For seven years, Gavin Payne carried in his wallet a piece of paper that was to change his life.
But it was only when he was made redundant that a by now threadbare scrap of paper was to help turn a skilled toolmaker into an actor, writer and theatre director.
These days, Gavin runs a successful theatre company and will be spending the next few weeks creating what he hopes will be a magical new family show for the festive season at the Lawrence Batley Theatre.
But it is a life which could scarcely be more different than the one he used to live.
Gavin was brought up in Norfolk and though there were no theatre connections in his family, he knew that's what he wanted to do.
At 16, he approached his school career's officer with the idea of making theatre his life. "But he said no. I needed a proper job."
That "proper job" turned out to be an apprenticeship as a tool-maker with the area's biggest employer. "Many of my family worked in this factory, in the offices and so on."
So when some years later, the factory closed down, the blow to Gavin's family was enormous.
The closure cost Gavin not just his job, but those of his father, his mother, his sister, brother-in-law and various uncles.
"It completely wiped us out. For the seven years that I had worked there I had carried this piece of paper in my wallet. When I was made redundant and got the paper out of my wallet, it was threadbare."
But it still held the key to a new future for Gavin. For the paper contained information about college drama courses - and Gavin applied to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.
"I knew nothing about it. I had no acting experience at all. The only thing that I used to do was to be involved in school assemblies. They used to be so boring and I tried to make them more entertaining."
It was a brave choice, a tough call for a lad whose working life so far had consisted of grafting alongside 700 other men in a heavy engineering factory learning his skills as a tool-maker. Drama college was no easy option.
"I felt a fool there for the first couple of months. But they said no, that's OK, that's great."
How many others perhaps had his drive to learn. Here was a blank canvas waiting to be drawn on.
Ask him today whether or not the career switch was a good choice and there's no doubting Gavin's answer though he does say wryly: "My bank manager would probably feel differently. But I've been very happy."
That said, it hasn't been an easy switch.
Today Gavin lives in Cambridgeshire with his partner, Lynne who is a make-up artist and their two small daughters Makenzie six and Marlee eight months.
Lynne is from Sowerby Bridge and Gavin is delighted that while he's working at the LBT, he'll be staying with his mother-in-law who still lives in Yorkshire.
In the early 1990s, he set up his own theatre company,Walking For ward Theatre Company, concentrating on educational theatre work. It's now one of the biggest companies of its type in the country and in many ways, makes him the perfect choice to know just what will entice whole families into the theatre to see a show together.
Here's a man who has acted, written and produced shows many on a specific theme targeted at a particular kind of audience and that's everything from youngsters to soldiers in the Armed Forces.
Now Gavin's bringing those skills to the LBT in The Magic Tree, a brand new production which will premiere in just a few weeks' time.
Gavin points out that though the show does indeed run throughout the festive period, it is not in the accepted sense, a Christmas show. Yes it is entertaining, yes it has a a story with things to tell us and characters that we will easily respond to.
There's music, lots of dashing about and getting into all kinds of scrapes, bags of fun and a story that might just leave you with something to think about. But it's an anytime, feel-good story with, he hopes, that touch of magic.
Gavin co-wrote The Magic Tree with Jake Lyons, who has been with the company since 1993.
"He started off as an actor and then started directing for me and then writing. We work in a similar style and have the same ethos."
That ethos as far as The Magic Tree is concerned includes an environmental theme . And Gavin admits that part of the inspiration for the setting came courtesy of his dad. Though dad might not be entirely flattered.
"My dad is a bit of a hoarder. There are tractors, bits of old lawn mowers and various things. He has six acres of fields attached to the house and there's stuff lying around all over the place.
"Nature has a way of taking it back. Two or three years ago, there was a stoat nesting in a potato planter and it brought up a family there. I love the idea othat you can have the two worlds lying up against each other.
"There was a scrapyard that I used to go to that was completely overgrown. There was a character there who I have based a character in the show on. I was very keen to get this environmental message in there."
And Gavin has certainly done that in a show which as well as bursting with good natured humour quietly but firmly puts over a message about how we all live.
See how this particular Magic Tree has grown from December 6 to January 14. Box office: 01484-430528.
