1 Growing up in Perthshire I GREW up in the Perthshire countryside before we moved into Perth itself. My grandparents lived in north Perthshire, just outside Aberfeldy. I spent a lot of time up there, in and out of water, that kind of thing. I’ve lived in Glasgow since I was 18, but, over the last 10 years or so, I’ve felt this pull back to Perthshire. I don’t know if it’s the countryside, or the freedom, or the air. I consider myself really lucky that I was brought up there.
2 Being from Scotland I DO think there’s a kind of buzz about coming from Scotland, having a Scottish identity and coming from a rural area. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but, when you meet people from elsewhere or you travel to other countries, there’s a pride in saying “I’m from Scotland”. There’s a pride for our cultural landscape and our political landscape.
3 Performing as a child I THINK the imaginative sense of play I had as a child is probably the main reason I became an actor. As a child I was always dressing up, playing and telling stories. My brother and I would create little radio shows. When I was 10 years old I had a teacher who was also a casting director. I got one of the commercials she was casting, it was for toothpaste. That was the start of seeing the other side of what you see on the telly, the cameras and the boom and all that. I was fascinated by the mechanics and the mystery of it all.
4 Moving to Glasgow WHEN I was 18, I moved to Glasgow to go to Langside College. I got a job working front-of-house at the Citz (the Citizens Theatre). That was where I met my friends (theatre designer) Kenny Miller and (writer, director and actor) Johnny McKnight. Johnny and I worked front-of-house together. He was at the RSAMD (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and I was at Langside, but we just hit it off.
5 The Citizens Theatre I SAW plays maybe 10 or 12 times because I was ushering. I was seeing everything, from the maddest studio show that artistic director Philip Prowse was putting on to a big classic on the main stage. I remember artistic director Giles Havergal doing this big speech to all of the ushers at the start of the season. He just made you feel such a part of the team. He made you feel like the ushers were the most important people in the theatre. The history of the place was incredible. The head usher had been there for 30 or 40 years. I still have one of the old seats from the main house.
6 Being inspired by great Citz actresses I SAW so many different actresses on the Citz stage. Because I saw the productions so many times, I saw something different in a performance each time. Anne Marie Timoney was one actress that I was just in awe of. She was just so powerful, and she had red hair (like me).
7 Performing at the Citza I WAS taken on as an actor at the Citz. I was in things like Top Girls (by Caryl Churchill) and this mad studio piece called The Nun (adapted from the novel by Denis Diderot). Performing in plays like that you were pulled in different directions. I didn’t really understand this subversive world I was in. I was 20 or 21. But I went along with it. Later on, I could look back and see that they were working with different styles of theatre. Now, as a director, I can draw on those experiences.
8 Receiving the Dewar Arts Award THE Citz put me forward for the Dewar Arts Award for young practitioners in the arts, named after the late first minister Donald Dewar. They asked me to think about what I would want to use a scholarship for. I always had a bit of an issue about the fact that I had gone to Langside College, rather than the Academy. Sometimes at auditions, people would say: “Langside College? I’ve never heard of it.” There was a kind of snobbery. So, I said I would use a scholarship to do some more training. At that time, the Citz had a collaborative project going on with the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. I applied for their training course and in 2005, I ended up in Chicago for three months. Then I went back for another three months. At one point, I thought I was going to move there. I even applied for a Green Card.
9 Training at the Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago I LEARNED so much about what I do now as an actor when I was in Chicago. The course was run by the members of the Steppenwolf ensemble. So, I was working with actors and directors who were in the dirt, doing the work. It wasn’t a hierarchical set-up, with the teacher teaching you. It changed things for me creatively, learning all these techniques. I made some great friends there, too. At the time, I was the only non-American on the course, and they were so obsessed with Scotland and where I was from. It was quite a special time.
10 Landmark plays in my career DAYS Of Wine And Roses (by Owen McCafferty after JP Miller) at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow in 2011 was a big production for me. It was the first play in which I played a character who was my age; before that, I was always playing younger. It was great to play a role with a bit of bite and maturity. From that, other roles came. And, now, Shirley Valentine (which Pitlochry Festival Theatre is reviving in 2024) is up there as one of the most important plays I’ve done. Again, I’m playing my age and a big, substantial role.
Sally Reid is directing Aganeza Scrooge at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow until January 7: tron.co.uk
