Louise Drumm is an assistant theatre director with Dublin Youth Theatre.

I'm a director. You have to keep calling yourself that until somebody believes it. There's no test you can do - you don't wait until somebody tells you you've passed. At the moment I'm working as an assistant theatre director with Dublin Youth Theatre. We're in rehersals right now for Pericles, with Gerry Stembridge as director.

The assistant director's job is seen as the way into directing. With Gerry it's not about being a dog's body or a go-fer. There are not many directors around who can use an assistant director well, but he does. He's very busy at the moment (he also directed Massive Damages, which recently opened at the Tivoli during the theatre festival); often that means I have to take rehearsals myself, but for the most part it's about being a mediator between the director and everybody else - the production team, the technical people, administration, actors.

Often you're worrying about the small things, like organising rehearsal times and keeping the production manager, who does not attend rehersals, up to date with what's going on. The director then does the creative thing.

But at the moment I'm getting to do rehearsals, which is the best part. It's a bit daunting doing it for the first time. When we do something and it works, that's the buzz of a director. Gerry is very trusting with me as well - he just gives me free reign when I take a rehearsal.

Pericles is a little-known play by Shakespeare - it's only been performed once before in this country. There are 37 people in the cast, which is huge, and this production is very special because it's a mixture of past DYT members, who are mostly professional actors now, and present members. Some of the cast are still at school. Some are doing lunchtime plays. We have to work around all of them. It could be 10 in the morning when we start or it could be a little bit later. The busiest time is probably the evenings, when nearly everbody is free, and also the weekend. We could work until 10 p.m.

I've worked as a stage manager so I know how the bits and pieces work. Rehearsal work is very concentrated. The work of a director is to work with the actors: you don't work in straight lines - you have to eke performances out of them, you have to let them have their own creative input as well. It's about personalities working together and building up a professional relationship.

The idea of a director being paranoid or a dictator never came across to me. It doesn't happen. To be a good director you have to know when to let go. For the most part they're very sound people who see it as a job.

The world of actors, in particular, is seen as a very airy-fairy thing but to go out every night and perform is quite a feat. They are worried about things like not getting too nervous, remembering lines, not tripping over costumes. There are certain days before opening when there are very long hours; those are times when you get stressed because you have a deadline - but that's not an ongoing thing.

In rehearsals we are very cut off, and that's deliberate. You can't have somebody walk into the room, because somebody could be having a thought and you might lose that. I knew that I wanted to work in theatre while I was in college. After doing my degree at UCD and after working as an assistant stage manager in Dublin for a period, I did a MA at the University of East Anglia last year. I worked as assistant director on an opera during that time also. One of the biggest worries you have is illness during the performances. In most productions, as in this one, we don't have any understudies. It's too expensive. When somebody is ill somebody else has to stand in. Once, when I was assistant stage manager working in a production in Temple Bar, I had to stand in myself.

As a director, you do have to be sure and confident. You have to know what you like and you have to make creative decisions very quickly and take them back if they are wrong when they look crap. It's seen as quite a lonely job and essentially it is. With actors you can be friends with them, but you'll never be another actor.

In an interview with Catherine Foley

Previews of Pericles start this Friday in the Project @ The Mint, in Henry Place (off Henry Street), Dublin. Opening night is next Tuesday, October 28th, and it runs until Saturday, November 8th.