd wished. Fast forward to university, and I learned about social practice in art and performance: using art to help people. This was exactly what I'd been looking for.
That's left me where I am today. A very small woman with a very big voice, A home-body who's travelled 10,000 miles away from home. A theatre maker with too many ideas jammed into one skull. A logophile who's into too-long sentences. I'm not the best at getting out of bed in the morning, but I make a mean cup of tea, and pretty good theatre too. Will you join me?