Profile | Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts director Gillian Choa on her varied career and her views on arts education

Front of house I like being out of the house, I like seeing people. Even as a small child, in Pok Fu Lam, I was always running around with the neighbouring kids. I’m number four in the family – two bigger brothers, an older sister and a younger sister – and I’m probably the most outgoing.

I’m probably like my father. He was an ear, nose and throat surgeon. He was an optimist with a great sense of humour, an incredibly charitable person who always managed to put people at ease in any situation. He and mother used to be out a lot in Hong Kong, they were the socialites of their time. My mother was quite a firm mother. My brothers and sisters are all achievers and she liked the idea that we’d do well academically.

Curtain up When I was five, my mother asked me: piano or ballet? The others had piano lessons and hated it but I was already teaching myself from books. I’d go with my mother to collect my older sister, Carolyn (who became a dancer and choreographer), from Carol Bateman’s dance school so I started ballet. I loved it and when I was 11, I asked my parents if I could go to ballet school in the UK. They said to wait a few years. But once you wait a few years, it’s too late. I also loved watching anything on television. If you ask me about any of those Cantonese features, I’ve probably seen every single one of them.

Scenic shift While I was still at school, I did two summers as an intern at [Hong Kong broadcaster] TVB. I was actually quite good technically. Sometimes we’d do live shows and I’d sit in the OB (outside broadcast) van and prepare the special effects and music, and I learned how to edit. After the second summer, they asked me to stay. That was an absolute no for my parents; they wanted me to have a degree.

So I went to study theatre directing at the University of Hull in the UK, a degree course with drama. Going from Hong Kong to late-1970s Hull was a shock: it was dark by 4pm and by 10pm there were no buses. But once I got into the programme, I really enjoyed it. By the end of my first year, I’d done all my technical tests. Only one was required but I did all five: lighting, sound, stage management, front of house and flying, for things like scenery. After those three years, I did a one-year course in theatre design at Croydon College of Art and Design.