My gurus – Sue Hoyle

 
Shay Cunliffe

Shay was a fellow student at Bristol University, where we both studied drama and French. After we graduated, she headed to New York to work as a costume designer, initially in theatre and now – very successfully – in films. I headed in the opposite direction, to Paris, to teach at the university and begin postgraduate studies. During this time, I visited Shay in New York and she asked me directly: Why are you pursuing an academic career when you love performance? Her words jolted me. It was as if she had held a mirror up to me and I realised that I had been following my head and not my heart. I pressed the pause button on my research, got a job in the box office of Sadler’s Wells and set out to become the Sue I am, rather than the one that others expected me to be.

I haven’t seen Shay in decades, and she may not remember that conversation (or even me), but her question made me realise that a guru isn’t always the person who gives you advice or answers, but the one who honestly and wisely asks the right questions.