Oh, so many.  I have been very lucky to work with a lot of wonderful people.  Right back to my very first jobs at the Glasgow’s Citizens theatre, where Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert Macdonald had an enormous influence on me; they broadened my vision when it comes to thinking about theatre.  They had a very strict regime, that when you followed it you would fly on top of it, and it was a wonderful, wonderful experience.  They were great directors and I adored them.  It was the most fantastic place to have a first job, I went for 3 months, and stayed for three years.  I was lucky.  It was a glorious time at the Citizens theatre. 

I then moved to the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the next director I worked with was Trevor Nunn, who was a powerful influence on me as well, as was Terry Hands.  One of the directors that has most influenced me, was John Dexter, who is now dead.  He was wonderful because he was handing over information from another generation and that was thrilling and exciting.

Of course in modern terms, Nikolai Foster (director of Amadeus) has had a great influence on me.  He is a very exciting young director who has got a most extraordinary vision.

The crucial thing about the Crucible stage is that it has the ability to be both epic and personal, and that is one of the very special qualities about it. 

I don’t think you prepare in any special ways to perform in a space, the preparation happens within the rehearsal room, with choreography from the director for that space; then suddenly the diagonals that you need for the thrust space, just become part of your body language and the director guides you in that.

In the case of Amadeus, the play is a fiction, there is little or no resemblance to reality.  Salieri did exist, but there is very little we know about him, because most of his work was destroyed.  However he was a very great composer, we do know that.  But the whole Mozart/Salieri rivalry is probably fiction.  Salieri taught Mozart, and then taught Mozart’s brother after Mozart died.   So the play is fiction, and you just take what’s on the plate and work with that.  It’s confectionary, you eat it.  

Salieri is the host for the evening, for the events on stage, he takes the audience through the play.  As well as being a character, Salieri is the narrator; he keeps you up to date with what is going on, and introduces events and actions.

In the terms of the play, Salieri calls the audience ’the ghosts of people to come, the ghosts of the future’.  In the story of the play, the audience are the people from the future that Salieri wants to tell how he has destroyed a man in his battle with God.  More importantly within the play, because Salieri has not been forgiven, he has not been given redemption, he has not received salvation or forgiveness from Mozart, and therefore the audience are the only people that can possibly redeem him.  That is in the bigger structure of the play, in the actual practical playing terms they are just the audience.

At school I studied Music, English Literature (which was brilliantly taught so it was like Arts work) and a bit of Drama.

At the moment a typical day consists of getting up at about 6, to try and learn some more lines, this play is a hard learn.  I then come into the theatre and start work at 9.30, and work through to 8.30.  Then I go home, have something to eat, then I learn some more lines.  It’s not really learning lines.  It’s studying.  So I then study, until I can’t keep my eyes open, and go to bed at about 1.00 a.m.  That’s about it.   

I hope it has changed, If I have developed I don’t know how.  I just hope I have got a wee bit more skilled.