Gregory Nash

Ian Brown
In TAG Theatre Company’s rehearsal room in 1988 I was movement director in charge, as Ian and his actors wrestled with the escape down the Thames in ‘Great Expectations’. Close to opening night and a nervous breakdown, I was dispatched. I returned next day to find the problem eloquently resolved with a sailcloth, a bowl of water and the creaky lid of a wicker basket. Less is more indeed. When Ian went on to run the Traverse, he was sometimes to be found sweeping the courtyard, and now, as chief executive of West Yorkshire Playhouse, he runs a tight but buoyant ship and enjoys the enduring admiration of actors and staff alike. Since joining The Point in 2005 I have consistently asked myself – and him – what straightforward solution would Ian have for this?
Val Bourne CBE
As director of Dance Umbrella, Val gallantly presented my earliest choreographic efforts and in 1996 invited me to be producer with her on Percussive Feet at the Cochrane Theatre. It was in this season that young Akram Khan got his first London gig and now, twelve years on, he will open our new ‘phase3’ space at The Point in November. As Val’s programme manager I learned to differentiate between personal taste and good programming and how to be loyal to the artists you work with – even during their less sparkling periods. In (supposed) retirement, Val remains a wellspring of action-learning and an inspiration.

Trisha Brown
First encountered at Riverside Studios in 1983 in her ‘Set and Reset’ (a staggeringly beautiful work that transformed the way I understood dance), I was lucky to get to know Trisha a little (mostly through Val), and in 1990 I studied with her in New York. She is an intelligent dancing body and big brain all in one: few choreographers possess her lingual dexterity, physical imagination and visual sense, and I love that at 73 she is still gorgeous and firing on all cylinders. 
Niamh Dowling
Energy source, connector of people (to themselves, to others, to ideas) and visionary Head of the School of Theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University, Niamh is the centre of an enviable network of individuals who do things (well). She is spookily intuitive and yet has the simplest of approaches to making things happen. For me, she is the epitome of good leadership: all listening, all action, no bluff and the minimum of supporting paperwork.
Mark Downie
Mark is Executive Producer at Maverick TV, and has won awards for his popular, insightful programmes for Channel 4. He knows everything I need to know about music, style and popular culture. He is worldly, well-read and wise beyond his years. Because he’s involved in media he provides a kind of mirror to what I do, and poses really useful questions about it. Because of him I haven’t needed to own a television in a decade.