VOICES Theatre is not just what I do. It is who I am. From the moment I could walk and talk, I immediately had an instinct for performance and storytelling. I consumed books as if they were sweets, and wrote stories of my own, filling endless notebooks with my childish imaginative scrawls, before acting them out in extravagant homemade plays in my living room for patient parents, with coerced siblings making up my cast. Where this immediate love of all things performative came from, I am not entirely sure. It is not something I grew up with, or had modelled for me: my family are not theatrical in any way, and the closest I ever came to a theatre throughout my youth was the odd Panto and the occasional school trip to see a Shakespeare from the syllabus. Yet the fascination and love was always there, if not the skill! I was blessed to find my encouragement and mentor upon attending Sixth Form in the UK and studying Theatre for A-level. My teacher, a dedicated, exacting, inspiring ex-thespian, treated us as young theatre makers to mould as if a professional company. That training and ambition set me on the path I remain on, and have dedicated my life to, as through it I discovered myself in the thrill of creating for others. The need to connect, to understand, and be understood, has always been a hunger in me, as I think it is in all of us. It is why I always have gravitated toward theatre over film, where the audience are live and complicit in the creation of a world; it is why I direct in the physical ensemble style, where each player is equally, inextricably, and collaboratively essential to the storytelling as a unified collective; it is why I tell the very stories I do, that hopefully provoke thought and reflection as well as revel in play and entertainment; it is why the company is named ‘Quintessence’, as we strive to find the heart of an idea, narrative or character. Creating theatre is the only thing that has ever satisfied this craving in me. It is why I will always direct theatre, despite the many challenges the industry presents. And also because if I did not, I am truly not sure who I would be. Theatre is not just what I do. It is who I am. And I couldn’t be happier.
Anna Simpson
Artistic Director, Quintessence Theatre Company
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