SOMEWHERE in the background, there's a London Marathon going on. And a story about a lost wallet.

Not literally, of course. The marathon and the wallet form part of the hectic backdrop of Matt Aston's life. He's just started training for the marathon; the wallet has been accidentally left at home in Gedling today.

But, for the next hour and a bit, all such flotsam is forgotten because Matt's in the process of telling a story. For the purposes of this interview, it happens to be his own story.

But, as one of Nottingham's brightest-light directors, Matt gets equally absorbed in any form of storytelling.

When he's talking about plays, theatres, writing – anything he has a passion for – Matt's hands start tapping the table with enthusiasm. He reminds me of acclaimed local screenwriter William "Billy" Ivory, another arm-waver and Matt's great mate. When they get chatting, I suspect it's like a fencing match. Arms fly everywhere.

Perhaps part of Matt's success is his reserve of pent-up nervous energy.

"It's always stressful, it's awful, I don't know why I do it!" he says of his job.

"I love being with writers and actors and creating something. Sometimes I'm flying and it's fun, but taking off gets worse every time."

"Taking off" means opening night. Matt suffers from theatrical vertigo.

"I'm sure I'll get to the point where I won't be able to watch opening nights. I do at the moment but it's terrible," he says.

He recalls one particularly tumultuous night at Billy Ivory's debut play The Retirement of Tom Stevens.

"We had this play which was ridiculously hard work to put on. It got to press night. Billy had asked some of his London connections – and the first half was one of the worst hours I have ever had in theatre. Lines were being missed. Cues were out. It just wasn't working. I was watching it with my head in my hands. I turned to Billy, who was clinging to his seat. But the second half was remarkable. There was that pindrop moment," he recalls.

A game of two halves, then?

"Exactly! We were 2-0 down at half-time and we came back and won, 3-2!"

For eight years, Matt was theatre producer and programmer for the Lakeside Arts Centre. He joined the venue for its opening in 2001 and helped build it up from an unproven new-build into a nationally-recognised venue – particularly known for its successful catalogue of new work.

But then, in July, he left to take up a career as a freelance.

What was the thinking?

"You're right – what WAS I thinking? Leaving a really stable job at a university, in a recession, to go freelance?" he continues.

"I love the Lakeside and I always will. But I wanted to concentrate on directing," he says.

So far, it's going OK. He has work lined up until next February, including a return to the Lakeside in May to do a new Billy Ivory show Bomber's Moon, a panto at Wakefield next Christmas, and a combination of well-known names and local faces lined up to do A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at Nottingham Playhouse in March.

Joe Egg's cast includes Mark Benton of the Nationwide ads fame.

"Mark's lovely. We met him just before Christmas," explains Matt. "We caught him at the right time because he's done a lot of TV and was looking to get back into theatre."

The play was written by Peter Nichols in the 1960s and successfully revived with Eddie Izzard in 2001.

"The two main parts are Bri and Sheila who are parents, living with a severely disabled child. Peter Nichols based it on his own experience," says Matt. "It's very dark but it's actually very funny."

It's fitting Matt has returned to the Playhouse after eight years. He started his career there, as a Saturday boy on the stage door, at the age of 23, just after he left Nottingham Trent university with a degree in communication studies.

"I was massively in debt. I did a year of bar work, I was a nanny and then I did this!" he recalls. "It started as a temporary job, then it turned into a permanent contract." He would sit backstage, watching how plays were put together. He moved through the ranks, first as assistant producer on community plays before being hired as a producer for three years.

The Lakeside came up in 2001. Matt was brought in to run the theatre.

It was his idea to add in-house productions to the Lakeside's inventive programme of touring works.

Under his hand, the Lakeside became a testing ground for new works which were given a read-through in front of audiences.

"If the writers are up for it, it really helps to gauge audience reaction. You have to have a thick skin as well, if the feedback isn't that positive!"