Going west

What exactly is Theatre Studio West? How and why did you come to set it up?
Theatre Studio West is a community youth group. I set it up because I was asked to direct for a local group on a one-off project. Over 110 young people turned up for the auditions and they didn't want it to end and I realised I didn't want it to end either.

Are the members of TSW full-time pros or enthusiastic amateurs?
They are just local young people who are interested in performing, some of them want to be actors, singers or dancers. Some of them just wanted more to do on a Saturday than hang around on the streets.

TSW are going to be performing your production of Romeo and Juliet at the Drama Centre in Malta this month. How did this visit to Malta come about?
A friend suggested that I write to Frank Camilleri at the University of Malta. He forwarded my details to Mario Azzopardi at The Drama Centre. Once we'd exchanged ideas Mario stepped into action to arrange this. He's been fantastic. Am I allowed to say that?

Romeo and Juliet can be, in many ways, a bit of a cliché when it comes to fitting plays to youthful companies. What do you think TSW bring to the piece that is fresh and new?
We've stayed faithful to Shakespeare's story but translated it into modern English, although we have gone to great pains to keep the modern language in Shakespeare's verse (iambic pentameters). We have a very multi-cultural cast, for instance - a Jamaican Nurse, with Indonesian fight/dance sequences. Music also plays an important part, but I think the most important thing is that we have just tried to tell the story with honest simplicity.

Let's learn a little more about you. Where were you born, grow-up, get your education... etc...?
I was born in England and raised in West London. From a Jamaican, Irish, Chinese, extremely catholic... one parent family. (I know it sounds mad) I don't like to sound clichéd, but we had a hard upbringing with mum working at four jobs, just doing the best she could for the four of us.

I was quite academic and political so everyone assumed I was going to be a defence lawyer or go into politics.

No-one in my family had ever performed before, but I think Caribbean culture and family life is very theatrical - at some point it was bound to come out. I started reading Shakespeare at seven and secretly made up my mind that someday, somehow I would perform it. When I found the courage to tell people that I wanted to act they just laughed apart from my grandmother and my primary school English teacher Jacqueline Corner.

I went through a catholic education and with the help of Ms Corner went straight to drama school from convent school.

My gran came with me to my auditions dressed as if she were going to church - hat, gloves the works. I look back now and laugh.

I won't mention the drama school because I hated it. For me it was a huge mistake, I was 17 and knew nothing about life. They should have told me to go and live a little, get some experience and come back in a couple of years. (I like to think I would have listened). It's important I stress that was my experience - for others who went it was a revelation.

From Drama school I went to the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the nineties I took time out to go to the University of Middlesex to study directing and Theatre-in-Education which was always a passion of mine. It seems right that having travelled the world working I have returned to where I grew up to start TSW and to work with young people who were like me.

The acting profession is - to put it mildly - a somewhat precarious occupation. Why do you think so many young people are ready and willing to give it a go professionally?
They see so much rubbish on TV and films, they sit there and think: "I can do better than that".

I also feel they think it's an easy way to make money, in reality we know different.

The UK theatre scene is a fairly large playing field, Malta is minute. Obviously young actors are going to stand much more chance of getting work somewhere like the UK. What advice would you give a young Maltese actor with talent, who is burning to enter the professional theatre?
Get as much experience and training as possible from all types of genres. Explore, experiment and learn to throw out everything that doesn't work for you by putting everything into practice.

I don't think you should think about large or small playing fields. Many fantastic actors get lost in the UK because it is so large. Therefore you need to be prepared - even if it's to be prepared for the unexpected.
Utilise what you have, where you have it before thinking about the beyond.

From your CV I understand that you have managed to break down some barriers, which previously existed for black actors. Do you think these days there is any role - (other than one which specifies ethnicity) - that cannot be played by a black actor?
I believe an actor should be cast because they are the best person to play the role. Full stop.

What we still have to address is giving the opportunities to audition to everyone.

You have worked with some fairly distinguished directors, Sam Mendes, Philip Prowse, Nicholas Hytner, Danny Boyle. What do you think makes a truly great and effective director?
A leader who isn't afraid to stretch the boundaries and also someone who knows how to create a dynamic platform that enables his or her actors to tell a story.

Stage and screen acting obviously require totally differing techniques, which form do you prefer and why?
Stage - it's organic, frustrating and exciting. Directors and editors have too much control over the end result in screen acting.

Where do you think the future in theatre lies for Julie Saunders?
Definitely as a Director there are so many plays I'd like to direct. Although I'd kill to play Shakespeare's Cleopatra. I've had that dream since I was about 10 and it's still a dream of mine.........