Paulette Randall - Choosing a play and starting up a production

First and foremost you read the play and I always wait for that initial reaction to it and I have to be emotionally moved in someway by the piece. I' ve got better at working out what that actually means - its not that I' ve just got to do this play - it' s sometimes just well this is really important and it' s moved me in a different kind of way. When I was younger it was much more bigger and brash and you know. So I would read it, and once I know that there' s something that it' s saying to me, or moving me in some way, then I know that the chances are I might be able to do something in order for it to work for an audience. So you read it a couple of times, then you start to think about who could be in it. You also think at the same time what its going to look like, so you start talking to your designer as soon as possible really and start throwing ideas around. Sometimes its just, I don' t know, talking about colours or shapes or whatever, but I' m not a designer so I don' t have to worry about the ultimate thing, all I have to say is whether I like it or not and what I would change. So as I say, it is the designer and the casting and then you think about the rest of your crew as well - your lighting designer - because all of those things play such a huge part in telling the whole piece.