When taking on a new challenge, people will either thrive or they will fail. So when Caitlin Bradley was given the chance to assistant direct Likeminded’s recent play Life After Life, which road did she go down? Well, clearly Likeminded thought she thrived in the role, as she has been given the responsibility of directing Mindless, a short film about the rising impact knife crime is having on the city.

I spoke to Caitlin to find out how she found her first step into directing and what she is looking forward to with Mindless.

So, Caitlin, how did you find your experience of directing Life After Life?

I found it natural as the script was simple and conversational and I really enjoyed doing it. 

At first, I thought it would be strange directing myself in Act 2 but in actual fact I felt more confident because I knew what I wanted so it was just directing Pete but I could control where he went because of the situation we were in. 

What do you find more difficult; acting or directing?

Having trained and been directed lots of times by different people I've always watched the way they work and even when I was getting directed as an actor you're always thinking of the audience anyway. Both directing and acting are difficult but different in ways, I've enjoyed the experience in both in this play.

What part did you enjoy the most?

This is going to sound strange but one of the main things that I enjoyed the most was getting to put everything I've learnt and trained for in theatre school into action, because we’re taught all these tools which is great but now I feel like I've really put them into practice. I just love my job, getting to take an audience and myself through different emotions, is one of the reasons I wanted to become an actress. 

What are you looking forward to doing with the mindless short film?

I'm looking forward to being behind the scenes because recently I have just been in a musical film called 'Perfectly Frank' where I was one of the dancers, so it's nice to take a seat back and watch others. But don't get me wrong I know directing is just as important as being in front of the camera (if not more!) I'm just looking forward to being involved with this project.

Why do you think it’s important to touch on the subject of knife crime?

It's so important to speak about this subject knife crime because it's still happening and it's becoming more and more frequent. It's also important to raise awareness and hopefully make people think about what they are doing. 

More information Mindless will be available soon. We’re all working really hard on it. Stay tuned!

Words by Meg Kay
Images by Andrew Smith