In The Company Of: How Brian Daniels, of Pluto Play Productions, was inspired by Kay Mellor

1. In a nutshell, what does your company do and how did it start?

I was the artistic director of three theatres in London between 1997 and 2011. I produced many new plays and musicals but had a real vocation for writing my own plays. I have now written 27 plays, had several awards and had my work produced off-Broadway in New York, in Prague and engaged in numerous play performances throughout the UK.

2. What's the most surprising thing about it?

The most surprising thing is that I thought I would start writing as a hobby. I never imagined that I would make a living from this work - I was very inspired by the late and much missed Kay Mellor, who helped me in the early days and for whom I produced a pilot of a feature film in around 1993.

3. What do you do in the business?

The business prides itself on producing the play performances and these are largely, these days, for the NHS and other organisations engaged in health and social care. My typical day is to engage with senior level staff who feel that there should be a play written about a particular social or healthcare issue and then setting about having the work commissioned. No two days are the same and I can find myself acting in one of the plays as well as casting for other plays and hosting discussions around the play issues.

4. How did you end up here?

I don’t know if this is where I will end up! I hope I do because the work is more satisfying than the world of business which is where I had a successful career as the CEO of Daniels Bates Partnership, a company founded in 1983 and which I ran until 1993.

5. If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?

I can’t think of anything I would prefer to do at the moment. I have created a property company but that gives me no job satisfaction at all!

6. What motivates you?

When an audience responds to something I have written - either through laughter or tears, then I know they are touched by the words. An audience is a living organism - you can feel the mood of the room and I love it when people tell me - and they sometimes do - that the play has created for them a greater insight into their own life, the lives of their loved ones and they leave with more understanding.

7. What one thing do you wish you had known when you started out in business?

That rejection is always on the horizon. That there is no guarantee that a play or production will work and that one needs a huge dose of tenacity to make a difference.

8. What excites you about business?

Just the possibilities that there are so many issues that can be covered - I have just been commissioned to write a new play about indeterminate prison sentences. This is a whole new area for me to research.

9. What is your pet hate in business?

The scarcity of funding around the important areas of health and social care. The play performances are much sought after, but organisations have to find ways to nudge their budgets to get a performance organised.

10. What advice would you give to people just starting their careers?

Be bold and determined, but also be prepared to take the knocks, because then the good things will follow.

11. Who in business do you most admire, and why?

I had a mentor - Lord Stanley Kalms who took his father’s photographic shop and created Dixon/Curry’s - a UK institution. He interviewed me some years ago now to decide whether he should support our charity. I felt I had been turned inside out - but he did support us very generously for years.

12. What moments of your career so far stand out?

Our play performances at some wonderful venues including the Houses of Parliament, the United Nations, in New York where I was introduced by the Academy Award winning actress, Kathy Bates. Working with some of the great artists including Judi Dench and hearing fascinating stories - for example meeting Fred Astaire’s daughter who told me what her life was like living with her father. Liza Minnelli introducing herself by saying ‘Hello, my name is Liza’ as if I couldn’t possibly know who she was!

13. What sets your company apart from the competition?

Simple, it is the uniqueness of what we do, no one else does the same work.

14. What is the most difficult challenge your company has faced? And what challenges are you experiencing at the moment?

Like many, the covid pandemic had a massive impact on our work, with no live performances anywhere. We then discovered we could do some online, so we reinvented ways of doing our work, which actually enabled us to grow the business. At the moment it is probably the heavy reliance on me directly to write the plays, to meet demand.

15. Have you got a five-year plan for the company?

Yes, I would like to increase the impact we are having in health and social care sectors, because we can see that we are making a difference, and that is what drives us forward. Both sectors are facing so many challenges, I will do anything I can to raise the profile of them.

16. Why is it good to do business in Yorkshire?

Despite living in London for a number of years when I ran the theatres I am Yorkshire born and bred. It did feel like coming back down to earth moving back to Yorkshire from London, but this is where I belong.

Factfile

Name: Brian Daniels.

Birthplace: Leeds.

Job title: CEO Pluto Play Productions.

Company name: Pluto Play Productions.

Company address: Suite 1, McCarthy’s Business Centre, Education Road, Leeds, LS7 2AL.

Website address: https://www.plutoplayproductions.co.uk/

Company founded: 1996.

Turnover: N/A.

Number of staff: Six.