I work as Shadwell's Artistic Director, and also as a freelance stage director. For Shadwell I have three main jobs. First, I act as the company's CEO, which means that I'm responsible to the Board of Trustees for the activities of the charity. Second, I work with Finn to articulate and spearhead a creative vision for the company. Third, I spend a lot of time doing the little jobs that need to get done to keep the ship moving!

My work as a stage director involves building creative teams, usually a set & costume designer, lighting designer, choreographer, and then working with this team to conceptualise every aspect of a production. I then work with the actors to put this vision into effect in the rehearsal room.

When I was young my parents took me to see Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi at St David's Hall in Cardiff. It was an amazingly virtuosic concert. As an encore he played Purple Haze by Jimmi Hendrix on an electric violin. He came out into the audience and stood in the aisle right above me, sawing away. It blew my little mind right out of its socket. That has stayed with me as a model for communication ever since.

We have an amazingly talented group of players and singers who I try to help steer in a certain direction for each project. There is a lot of organising that goes on, both in planning and in a rehearsals - often the music we perform is really rhythmically and harmonically demanding. Then it’s all about letting loose in the shows.

The first show I remember thinking was unbelievably good was Guys and Dolls at the NT when I was 7. Then I remember being obsessed with the music we played in my youth orchestra, LSSO - Bartok, Nielsen, Prokofiev, Mahler. But even now I think every time I get obsessed with a piece it shapes me, and the obsessions are no less intense.