"The only reason not to like your job is if you are not learning anything"

Hometown
Originally, London. Now, Leeds

What do you do?
Director of creative technology at West Yorkshire Playhouse

I also work as a freelance sound and video designer

How long have you been at it?
Thirty years in theatre: 17 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and as a video designer for eight

What was your very first role in theatre?
Sound engineer, Night Out Theatre Restaurant, Birmingham (now closed down)

What have you done in theatre?
Jobs I’ve had include head of sound at The Lyric and the Royal Court, a sound technician for Ballet Rambert and associate director (sound) at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Freelance, I’ve worked as a sound designer recently on The Mollusc at Liverpool Playhouse, Alice in Wonderland at Birmingham Rep and Savages, National Youth Theatre, Royal Court.

I was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Sound Design for The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre in 2007.

Have you got qualifications?
Diploma in stage management (technical and design) from Mountview Theatre School

What did you want to be when you grew up?
A record producer

What do you do all day?
I imagine things and use technology to share these ideas with audiences. I have an unusual job title because it’s a role I created for myself, combining sound and video design, which are usually different jobs.

Most people do either sound or video, but I do both because I had been a sound designer for 25 years, and then learned about video when the West Yorkshire Playhouse was increasingly getting into video.

For some shows I do both sound and video together, in others I just do one or the other. Video design involves creating video projections for shows, either as a backdrop, or as an integral part of the performance.

I work full-time at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, but I have a contract which allows me to do freelance work as well, which is usually either sound or video design.

What’s the best about your job?
Imagining things and using technology to share these ideas with audiences

And the worst?
The curse of infinite possibility. With current technology anything is possible but finding the means of creating something exceptional is made more difficult.

What’s your dream job in theatre?
This one. It’s taken over 30 years to create.

Got any wise words for someone who wants to be where you are now?
Just concentrate on using every opportunity to be creative. Don’t wait to be trained, find out how to do things and put them into practice as much as possible. The only reason not to like your job is if you are not learning anything. This is the only criteria you should use when selecting jobs in the first five years of your career. Be brave, be exceptional, leave whinging and theatre politics to the deadbeats.