GARETH Tudor Price had not acted for four years when the invitation came to join York Theatre Royal's repertory company for autumn 2001.

It was not that Gareth had been "resting", the acting profession's euphemism for the lull between jobs.

Far from it. The Holyhead-born, Birmingham-raised actor with the first class honours degree in drama from Bretton Hall College, West Yorkshire, had turned his attention full time to freelance directing.

"I felt my acting days had come to an end," says 43-year-old Gareth, who has latterly directed Hull Truck director and playwright John Godber in the West End production of Godber's biggest hit, Bouncers.

"I was enjoying my directing and thought 'This is how my career will move' but I was very pleased when Damian Cruden asked me to perform in this autumn season, especially in the format he's chosen."

Artistic director Damian Cruden and Gareth knew each other's work from their days at Hull Truck Theatre. Aware of Gareth's seductive and imposing stage presence - and his magnificent mane of dark hair - Damian and autumn season co-director Lucy Pitman-Wallace have cast him in leading roles in two of the rotating roster of three plays: he is playing the regal Theseus and the plotting Oberon in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the scheming Valmont in Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

"I'd done that rotating system once before, at Pitlochrie, spending six months doing six plays with a different play each night, and that was only my second professional job! I hadn't done anything like that since then but seeing what parts were offered to me in York and valuing Damian's work, and trusting it too - which is very important - I decided to do it."

Returning to the stage has been like riding a bike after a gap: from his college days onwards, Gareth has combined directing and acting.

"I'd been interested in directing when I trained at the Bristol Old Vic and at Bretton; then I'd pursued my acting career, then directing, and now I'm performing again," he says. "As a director, I'm hopefully sensitive to actors' requirements, and as an actor I'm sensitive to both actors' and the director's requirements, so I've taken off my director's hat and enjoyed immersing myself back into acting again.

"Damian and Lucy have created a very open rehearsal space and are very open to ideas and, as a consequence, that's created a very giving company, which makes it a pleasure to be an actor in this ensemble.

"You feel you can stretch your creative muscles rather than trying something and then seeing it being knocked on the head immediately."

Such an approach has enabled Gareth to bring out his own interpretation of the libertine trouble-maker Valmont.

"It would be very easy just to play him as this rake, this absolute villain of the piece, this reptilian charmer with no redeeming features, but I came to realise that he's not just a snake in the grass; you have to like him. It's his wit, his charm and ultimately his humanity in that he falls victim to his emotions when you least expect him to. That saves him from the contempt of the audience and endears him to them," says Gareth. "I wanted him to find his vulnerability."

It is such insights that he brings to his directing too, and he hopes to have the opportunity to direct at the Theatre Royal.

"It would be nice if Damian asked me to do that. I first acted here in The Office Party in 1991 and I remember thinking that for a big theatre it's still very intimate. You really feel you can reach out and touch the Upper Circle," he says. "Certainly I'd love to do more work at York."

Gareth Tudor Price is appearing at York Theatre Royal in repertoire in Les Liaisons Dangereuses until November 16 and A Midsummer Night's Dream until November 17. Box office: 01904 623568.