I was educated almost entirely by the Christian Brothers - apart, that is, from the few early years which I spent in the Presentation Convent, Rathdanne, Limerick. I quite liked school and did reasonably well. I was always in the top stream although never at the very top.
The one good thing that I remember about my schooldays was the fact that I was encouraged to take an interest in writing. A couple of the teachers used to get me to read out my essays to the class. They passed on the message to me that this was something I was good at. It shows how important encouragement is for young people.
It was during these sessions that I learned to enjoy direct communication with an audience. At 11 years of age I was working the floor and I realised that I liked it. I started debating in secondary school. As a writer I've never written in a private way - as novelists or poets do - but always for an audience in theatre, radio or television.
The downside of my education with the Christian Brothers during the Seventies was that we were given no opportunity to become involved in drama - there was no annual school play, we had no trips to the theatre. Although at the time I found nothing wrong with school, looking back I realise that there could have been a lot more for people like me. Our school was heavily streamed and the emphasis in the top stream was always on the sciences. The message was "these subjects are more important" so people like me ended up doing the wrong subjects. I did physics, chemistry and applied maths in the Leaving Cert - but I wasn't particularly good at any of them.
People talk a lot about the corporal punishment in Christian Brothers schools - I had no experience of that. But they don't mention the other problem - a huge blind spot in relation to the arts. We studied plays and poems in English literature, for exams, but we didn't explore the area in any way. Art itself was taught only in the non-honours streams.
At school, the Brothers were anxious for us to get good steady jobs in the bank or the civil service. They encouraged those of us who wanted to go to college to go UCG. I chose UCD, where I studied English and history, largely to annoy them.
It was at UCD that I got involved in theatre for the first time. Dramsoc was the first society I joined there. I spent more time involved in college drama than I did
studying. During my time in UCD I gained both a MA and a H Dip and then taught part time in Mount Temple Comprehensive. My time there highlighted the things that I had missed in my own education - it was coeducational, religiously mixed and there was no streaming.
I've always believed that teaching is a job that is best not done for life. I've seen how depressed, tired and mentally strained teachers become. After four years' teaching I decided that if I was going to make a career in the theatre I would have to do it seriously. By this time I was directing odd shows on the fringes.
Many people think that they have to hold on to their steady jobs until they get the breaks. I think the opposite is true. You have to take the plunge and make the committment. A few months after giving up my job I got a place on an RTE producer/ director training course. This was when my career as a director really began.
Writer/director Gerry Stembridge was in conversation with Yvonne Healy. The Whiteheaded Boy, which is currently playing at the Andrew's Lane Theatre, is directed by Gerry Stembridge.
