I still get a buzz when I see an audience file into the auditorium on opening night," confides a reflective Tish Francis when I meet her at the Oxford Playhouse, the institution from which she will step down next autumn after 18 years at the helm.

As chief excutive, Tish has played a vital role at the Playhouse. She made the decision to stand down about a year ago, and has given plenty of notice - she cares about her job and wants to help whoever takes over to settle into the position.

But she assures me she won't be doing a Tony Blair'.

"The reason why I chose this time frame was so that whoever takes over doesn't have to live with my programme for too long," she quips.

"There needs to be a transition period, and I want to be here for that."

It is not surprising, really, that Tish wants to make sure the Playhouse is in good hands - she has worked there, as she says herself incredulously, for a lifetime.

"It is a full-on job. Now I want some time out for myself."

It is probably a safe bet to say there is a lot on the horizon for Tish, but first - a break.

She wants to visit family in Australia, cook for her son, and, ironically, catch up on all the other theatre she has been missing out on.

"It all came about when I started thinking about the 70th anniversary of the Playhouse and what my role would be," she says. "I have very able deputies who work extremely well, so I know the place isn't going to fall down without me."

You get the feeling Tish's work at the Playhouse is done, some other worthy cause calling - and of course she wants to leave on a high.

"I want to hand over the theatre when it is in good shape. October 2008 marks the 70th anniversary of the opening of the theatre, so I felt this was when I should go - during a buoyant and celebratory time."

But is she mad to leave a job she still so obviously loves?

"I could continue of course, because working here every day there is so much excitement, and that somehow disguises the fact that really you are doing the same thing."

While Tish has no definite plans, her campaigning instinct, as she calls it, is nagging her.

"After college, I worked in community theatre," she says."We would put on productions about homelessness and life on the street.

"And we really did our research - we went out and talked to the people, and asked them what it was like to be homeless, or a prostitute."

Tish was part of the Shared Experience Theatre Company, helping with the conversion of the Soho Laundry into acting studios. She was also involved in the early days of the Almeida Theatre in London.

She shakes her head disbelievingly as she remembers those days.

"I came to the conclusion that, if you bother people enough, you will eventually get what you want."

Indeed, it is this spirit that led to such success at the Playhouse.

The 1980s had been a bad time for the theatre. It closed down in 1986 for three years as it was in financial dire straits and needed new direction.

Tish and her co-director for ten years, Hedda Beeby, were given the job of breathing new life into the dark old building in Beaumont Street.

"We had both been working in London, Hedda in the box office, and me looking after projects for theatre and building companies," she says.

Tish looks wistfully out the window - we are seated upstairs in the circle bar - across Beaumont Street to a flat she and Hedda stayed in, and then recalls rattling around' a huge apartment given on loan to them by one of the colleges.

The major problem facing the Playhouse in those days was funding. The building itself needed a lot of work, while the programme needed to appeal to the broader public.

"Hedda and I were a double act," says Tish. "I had the Oxford connections, she was from London, yet we were both fresh faces - we often did the good cop, bad cop routine.

"And between us we got it done. We complemented each other."

Looking back now, Tish calls it a great adventure.

She says: "When Hedda and I reflected on it in later years we thought, God we really didn't know what we were doing'. We were starting from scratch."

Tish believes forging local links was the crucial factor.

"It was about identifying with the audience, building relationships, giving a personal touch," she says.

"The problem was that the Playhouse had become associated with a narrow audience - it needed a public face."

When asked what her vision for the theatre was back then, Tish is frank: "We didn't have time to think about a vision as such. It was about getting it open and keeping it open."

When Hedda finally left the Playhouse in 2001, Tish took on the role of chief executive.

"I think we both knew it was coming, Hedda had been commuting from London and it was getting too much."

Tish wasn't ready to go though, and it offered her a new challenge - running the Playhouse alone.

One of Tish's most important legacies, she feels, was the staff restructure she initiated in recent years.

"I would never have classified myself as a leadership guru, but I had this intuition that we should look at the structure while things were good, and not wait until, perhaps, they were not so good."

She continued: "It was a very interesting process, all the the staff were consulted and it has worked very well."

Tish can't think of any real regrets about her time with the Playhouse - perhaps another reason why she feels now is the time to leave - but she does have plenty of fond memories.

"Little things stand out, like when we first started out, someone pushed a pound coin through the door with a note, it said dear ladies, I wish you well', or when we had a bomb scare on opening night and had to decide what to do with a building packed full of people.

"I always sit on the end of an aisle waiting for something to happen," she laughs.

Tish attributes the success of the Playhouse to its team.

"It is a predictable thing to say, but we must have the most highly-qualified box office in the country, it is a really great team."

She added: "It is important not to become complacent with success. Don't assume that everybody knows everything, keep communicating."

In more recent times, Tish admits she had felt it might be nice to be at home more.

"I want to cook more," she reveals. "My son is taking his GCSEs next year, so it will be nice to be there more for him."

Whatever Tish does decide to do, you can be sure the Playhouse will always have a special place in her heart.