"Whether you are a writer, or an actor, or a stage manager, you are trying to express the complications of life through a shared enterprise. That's what theatre was, always. And live performance shares that with an audience in a specific compact: the play is unfinished unless it has an audience, and they are as important as everyone else."

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Source: Songs for a Sunderland sex-farce. Interview with Charlotte Higgin, www.theguardian.com. September 16, 2008.

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Lee Hall

Playwright

Lee Hall is a British playwright known for his poignant exploration of identity and freedom, particularly in the hit musical 'Billy Elliot'.

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"I always call Billy Elliot a fantasy autobiography because I never wanted to be a dancer, but I got a lot of stick from the other kids about wanting to be a writer and being interested in drama."

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"In a way, 'Billy Elliot' was autobiographical. I can't dance, but I think his dancing was me discovering about writing and literature."

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"From kings to groundlings, Shakespeare made his work profound for everybody. That is how it should be. There is no hierarchy in theatre. It makes everyone part of a collective."

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