While the teacher in question was a lovely teacher, my abiding memory of her is linked to the shock I felt when she slapped me for talking to Yvonne Lavelle in class. It was the first time I'd ever been physically punished at school. I was 10 years old and had only recently moved to Ballybay National School, Co Monaghan, from Corrahara National School, also in Co Monaghan.

Ballybay was a real shock to the system. It was much bigger school than Corrahara. It was all-girls and it was in the town - I had to go there by bus instead of getting a lift from my father.

At first, I was a bit taken aback by the different style of teaching at Ballybay. For instance, I was well used to speaking Irish at school, but I didn't know the names of the tenses. Looking back on my school days, I realise that my time in Corrahara was the time I enjoyed most. It was a beautiful,

rural, two-teacher school, the sort of school that is now dying out. Mrs Traynor was one of our teachers and my father was the other. It was a really progressive and very happy school. We learned in very active ways and had very happy relationships with the teachers. It wasn't just that my father was one of the teachers - it was the whole ethos of the school. The focus was child-centred and on learning being an enjoyable experience.

Mrs Traynor and my father were great - we all used to play handball with them in the breaks and we played Gaelic football in the big field at the back of the school.

We used to do loads of plays. I can still remember doing plays in Irish out in the sunshine. It encouraged us to communicate in Irish. Because my father was interested in drama, we did a lot of roleplaying, improvisation and even playwriting. We learned through drama.

I remember when I was in third class, my father gathered a group of us together and we did a mummers' play. We used to pile into his car and travel round the pubs at Christmas time putting on the play. We made loads of money for the school and had a brilliant time.

We were also encouraged to read. I was an avid reader and I can remember one Friday afternoon when my father caught me reading a library book under the desk - instead of attending to the maths class. As a punishment I had to stay back after school. There we were - just the two us in an empty school - my father supervising, while I laboriously wrote out "I must not read in maths class" for the hundredth time. Of course, we were both late for dinner at home.

All my memories of those days are about the learning that took place outside the classroom. Years later, when I was working as outreach-education director for the Abbey Theatre, I was always aware that enjoyable, pleasurable and very holistic learning tends not happen in traditional settings. At secondary school - Our Lady's Secondary School, Castleblaney, Co Monaghan - the subjects that really mattered to me were English and physics. Our physics teacher, Jimmy Brophy, taught us the modern thinking about physics. Everyone else was totally bored, but I found it fascinating.

We had a brilliant gymnastics teacher, too. She was only with us for two years, but she introduced us to dance and music. It was very empowering. She taught us how you can use your body.

I was involved in a number of plays at school. I played Nancy in Oliver, and did the choreography with Orla McEneaney. We also choreographed Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

I played one of the brothers - I was put in at the last minute, as an extra brother to make sure they all kept in step. I got six As and a B in the Leaving Cert, but decided to do arts because I wanted to pursue English and mathematical physics - which I did at St Patrick's College, Maynooth.

I followed it up with a MA from UCD, but by then, I knew that the academic life wasn't for me - it's potentially too lonely. I prefer situations where you are more involved with people. What I enjoy most is creative collaboration.

In conversation with Yvonne Healy