The directors
Indu Rubasingham
33, director
Biggest hit The Ramayana, at the Olivier theatre, April 2001.
Coming up Currently in script development at the Royal Court.
Theatre is 'The potential to explore and engage the human condition. It's a celebration of society.'
Theatre isn't 'It shouldn't be a museum, something that we passively observe. It's self-obsessed and has to communicate more than it does. It has to be vibrant, and engage with a life force.'
Inspiration 'My upbringing, the stories of my family, the act of growing up in white society.'
Kristine Landon-Smith
45, director
Biggest hit East Is East, opened at Birmimgham Rep in 1996 before touring the country, transferring to the Royal Court and then being reworked into a film.
Coming up
Strictly Dandia, co-written with Sudha Bhuchar, at the Edinburgh festival. Theatre is 'A place where you can be moved, enlightened, inspired, touched and excited.'
Theatre isn't 'Successful theatre is where you are feeling the individual spirit of the actors, when you don't get that, that's not theatre.'
Inspiration 'One is inspired by different things at different times of life. I have been inspired by three or four people, the most recent of whom is Philippe Gaulier, a wonderful teacher. Previously, it was Max Stafford-Clark.'
Dawn Reid
32, director
Biggest hit Funny Black Women On The Edge at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, March and July 2003.
Coming up Funny Black Women is back at Stratford until August 9. Associate director in pantomime, Theatre Royal Stratford East, December 2003.
Theatre is 'An exciting concept.'
Theatre isn't 'Always as accessible as it should be, but it's trying.'
Inspiration 'People inspire me. People who are open to new things, to new creativity.'
Yvonne Brewster
64, director
Biggest hitThe Importance Of Being Earnest, Bloomsbury theatre, London, 1989.
Coming up Bellas Gate Boy, in February 2004, in Kingston, Jamaica. Appearing in Family Affairs on Channel Five.
Theatre is 'A collaborative art. It's human, it's the one thing you can make a mistake in and the mistake can become piece of art.'
Theatre isn't 'An arena for exploring boring psyches. That's dead, that's not immediate, that's what kills theatre. It's not an exhibition. It isn't television.'
Inspiration 'Louise Bennett, an 82-year-old Jamaican woman. She was the first black woman at Rada. She's spent her life making intuitive speech and dialectic speech acceptable as a form of art.'
Kully Thiarai
39, director
Biggest hit West Side Story, co-directed with Paul Kerryson, at Leicester Haymarket last Christmas.
Coming up A regional tour of Bollywood Jane, spring 2004.
Theatre is 'A way of communicating our shared stories.'
Theatre isn't 'As accessible or as inspirational as it could be. Sometimes, theatre tries to compete with television and film, when it's got a creative energy all of its own that is very different.'
Inspiration 'The resilience of the human spirit in all sorts of walks of life. From kids in my social work days through to the passion that people can feel for things.'
Paulette Randall
42, director
Biggest hit Moon On A Rainbow Shawl, by Errol John, which toured the country, April 2003.
Coming up Urban Afro Saxons, with Talawa company, in October, venue TBC.
Theatre is 'A platform for making change, on a political and a personal level. It's magical and exciting, it's dynamic.'
Theatre isn't 'Equal. There is still racism and a classism. We are still having conversations about how we get young black people into theatre, so we must be doing something wrong. Black theatre isn't part of the English theatrical world.'
Inspiration 'My mother - she was a really wise woman. She was very funny, and very loving. In her own way, she was a radical thinking woman.'
Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa
26, director
Biggest hit Early Morning, by Dipo Agboluaje, Oval House, London, March 2003.
Coming up Blue Light In Delphi, by Barbara Norden, Riverside Studios, London, February 2004.
Theatre is 'A broad church. At a simplistic level, it's a live event that people engage in and see a narrative and a meaning in. It could be people fighting in the street, or the way we slow down when we see a car accident.'
Theatre isn't 'The current British definition of what is theatre is extremely narrow. For young people, theatre is not accessible, it's not a world they feel has anything to do with them. The art form is accessible, but the institution isn't always.'
Inspiration 'At the moment, Gerhard Richter.'
Karena Johnson
30, director
Biggest hit Nutty Professionals, Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, February 2003.
Coming up Vengeance, by Wayne Buchanan, opening at the Edinburgh Pleasance on August 18.
Theatre is 'A moment of magic that can happen in a live space. It can take people's emotions and imagination to different places.'
Theatre isn't 'Something that is a dead space. Something that stimulates only one part of you.'
Inspiration 'Sistren [Theatre Collective] Jamaica. They came to London in the early 1980s, using a very theatrical style. They used mime and made a very intellectual commentary and emotionally took me to a different place. That's what I'd want to aspire to as a company.'