Kate Hewitt: 'Making ends meet and doing the things you love is a challenge'

Emerging director Kate Hewitt won the Royal Theatrical Support Trust’s Director Award, which is funding her to put on a production of Nina Raine’s Tribes at Sheffield Theatres. She tells Giverny Masso about the challenges she has faced as an early career director

What made you choose Tribes?

It is a fantastic piece of writing, I’ve known it for a while. It’s such a brilliant, funny and moving play. It tackles massive questions about different identities and different experiences. It is about tribes and communities and when the children are different from the parents. I didn’t actually see it when it ran at the Royal Court in London, but I don’t have a desire to direct a play with the specific aim of ‘making it different’. It’s nicer to start with a blank slate.

How did you get into directing?

I was working as an actor already, having trained at Goldsmiths and the International Society for the Performing Arts in London. I was always doing devising and directing as well as acting, and I decided that directing was for me. I have a lot of empathy for actors. It’s important having worked as one.

What did it mean to you to win the RTST Director Award?

I was so moved when I found out I had won. As an emerging director, it is very hard to get those gigs, but to get this backing gives you the confidence that you can deliver. I won the JMK award for directing three years ago; that’s for directors at the very beginning of their careers. With this award, you could have directed up to five shows already. There’s something about the ambition of it – you could apply with a script with up to 10 characters. This is the biggest play I’ve done so far in terms of length and the technicals involved. Also, I think there is a cultural obsession with ‘the hot new thing’, the hot new director. But what happens to you after that? How do you get those next jobs? The fact that this award actually seeks out people at that point in their career is great.

What has been the biggest challenge for you as an emerging director?

The biggest challenge has been financial. It’s about making ends meet and still doing the things you love. I have done it by doing big commercial roles that fund me and then also doing my own shows at the same time. We want our directors to be diverse, but if it’s really hard to pay your rent and eat, then how is that possible?

CV: Kate Hewitt

Training: Drama and Theatre Arts BA (hons), Goldsmiths University, London; two-year Lecoq physical theatre course, International Society for the Performing Arts, London; National Youth Theatre
First professional role: Actor in Rapunzel for Knee High theatre company
Agent: The Agency

Tribes runs at Sheffield Theatres until July 22