My Gurus

OLA ANIMASHAWUN

Ola was my first boss after university, on the Young Writer’s Programme at the Royal Court. He is a truly inspirational person who has worked in the sector for years but still maintains his great energy, humour and commitment to developing great plays, many by unheard or underrepresented voices. And he can always make me laugh. My time working with him gave me the opportunity to read hundreds of plays, which enabled me to develop a robust language of criticism, an innate sense of how plays work and what ‘quality’ means.

SALLY MACKEY

I trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama when Sally was course leader. The Drama Education course (now Drama, Applied Theatre and Education) was a perfect fit, as I could experiment with intellectual concepts as well as practical application of theatre theory. Sally’s team, including Steve Farrier and Bruce Wooding, gave me the freedom to investigate what interested me. Sally is also interested in making and talking about outdoor work, something which I’m also hugely engaged with. My time at Central also informs my work on Dorset’s Inside Out Festival.

SIMON STEPHENS

Simon is an incredibly beautiful playwright – one of the very best of his generation. I worked with him on a project for the Royal Court at Grendon prison. It was a life-changing experience, which proved to me the power and transformative effects of theatre. On the fairly lengthy train journey to Aylesbury we would have deep, meaningful, interrogative conversations about the nature of morality, art and plays which have remained pertinent for the whole of my working life.

NIKI MCCRETTON

I work with lots of brilliant artists who are based in Dorset. I adore Niki (and her partner Marc who runs Stuff and Nonsense Theatre) especially, because they make work I love taking my own children to see. Niki has a great energy, a deep commitment to making work with integrity for and with young people, and she acts as an amazing advocate for artists. She and Marc have also just bought the Lyric Theatre in Bridport which is a theatre-makers’ playground. People like Niki remind me – when I’m missing the bright lights of London – that Dorset is a truly beautiful and inspirational place to make work.

SIMON CASSON

Simon won’t know me, but he produces Duckie, “a post-gay independent arts outfit”. Duckie is hard to describe: it is energetic, experimental, intellectual, stupid, queer and just plain beautiful. I started going to the Vauxhall Tavern club nights and events when I was in my late teens and Duckie helped form my perception of what performance can be – accessible, funny, communal, popular, clever, silly and a jolly good knees-up to boot. Many of the best nights of my life have been produced and curated by Mr Casson.