My Gurus

Julius J Lipner
I have a BA in theology and a love of India, mainly due to Julius, who is Professor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion in the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University. In 1991 he asked me gently if I might rather visit India to research temple dance and theatre than spend the summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A few weeks later I arrived in India, followed the trail he set down for me and began a lifelong fascination with the playful spirituality, struggles and inspiration of the country. I have worked in India several times and a connection with the storytelling and innate theatricality of life and art in India runs through all my work in theatre.

Irina Brown
I was a student acting in an epic production of Peer Gynt, directed by Irina, theatre and opera director. She spotted my eager interest in the bigger picture and asked me to assist her on a professional production. I worked as her assistant director and movement director on a number of shows, from large musicals to fringe new writing; she taught me about meticulous attention to detail, the rigour and precision needed in every part of researching, developing and leading a process, and she imbued in me the hard work ethic and conviction to become a director.

John Wright
John, a teacher and director, saw one of the first productions I ever directed and told me that if I wanted to create rough theatre he had some suggestions as to how I might go about it. I participated in his archetypal mask workshops, avidly read Peter Brook and imagined taking rough shows on tour and turning the ordinary into something extraordinary. I then embarked on a career of making all kinds of theatre from musicals to new writing to opera to devised storytelling shows, and a decade on I became Artistic Director of Trestle, a Company originally inspired by John and the place where all my experience can be channelled into the creation of rough, devised, travelling, storytelling, physical theatre.

Andrei Serban
I spent a very short time working with this creative giant on an opera revival in Scotland and learnt valuable approaches to directing from him. He made every person involved in the production recognise and feel their worth, and maintained humility whilst earning deep respect from his company. The sum of the parts will always be greater than the individuals involved and a director always needs to keep this in focus. This ethos of providing a safe space for creative collaboration has stayed with me throughout my career.

Ali Smith
Ali is perhaps the bravest artist I know: she has such integrity and asks for rigour and truth from her work and her collaborators. She is also incredibly funny. We met in the first ever all women Cambridge Footlights team – she was writing, I was performing in Daughters of England – and we have been friends ever since. Her work digs deep into the contemporary psyche whilst twisting humour out of the unexpected. Ali and I are working on a new project inspired by a shared quest to develop new theatre forms.