Annie Rigby may have been brought up with theatre, but she prefers to be on the dark side of the spotlights, she tells Setve Pratt.

WHEN Annie Rigby acted in a student play in her first year at Cambridge, she realised that acting wasn't for her. Then, in her second year, she directed a play by North-East writer Julia Darling and loved it. "It felt right - like playing music," she recalls.

It wasn't that she was a stranger to the theatre as both parents, writer Graeme Rigby and Ros Rigby, are involved heavily in the Newcastle arts scene. "I've always loved going to the theatre, and always seen at lot of Northern Stage and Live Theatre productions," she says.

"I remember me and my brother being at the pantomime when we were very young, and the theatre going light and dark. I remember being taken to the Royal Shakespeare Company season.

"I didn't know what I wanted to do until I went to university. I had an idea of being a musician and then I stopped practising."

She hadn't really decided what to do with her life beyond studying English at university. A summer placement with Northern Stage Ensemble three years ago helped make up her mind. Now 22, she's back with the Newcastle-based company as resident director.

Currently, she's assisting artistic director Alan Lyddiard on the production of The Black Eyed Roses, being staged as part of Newcastle Gateshead Gypsy Festival this month.

"I'm interested in directing," she says. "I've never been to drama school or done any form of drama training. I'm interested in working with Alan and the Ensemble, and learning from their different ways. There might be a time to return to education, but that time isn't right for me now.

"I'm interested in what I'm doing at the moment. I'm feeling very challenged as it is, not in a bad way but a very positive way. This company is very good at challenging people. They see what you can do and go from there."

Despite her background, her parents never pushed her towards the theatre. "Dad has always wanted me to do whatever I wanted to do. I worked at Tesco when I was younger and my mum thought I might end up as a buyer there," she says.

Instead, she found herself working on Northern Stage's production of Ballroom Of Romance on a summer placement three years ago. She was in the rehearsal room throughout and found the experience absorbing. As time went on, she became more and more involved as it was a piece about the North where she grew up. She worked with 30 of the company's performance group, members of the public who appear in both independent shows and alongside the Ensemble. Her accordion-playing was called upon, along with the ballroom dancing skills she'd quickly picked up.

After completing her final year at Cambridge, she returned to Northern Stage and directed the performance group as part of the season of plays by Beckett, Pinter and Mamet. She was also involved with schools work.

The Black Eyed Roses project began 18 months ago. The piece uses storytelling and music as two families preparing for a wedding tell their histories through "stories of the road and songs of the heart".

"People turn up at the wedding and tell stories. All kinds of things happen, that do happen at all weddings - although maybe not all at one wedding. It's about relationships between communities, being in love and hating each other even if you are married, and about jealousy, all very typical human emotions."

So far, she has resisted any suggestion that she should appear in the production. "There keep being threats of my accordion playing being drawn into it," she says.

"We did research and then a performance piece directed by Alan using that research and actors who were around at the time, although the ones in the production are more or less the same. In one week, we created a piece to show to the entire company. Everyone in the building came to see the work in progress.

"The production itself has quite an unusual rehearsal period because half the cast have been appearing in other productions, Animal Farm and Blue. We'd have our mornings together and the last half-hour of the day.

"I'm useful in that I'm not going on tour, so I'm always here. It's hard in rehearsal process to find unity and a sense of continuity, but I think we have."

Perhaps Annie's lack of interest in appearing on stage has something to do with unhappy memories of one particular student production, when she sprained her ankle during the run. Having to go on stage, limping around, every night proved hilarious when her male co-star also hurt his foot.

The injury was sustained playing football. Annie's given up acting through choice and football through necessity. When she returned to Newcastle, she didn't have a team to play for. Perhaps a future production will be forming a Northern Stage Ensemble soccer team.

* Northern Stage Ensemble presents The Black Eyed Roses at Newcastle Playhouse from June 17 to 28. Tickets 0191-230 5151.