Twelve Questions for: Ruth Milne

1. You’re from Edinburgh originally. What High School did you got to? When did you leave?

Ruth Milne: Boroughmuir High School, and I left in, oh, ah, hard question, 2000...2006?

2. Did you go on to College?

RM: No, I finished up at high school, and then I took a couple of years to just work in Edinburgh, doing acting work and just normal work. And then I went to London to start my drama training.

3. And where did you go for your drama training?

RM:The Central School of Speech and Drama, in London.

4. How did you get involved in the theatre?

RM: At first it was through a youth group, when I was very young, it’s called Springwell House, it’s just a local place near where my parents lived. And then I went to the Lyceum Youth Theatre, which is very good youth theatre in Edinburgh that still does very well. So I went there for five years, and it was through them that I got my first audition.

5. And what was the audition for?

RM: That was for an episode of Doctor Who, which I did, that was my first job, and I got my agent through that, so I owe a lot to the Lyceum Youth Theatre, really.

6. What attracted you to Punk Rock?

RM: Simon Stephens is one of my favourite writers, and I’m so happy to be in a play by him, he’s been very good, he’s been helping us out, and it’s lovely to have him there. It’s contemporary...I think he’s an amazing writer, his characters are just so three dimensional, so real, he’s a very, very talented writer.

7. Can you tell me a little bit about your character, Cissy?

RM:My character is 17, they go to a private school in Stockport, near Manchester. They’re coming up to their A-Levels, and she’s a very ambitious person, she’s going out with a very boisterous boyfriend, which is part of her story of dealing with that, and balancing that between her friends and her boyfriend, her teenage life and trying to make it out of high school with the grades that she wants and the life that she wants.

8. How does it feel to be playing a high school student again, after all this time?

RM: It’s weird, it’s something that you immediately can link back to, you’ve got that high school experience, everyone’s got that somewhere in their minds. So you can use a lot of that, draw on it, even though Boroughmuir’s a lot different from the school they’re in, there’s still the social structures that are there, and the pressures, so you can use quite a lot of your experience.

9. How does it feel to make your stage debut in Edinburgh?

RM: Amazing. Great, really nice. I can’t believe my luck, this is my first job out of drama school and it’s really nice to come up to Edinburgh, to my home town. In London, we did shows each term, but they’ve obviously been in London, so it’s really nice to be able to do something in my home town.

10. Do you feel a bit more nervous about coming up to Edinburgh?

RM: Definitely there’s a moment of I’m coming home, I want to do a good job for my home town. Everyone’s really excited, Edinburgh is the highlight of our tour, so I’m kind of proud of my home town, and the cast have been really excited, it’s the kind of place that they associate with the Festival, so they’re looking forward to it as well. I’m looking forward to it, but obviously for different reasons, it’s a highlight for everyone, I think.

11. What do you think people are going to take away from this play?

RM: I think it’s the kind of play that gives you more than you bargained for. When you walk in and you sit down in your seat, it hits you. It effects people in different ways, but... it’s not just a high school drama about a group of kids...it doesn’t look at young people in a general young people basis, it looks at them in a very real way.