At a time when funding cuts may mean that many theatres need to struggle for their very existence, it becomes more important than ever that the teams working together in a particular company, or on a particular production, should feel comfortable with each other, and with the director – on whose shoulders may fall many problems and decisions beyond the straightforwardly artistic. Gwenda Hughes has been Artistic Director of Watford Palace Theatre in Education Company, an Associate Director at Birmingham Rep (where she directed some twenty-five productions), and from 1998 until 2006 was Artistic Director of the New Vic Theatre in Staffordshire. She has also worked as a freelance director for M6, Women's Theatre Group, the Young Vic, Oldham Coliseum, Salisbury Playhouse, Theatre Centre, and Lip Service. Drawing on this extensive and varied experience, she here offers some practical guidance on the pitfalls which face the director and/or the artistic director, and how they can be avoided – or if not avoided, overcome – whether in the rehearsal room, on the ‘top floor’ of management, or in dealing with the public, from fussy members of the audience and local councillors making funding decisions, to visiting royals in need of tactful guidance to the lavatory.