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Karen
Simpson - Director
| How
did you become a director? |
| I first directed at college when I was studying Drama and
really enjoyed it. However, I didn’t have the experience
or confidence to think of myself as a Director. I then taught
drama in a secondary school and directed young people in performances.
Still I didn’t feel that I would be experienced enough
to direct adults! I ended up acting for a while before working
as a Stage Manager. It was actually whilst I was a stage manager
that I first really felt the need to direct. I was lucky enough
to work with some fantastic directors who were really supportive
of me and they gave me the confidence to try it. I then got
some of my actor friends together and directed my first professional
play which thankfully was really successful. |
| What
does a director do? |
| I think a director tries to ensure that everyone working on
the production does their very best and use their skills and
abilities to make the best piece of theatre possible. Practically,
a director’s job is to structure the rehearsals for the
actors and work with the production team to ensure that all
elements of the production work together. A Director is a leader.
However there are lots of types of leaders and I think there
are lots of different types of Director. It depends on your
personality and how you like to work. Also each cast of actors
is different and it is a matter of creating the right chemistry
in the rehearsal room for each individual to be able to express
themselves. It’s also about making the final decisions! |
| What
is the best part of your job? |
| That’s a really hard question. I love the whole process
of creating a new production. I think the worst part is when
the production is in performance and you can’t change
things. |
| Why
did you decide to commission Handful of Henna? |
I wanted to create a new play based on the lives of some Muslim
women I had worked with. They thought that no one would be interested
in their stories of growing up and I wanted to prove them wrong.
I think women often undervalue their lives and we don’t
see nearly enough theatre that places our experiences on stage.
I also wanted to help to challenge stereotypes of Muslim women
and try to create a greater understanding of the things we share.
It was really important that real stories formed the basis of
the play and that we were able to celebrate the experiences
of people now living in our city. |
| What
is Handful of Henna about? |
| It’s about learning to see one another as real people
not just mother, daughter, asian, white, man, woman etc. It’s
about good and bad experiences and how these can affect the
person we become. It’s about a holiday and new experiences.
I’m always more interested in what the audience thinks
a play is about. I think the fantastic thing about a play is
that the audience see different things depending on who they
are. |
| Who
is your favourite character? |
| That’s easy – Auntie Munah. We all have aunties
that have huge characters and seem to get away with saying anything! |
| What
is your favourite moment and why? |
| I love it when Saheeda and Nasreen make wishes on the stars.
I think it is a wonderful moment because it shows the mother
and daughter sharing their thoughts and feelings. |
| What
is the most difficult moment in the play to direct? |
The tour for schools will be much smaller scale than the production
at the Crucible Theatre. I think it may be the ending because
it is a celebration and I will only have four actresses to pull
it off. Directing the production for a school tour means that
I have to consider always that whatever we do will need to be
possible in a space without raked seating, in daylight, it will
all need to fit into a van, the actors will need to work hard
setting everything up each day, we will not be able to fix anything
to the school floor or fly things in from above. It means that
the sound becomes very important. We all know how important
music is to a film, well without stage lighting the sound becomes
critical in supporting the atmosphere and emotional journey
of the production. |
| Do
any of the characters remind you of anyone you know? |
| Yes! Saheeda and Nasreen remind me of me and my daughter!
She also thinks that I have never been young and I often forget
that my daughter has her own life. |
| Can
you describe an object that has significance for you? |
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I really don’t keep things. I like to
throw things away when I have stopped using them. However
I still have a medal I won when I was twelve years old. It
was for high jump and I had to stand on a podium like they
have in the big athletics competitions. I remember being presented
the medal by Lady Leverhulme and how proud I felt. I also
remember closing my eyes and feeling that my grandfather was
watching me. He had died a month earlier and had loved sport
of all kinds.
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| If
you were putting together an heirloom box, what would you put
in it and why? |
| If I put together an heirloom box, I don’t think there
would be anything worth any money! It would have photos in.
My mum tried to throw away photos of herself as a young girl
and I rescued them from the bin. My medal. I have my old school
reports. My Grandmother’s wedding ring. Two elephant statues
brought back from China for my grandmother in the 1930’s!
I haven’t got much else left. |
| If
you were to write a recipe for yourself what would be in it? |
Karen
A very big mixing bowl
Lots of different ingredients that need using up from the cupboards
A broken weighing machine
5 Cups of determination
5 Cups of ideas
1 cup of playfulness
1 pinch of discipline
Method
Put all the ingredients into the bowl. Keep stirring carefully
until you like what you see. Then share with as many people
as possible. |
| Can
you describe an event from your childhood that is significant
to you today? |
| Failing my 11+ exam. It was devastating at the time. I cried
for nearly 3 days. The terrible feeling of failure I had, and
as a consequence, the importance placed on exams since, has
stayed with me throughout my life. I still hate vehemently any
selection procedures based on exams or tests. On the plus side,
it has made me a very driven person and I want to succeed. I
did end up passing my 12+ exam but the year I had in Secondary
modern school made me appreciate every chance I was given and
value people for who they are not what they are. |
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