It’s not every actress who gets a special press release from the University of Oxford. But that’s what happened to distinguished RSC Associate Artist Joanne Pearce when she decided she wanted to study for a degree.

“I had a tough audition here at Oxford — it was the scariest I’ve ever had. I came for a weekend, and slept in a college with the loo 200 yards away down the corridor, surrounded by fantastically talented 18-year-olds.

“I was definitely a mature student,” Joanne laughs. “I wore sunglasses for the first five weeks, and pretended to be young!”

To begin with, Joanne continued her stage career at the same time, while her husband, former RSC artistic director Adrian Noble, looked after their two children at their Oxfordshire home.

“When I did my prelims, I was doing a play in the West End with Tony Sher — I hasten to add that I stopped acting for the following two years. One of my exams was on a Saturday morning — it never occurred to me that there would be exams on a Saturday. I said: ‘I have a matinée to do’. It was quite extraordinary — they opened up for me at seven in the morning, with a fully-gowned tutor, and me also in full gown, to sit and take my first exam.”

How did Joanne get involved with Magdalen College School? “They asked me to find a professional director to do a play at Blenheim Palace. It was difficult as rehearsals have to be fitted round school exams. I was sitting outside Magdalen in the car as my final attempt hit the dust, so I phoned Adrian. He said: ‘You must direct it’.”

Joanne obeyed her husband and the outcome was, to quote Chris Gray’s review in The Oxford Times: “A splendid production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Critic, with much else besides in an event grandly styled ‘An Enlightenment Evening of Home Theatricals’”.

“As a result,” Joanne explains, “The Master [MCS headmaster Tim Hands] invited me to repeat the process this year, but this time at the Oxford Playhouse. I’ve again committed a year to the project — I opened an academy at MCS last September: I feel quite strongly that students are now going to pay such a high level of fees for university education, people won’t be able to follow the same path as university-educated actors like Simon Russell Beale and Alex Jennings. So the more schools can do to develop core theatrical skills, the better: children will be more confident in their adult lives if they can speak and collaborate well, if they can take responsibility for their work.

“At the Playhouse, I’m staging The Aeneid, and it has grown out of the academy. It’s a voyage into the dark, and it’s an extraordinary example of the Master’s courage: no one’s even asked to check the script I’ve written. He blanched just once — when I said I was going to use puppets. But I’ll never make a proper director because I can’t say no. Every child that walks through the door, I say: ‘Yes, of course you can be included’. So it’s going to be an epic production!”

The Aeneid is part of this year’s MCS Arts Festival, running from June 29 until July 8. Details on 01865 305305 or at www.ticketsoxford.com