Career progression in the arts doesn’t have to be linear. Indeed, the vagaries of life in the cultural sector mean that traditional models of career advancement are often inapplicable – which is not to say they’re entirely out of reach.
But for every student theatre-maker who cuts their teeth as a director and eventually ends up running a mainstage company, or creative producer whose career culminates in running a major festival, there are hundreds of artists whose careers necessitated side-steps, dramatic changes and other creative responses to climbing the career ladder.