Fiona Laird – Favourite Things
Each week Reaction Weekend brings you Favourite Things – interviews with interesting people about the skills, hobbies, pleasures and past times that make them who they are.
Fiona Laird is an award-winning theatre director and writer, her works has been seen at many of Britain’s top theatres including The National Theatre, The Old Vic and The Royal Court, as well as in the West End. You can watch her 2018 Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Merry Wives of Windsor on Britbox. She founded the National Youth Arts Trust in 2013 in response to the growing crisis in funding for education in the performing arts.
These are a few of her favourite things…
Leaving a legacy in the arts
I became very impassioned with the idea of legacy during London 2012. It coincided with a time in my life when I’d split up with my first husband, we had failed to have children and I realised I never would. But, like everyone, I still wanted to leave behind a legacy. My passion is the performing arts so if I couldn’t pass that on to my children, as my mother did to me, then I wanted to pass it on to other people’s children, especially those who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity. It seems very clear that talent is random and I have always hated the idea that there are children anywhere with talent that doesn’t get nurtured or encouraged. I founded a charity called the National Youth Arts Trust. It is a little charity but it is doing well and it punches above its weight. We give bursaries to children from non-privileged backgrounds to train in dance, music and drama. The idea is to nurture talent, not money. This year has been particularly tough but lots of people are very generous. It is a very important part of my life; I am trying to pass something on and do some good.
Oil painting
I have always had a talent for painting and drawing. During the first lockdown my diary full of directing, theatre, art and work cleared almost instantly. I had always wanted to push myself with art and essentially put myself through art school, so I signed up to some online courses. I worked hard and sat and painted and conquered (I think) oil painting, for the first time. I really got into it and I started selling a lot of paintings. I have expanded from really just painting buildings to landscapes, people and animals; I particularly seem to specialise in painting chickens. There was this great thing on Instagram, the #artistsupportpledge where you could sell your work and once you had raised a certain amount, committed to buying the work of another artist. Painting is a huge passion of mine, wherever I go I take a sketchbook. My grandmother was a very good painter, it is quite strange, I look at sketches by her and they very much could have been by me. I don’t feel I am particularly special, just very lucky to have had that gene passed down.
English choral music
Music is very important to me. I grew up in Cathedral close in Ely. My mother is a very talented musician, so my love for it comes partly through osmosis- her teaching us about music, having Radio 3 on all the time and going to the cathedral school. I particularly love English choral music, it just does something to me. My favourite composers are Hubert Parry, Benjamin Britten, Vaughan Williams, the list goes on. Recently I have been listening to a composer called Arthur Wills, he was the director of music at Ely when I was growing up and he died only about three weeks ago. Because my mother was a pianist, I also love piano music. I am lucky enough to have two very close friends who are concert pianists: Charles Owen and Imogen Cooper. They often invite me to their version of dress rehearsals, which is always a wonderful experience.
DIY
I am catastrophically bad at cooking. It isn’t even that I love it but am bad at it, I hate it too. It makes me very stressed out. I can take the nicest ingredients and turn them into tasteless piles of mush. George, my husband, is always incredibly kind about it, but he has the opposite gift and is amazing at cooking. But, I like to think I make up for it by being surprisingly good at DIY. When we moved into this house, there were no shelves or cupboards. I put up tonnes of shelves and cupboards and am building fitted wardrobes in the bedroom. I pride myself on being able to mend anything. My father was a schoolmaster but he was also brilliant at DIY and carpentry, I used to love helping him out and learnt by watching him: he made us a boat out of wood when we were children. I have lots of his tools as sadly he died twelve years ago, I miss him very much. Whenever I have completed a DIY project my mother says “oh your father would be so proud of you.” It is lovely to have those things you inherit and I am frantically trying to pass on those skills to godchildren.
France
My father was a French teacher, my sister teaches French and Spanish, so I have always gone to France a lot and I absolutely love it. George is a massive Francophile too. We have wonderful friends who live in the Loire Valley in the most incredible old Chateau that has been in their family for centuries and is full of extraordinary things. My friend Sébastien, his great great grandfather was the French commander at the battle of the Nile so they have all these little model ships. It is so beautiful but not in a chocolate box way. There is something about the light and the stone has this benign warmth to it. It is not the south of France, it is not Normandy, it is gentle with a rolling valley and lazy river; it is historically known as the playground of the Kings of France. I always feel so calm and inspired when I am there. They make excellent wine at the Chateau too.