Nicola Haydn is the artistic director of Otherplace Productions and co-manages Kemp Town fringe venue Upstairs At Three And Ten in Steine Street. She is also a drama teacher.

Nicola trained as an actor at London’s Rose Bruford College and has worked in the performing arts for over a decade, running the Marlborough Theatre in Prince’s Street before moving to Upstairs At Three And Ten. In 2009, she was nominated for The Stage’s Best Solo Performer award for her one-woman show Janis, a portrait of 1960s music icon Janis Joplin.

Upstairs At Three and Ten has won several awards including comedy website Chortle’s Best Small Venue in the South East.

For more information, visit www.upstairsatthreeandten.co.uk

Which TV programme couldn’t you live without?

I couldn’t live without Wimbledon.

When I first moved into my flat it was August and I went for nearly a year without a TV. But as soon as June the following year came around, I had to sort it out because I couldn’t bear the thought of missing the tennis. I do still have only five channels on my telly, which baffles most people and really irritates my nine-year-old nephew Daniel.

Do you remember the first record you bought – what was it and where did you buy it?

My mum bought Mud’s Tiger Feet for me when I was very small (thanks mum!). I think the first record I bought with my own money was Now That’s What I Call Music 2, bought in WH Smith in George Street, Hove, for about a fiver, which I thought was wonderful. Like most people I used to religiously record the Hit Parade on a Sunday night so suddenly having all those singles in their entirety was amazing.

Particular favourites were 99 Red Balloons, Radio Ga Ga and Modern Love.

Tell us about any guilty pleasures lurking in your CD or film collections…

I own very few films and CDs.

Life outside my flat is pretty noisy so when I am at home I tend to opt for silence a lot of the time. My guilty pleasures are the tapes in my car. I have both Spice Girls’ albums and lots of old-school rock.

Favourite film?

The Sting because it is brilliant.

Can I have another one? The Odd Couple because it is so, so funny and their relationship is spot on. The Three Amigos is also genius and, even though I know every line, it still makes me laugh my head off.

Favourite book?

Danny, The Champion Of The World wins every time. I can read it over and over again and be totally engrossed.

Is there a song or individual piece of music you always come back to?

The Whole Of The Moon by The Waterboys makes me grin like mad. I often use it as warm-up music when teaching – it is inspired and a song about being inspired, so you can’t get much better than that.

Tell us about a live music/theatre/cinema experience that sticks in your memory....

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1990 production of Troilus And Cressida directed by Sam Mendes and starring Ralph Fiennes. It blew my mind; I saw it three times!

Is there a book/record/film/ play/person that made you want to do what you do now?

I read Simon Callow’s book Being An Actor, Kenneth Brannagh’s Beginning and Anthony Sher’s Year Of The King when I was about 17.

It was at a time when I was reading and watching as many plays as I could because I wanted to know all about acting and theatre and how you can work in the industry. These books gave really honest accounts of what a ridiculously difficult industry it is and how much work is needed to fulfil your dreams, but I suppose I just became hooked.

If you get a spare 30 minutes, how are you most likely to spend it?

Writing a “to do” list just so I can cross things off, which makes me feel like I have achieved something. Or I try to remember the French and German way of saying a particular word or phrase. Bon.

What should we look out for next at Upstairs At Three And Ten?

We have Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister, a really passionate and personal show by Rebecca Peyton, whose sister, the BBC journalist Kate Peyton, was murdered in Somalia. We also have the wonderful singer-songwriter Philip Jeays and the return of Mark Allen’s The Humble Quest For Universal Genius – a live comedy panel show that’s nothing like conventional panel shows.

Oh, and in October we have our annual comedy fringe – I’ve just returned from Edinburgh where I’ve been scouting for great acts.