For years I've said it as self deprecating a joke — I have enormous passion for the work, I have no ambition — and people laughed, and I laughed with them. I then recently I heard a colleague who I respect very much say something similar - so I decided to find out if it was actually true in myself. What follows is my answer.

The question of whether to train formally or to develop independently has followed the acting profession for as long as there have been drama schools to attend or avoid. Both paths have produced remarkable artists. Both have produced mediocre ones. The honest answer is that neither is inherently superior — and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you something.

30 Minute Warm-Up “We do not rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.” Anon Opening Reflection I always loved warm-ups as an actor, and now as a director, I love even more watching actors get ready for their day’s work or a performance. There’s something about that quiet, focused time before rehearsal begins—the way bodies wake up, voices open, and minds settle into the work. The actor ‘arrives into the working space’. It is a wonderful rit

Emerging actors and directors spend years preparing—training, assisting, observing, refining technique—mostly in controlled environments. Scene studies feel rigorous, workshops productive, conversations intelligent. Yet eventually, preparation reaches its limits. Skill without consequence is theory without reality.

"Discipline builds the playpen. Freedom happens inside it.”When I train actors, I ask them to liken the studio — and, more importantly, the discipline of our work — to a toddler’s playpen. The walls protect the child from immediate danger, but inside that contained space, the child is completely free.

Design Is Interpretive Before I trained as an actor, I studied set design for two years. I never intended to become a designer. That period permanently rewired how I understand theatre. I learned to read space as text, material as meaning, structure as pressure. The set was not background. It behaved like another character: sometimes resistant, sometimes generous, never indifferent. That sensibility bled into how I think about every design element. Set, lighting, costume, sou