My first actual job was at Kwiksave in my hometown of Sedgley, West Midlands, when I was 16. My first ‘London job’ was casual seller at TKTS and my first directing gig was Medea by Euripides – the inaugural Lazarus Theatre Company production.

After a short but quite frustrating run as an actor, I became a bit disillusioned with the types of work I was being put up for or getting. At the time, I had the fairly snobby attitude that people who make their own work are those who can’t find work elsewhere – but in the end, we went for it and put on the production of Medea. We lost £30,000, as hardly anyone came to see it, and the press was less than kind.

I was working 40-hour weeks (to pay off the credit cards) when a pal linked me into a cracking initiative run by a fantastic women called Kerry Irvine. It was a project called ScenePool at Camden People’s Theatre – essentially a scratch night with a 20-minute slot and a literal box-office split – a chance to try something out.

So, we turned up with a seven-metres-long flag of Zimbabwe, a smoke machine and an ensemble who had rehearsed in a park to present an extract of Sophocles’ Electra. From there I met Jasmine Cullingford, the then artistic director of the Blue Elephant Theatre. That led to a production and a near eight-year relationship between Lazarus and BET.

It’s easy for people to say ‘make your own work’. That’s what I did, but I’m not sure that, in the current climate, a director starting out now could do the same. This was one reason for creating our own Lazarus initiative, the Ken Pickering Future Director Scheme, which gives an emerging director, with a passion for classics and large scale ensemble, work as an assistant director. My main advice for anyone wanting to break into directing is to see, read and experience as much theatre as you can. And if you want to meet your directorial inspirations, always book a ticket for first preview.

Age: 38
Training: University of Worcester, the Bridge Theatre Training Company, London
Theatre includes: As artistic director of Lazarus Theatre Company: Hamlet, Doctor Faustus, Salomé, Macbeth, Lord of the Flies, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Edward II, The Beggar’s Opera, Caucasian Chalk Circle, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida