I graduated in 1996 as a theatre director, and started working as an assistant director. I worked on a few operas and directed a few semi professional operettas and an opera – all before I turned 23. During my work as an assistant director I started noticing the stage managers. And I felt like their job seemed like more fun than mine. So on the next production I moved seats and ventured into what would be a very different world, where I suddenly became involved in a much more hands on way in every aspect of a theatre production.
Still, as a very young theatre professional, jobs were few and far between, and when I was offered a job as a theatre journalist and reviewer at the age of 25, I accepted. I was guided by a brilliant editor into fine tuning my writing skills and set off to every premiere in the country and interviewed a variety of theatre professionals.
After two years of seeing an average of 4 shows a week, I grew into a frustrated young woman who felt there was far too much bad theatre around and packed up and left. To London. The plan was to take any old job, make money until there was enough for some exotic travel, take off to discover the world, come back when the money ran out, and repeat.
The plan worked well for about 3 months before i rolled back into theatre without having travelled further than another borough in London, and a college in Oxford.