Introduce yourself!
My name is Poppy Burton-Morgan and I work as a theatre and opera director (and occasionally as an actor and/or singer!)

When did you leave Oxford, and what have you been up to since?
I left Oxford in 2006 (having read PPE) and was hugely fortunate in that I had a theatre job lined up straight away - my exams finished on the Friday and I started on the Monday as assistant director for Jonathan Munby on Mirandolina at the Royal Exchange in Manchester. It was actually still the middle of trinity term but my tutors, as ever, were hugely supportive of my theatrical exploits so they let me leave two weeks early. And then I've been in work pretty much non-stop as a director and assistant director mainly, though I did have time to do a one-woman show last year, run my own theatre company (Metta theatre) and also sing at the Royal Albert Hall over Christmas! And now I'm about to start assisting Jonathan again on Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe.

Which elements of your involvement in theatre in Oxford have assisted you since leaving for your career?
The sheer volume of it all! I worked on about 30 shows while I was a student - about 8 or 9 as director and the rest as actor, and went up to Edinburgh every year sometimes doing both! And as well as the opportunity to be involved in such a huge amount of theatre the facilities in Oxford are fantastic - in fact many of the theatres are better run and better equipped than a lot of professional theatres. And working at somewhere like the Playhouse gives you a great chance to showcase work as a director as it's well-known enough that big directors/agents will come from London to see student shows - which is how I got my first job in Manchester - having invited Jonathan to come and see my production of Fuente Ovejuna at the Playhouse.

Have you thought about taking any formal training, for example a post-grad course?
I'm not a huge fan of theatre training in this country, either for actors or directors. Partly because Oxford is such a great training ground for actors and you have the opportunity to work on more actual productions there than you would at a drama school, partly because I don't have £30,000 to spare and also because so many of my friends who went down the drama school route are no better off than those who didn't - it's no guarantee of an agent, or of work. In my experience, most people forget all they've learnt after they've been out a year! Though before I came to Oxford, I trained for a year in Stratford-Upon-Avon with the Year Out Drama Company - and that was one of the best and most useful years of my life as an actor/director.

In terms of directing I think courses are even less useful than for acting- in my opinion you can't be taught how to be a director though they can be good places to make contacts and build up confidence if either of those are lacking, and I would recommend the Birkbeck Director's Course and possibly Lamda as well. Though again I'm not sure it's worth spending £10,000 just to make some contacts.

Did you consider other careers? How seriously? What were they?
I've known I was going to work in the theatre since I was 15, though admittedly until a few years ago I thought that would be primarily as an actor. So I really never considered any other career except fleetingly the idea of becoming a Buddhist nun. Which I suppose makes the choice of PPE as a degree a bit odd, but I hadn't done English A-level so I couldn't do English and the whole PPE thing looked kind of fun. Though in all honesty I went to Oxford mainly for the theatre scene.

That said I took my degree very seriously as well, which is probably why my tutors were so accommodating of all my theatre on the side. In fact lots of them came to see my productions, which was lovely, so I never had to pretend I'd given up theatre in my third year or anything as all my friends did - in fact I ended up directing an opera in trinity term of my third year...and then acting in a radio play later in that term. Hmm...maybe not the best example to other students, but it worked out alright for me!

How have you got your breaks? Have they come from self-promotion, from general contacts and/or bits of luck?
Some subtle combination of all three. I fully appreciate that so much of what I've done has been down to good luck - being in the right place at the right time in order to make those initial good contacts. But then you do have to be determined and tenacious and follow those meetings up with letters, phone calls and emails. But in truth I was never that much of a letter-writer - I have a friend who would send out 30-40 letters a week, for weeks on end! I went for the write-to-a-few-people-and keep-on-writing approach. Perhaps because of that I've got lots of my jobs through the same handful of people. I met Phyllida Lloyd when she was visiting Cam Mac professor just as I was about to start rehearsing my opera - her inaugural lecture was on the difference between directing theatre and opera so I bounded up to her afterwards to ask her advice. She was incredibly lovely and not only came to do a workshop with my singers but let me assist her on a gala concert for English National Opera and observe on her Peter Grimes for Opera North. So through her I ended up assisting on Madame Butterfly for Opera North which I've been doing on and off for the last 7 months which has given me the financial freedom to direct some of my own productions on the London fringe. Also partly because of having that job on my CV I've now got a load of jobs with English Touring Opera in the autumn. So that was a combination of luck and a contact followed up by lots of letters to Opera North until they gave me a job!

Do you live at home still? Has your parents’ support been necessary when pursuing a career in such an unstable field?
I don't live at home - my family home is in Wiltshire - but as a young theatre director you pretty much have to be based in London (or possibly around Manchester, as there's a lot going on up north as well). I rent a flat in London with my boyfriend who is a
theatre designer. Though actually I've been working everywhere but London so it's been a bit silly paying a London rent all this time, on top of what I have to pay for digs when I'm on tour. But I come from a very large family (I'm one of eleven) so financial support was out of the question both during and after University. Though if I was desperate I could always ask my twin brother for a loan (he's an investment banker!) But again I've been lucky in having a few well-paid acting jobs, and then opera assisting which is in general much more lucrative than theatre assisting. So I've been able to make a living from theatre ever since I left Oxford. And also been able to mount my own productions and do rehearsed readings of new plays alongside my assisting work. That said I do still live like a (very poor) student, but I get to make theatre for a living - which is what I love - so I can't complain. And most of my theatre contemporaries are still stuck temping for half the year in order to live, so I'm really lucky to earn enough to be able to theatre full-time - largely down to the opera work I do.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? First, ideally - and second, pessimistically?
Ideally... running the National! No - maybe give me 15 years for that…Though in all seriousness I think I would be interested in being an Artistic Director of a theatre, so in 10 years maybe running a middle-sized producing house like the BAC or the Young Vic where I could direct a few shows and still work as a freelance director of opera on the side. And also I'd like a few kids by then I think.
Pessimistically... well I don't really do pessimism... I suppose worst-case scenario is still assisting and directing on the Fringe in 10 years time. But if I was still in the position then that I'm in now I might call it a day and try my hand at something else. Or become a Buddhist nun. But for now I’ll stick with theatre.