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If I were 22 – Ian Nicholson

Portsmouth boy turned director Ian Nicholson trained at CSSD, NT Studio and Ecole Philippe Gaulier in clown – but what would he tell himself if he could do it all again?

Ian Nicholson
4 min read

I’d ask for everything: opinions, invitations, meetings, support, a hug. For years I had it in my head that you can’t talk to certain people because they’re too ‘high up’. That’s nonsense; we’re all just people. And if you do ask you may get the answer you wanted or something even better. I asked to work with a company I loved almost every month for a year until they agreed to get me in on a project. That began my professional directing career and I’m still grateful (thanks Spymonkey!) – so ask!

Project budgets, company accounts, grant forms, production costs, box office receipts and splits, artists’ fees and royalties, tax returns… they all involve maths, which is my kryptonite, and I avoid it like the plague if I can (which I can’t). Maths is not the most fun thing in the world I know but get good at it, or find someone who is good at it, and make numbers your friends. Things will be clearer and better for it, I promise.

When I started it felt like there were a lot of gatekeepers to joining in. Sometimes it still feels like that. Ignore them. If you don’t get an invite, make your own party. Do what you want, on whatever scale. And do whatever you can to just get on with it. Make art, for yourself, with yourself, for others, with others, above a pub, on a street, in a local hall – anywhere you can blag. Take the risks, learn the lessons, chalk up the experience and inch forward. It’s all a process, not perfection.

You’re great. Trust me on this. You are. And I love you for it. You’re the only version of you there’ll ever be, flaws and all, and that’s cool. It took me years to realise that where I come from, who I am and how I am is just grand. Keep your accent (despite what you’re told at drama school), wear your hair and clothes however you like. Who you are is your best advantage and asset because no one else can be you, ever. So be you, and do what you do, because that’ll be grand too.

I never knew when my next job was coming in so I always postponed having a holiday, sometimes for years and years, just in case the job came in. I can tell you now that jobs will come and go but those experiences you have at festivals, tours, treks, hikes, and with the people you meet in the amazing medley of humanity will stay with you always. So go and explore somewhere and something else; it will afford you great perspective when you return. And we’ll look after it all for you while you’re gone – we’ll water the plants and everything.

Ian Nicholson is the Artistic Director of Old Salt Theatre and a freelance theatre director. ‘Don Quixote’, which he directed for Little Soldier Productions, is currently touring.
www.iannicholsondirector.co.uk