"Giving up a secure pensionable job in the bank. You must be mad!" It's a reaction which, if not always articulated, Geoff Gould has encountered more than once since joining the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork as artistic director earlier this month.
But Geoff makes no apologies: "The theatre is a funny thing - I had the bug for years and suppressed it but it has a habit of getting under your skin and when it does, there's no way of getting it out - you've just got to let it go."
A native of Fermoy, he attributes his love of the theatre to his involvement in musicals in St Colman's - where his music teacher was Tom Barry of Na Fili - and later Fermoy Choral Society with whom he performed.
His interest in drama subsided for a couple of years only to be rekindled when he joined the Pilgrim Players in Mallow when posted there as assistant manager with the Trustee Savings Bank. It was to be start of a fruitful relationship.
"I started off acting with them but I felt more comfortable producing and directing, and I did five shows with them, including a modernised adult version of Oliver and a production of Kurasawa's Rashomon," he explains.
Transferred to Cork, he maintained his interest in the theatre - going so far as to be shortlisted for a position with the Gate. "Michael Colgan was very supportive, and over the past three years I've been working towards developing my theatre skills."
Geoff sees his job with the Everyman Palace as trying to develop quality productions and a regular theatre-going audience for the sumptuously gilded Victorian theatre, which is celebrating its centenary this year.
"It's a simple enough philosophy but trying to actually achieve it will be difficult - you have to cater for everything from drama to ballet to opera to comedy to classical music - anything that will build up your audience."
But 35-year-old Geoff is looking forward to the challenge and believes his banking skills should help him. "The TSB ran some very good courses so I should be well prepared to manage a set of accounts - whether it's a company or a theatre."
Currently seeing out the programme of his predecessor, Monica Spencer, upon whose work he hopes to build, Geoff comes into his own in December with his first scheduled production - a musical called Say It Ain't So Joe. "It's written by two brothers from Midleton, John and Martin Ryan - they've written both the lyrics and music. It's based on the story of baseball player, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and I think it's very good and hopefully will do very well for us."
Dick Hogan is on holidays