Claire Eliza Willoughby is a theatre maker, musician and performer based in Glasgow. Claire was a member of the National Youth Theatre before training in clown with Angela de Castro and at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris. She is particularly driven to create work that is playful and dark, visually stimulating and focused on the genuine live-ness of performance.
Recently work as a maker / performer include Whirlygig (Catherine Wheels/Red Bridge Arts), PLUTUS (Rob Jones), Lost In Music (Magnetic North), Puffin (Snap-Elastic), Assisted Suicide the Musical (Liz Carr), Shake(speare) It Off (RSC) and Sink or Swim (Giddy Aunt). Claire is currently developing Shrill with Amy Conway, and Eat Me with Snap-Elastic – an artistic collective formed by Claire, Eszter Marsalko and Alice Mary Cooper. Eat Me has been developed through a Tron Lab, and with Nordland Visual Theatre. Last year Claire was awarded a Starter residency with NTS to explore her new show, My Heart Is A Hospital – a cabaret for young audiences about illness, wellness, and the concept of “better”. She is intending to develop this as a long form project over the next few years, working in hospitals with young people as well as in the rehearsal room.
As a director, Claire has assisted Muriel Romanes, Catrin Evans, Graham Hicks and directed the award-winning Greater Belfast by Little King, which ran at The Traverse during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and Celtic Connections 2018.