Keeping theatre in the spotlight

She well recalls being accosted by a slightly miffed Falstaff backstage. As his dresser, she had failed in her duty to fasten the fat knight's belt properly and Falstaff returned from the taverns of Cheapside, unusually anxious about his overflowing belly.

Happily for her, Sir John was being played by that most gentlemanly of actors Timothy West, who, rather than roaring about the risk of having his "guts" spilling on to the stage, sweetly inquired whether he might be made a little more comfortable.

Michelle chuckles at the memory of Henry IV, her first show at the Oxford theatre more than a decade ago.

The one-time dresser will take on the role as the Playhouse's new director on April 7. And if her responsibilities are altogether heavier these days, Oxford audiences will be pleased to learn that belt tightening is happily still not dominating her thoughts.

At the age of 32, Michelle is taking charge as the Playhouse prepares to celebrate 70 years at its home in Beaumont Street - and has been given the task of opening a new chapter in the theatre's history.

She certainly has a tough act to follow. For she will be replacing Tish Francis, who over 18 years took the lead in turning the Oxford Playhouse into one of the country's most successful regional theatres.

In Michelle, the board has chosen a figure steeped in Oxford theatre. For she has spent most of her career at the Playhouse after taking the decision to wander down The Broad from Wadham College, where she read history, to knock on the door and ask for a job.

As well as having been a dresser, she has worked in the marketing department and spent hundreds of hours following pantomime dames behind a spotlight.

"I did the spot for every single performance of Dick Whittington one year," she tells me. Seventy five shows. Now that was a proper introduction to the theatre."

Her more recent roles have included programming the main stage and the small Burton Taylor Studio Theatre and for the last three-and-a-half years has been the Deputy Director of the Playhouse.

Professor Graham Upton, chairman of the board of directors, was unmoved by arguments that some enfant terrible needed to bring about a change of scene. "We had a strong field when we advertised for Tish's replacement," said the former vice-chancellor of Brookes University. "But Michelle Dickson stood out as a young and rising star in the world of British theatre management. She has a clear vision for the future of the Playhouse and under her direction I believe we will see the Playhouse go from strength to strength.

"Her ideas for the further development of our own production are particularly exciting. But so too are her plans for the greater involvement of young people and the maintenance of an outstanding programme both on the main stage and inthe Burton Taylor theatre." The daughter of two Worcestershire teachers, Michelle's early experiences of theatre came at Stratford-upon-Avon. But in her typically unpretentious style, she confesses that it was not, alas, the Royal Shakespeare Company that first stirred her ambition to run a theatre. No, she confesses, it all comes down to Deacon Blue, the Scottish pop band, riding high in the chart back in the eighties with Real Gone Kid and Loaded.

"I would have been about 14 and I remember sitting in the Birmingham Symphony Hall thinking, I would love to run a place like this. I had this dawning realisation that a theatre was not just about what was going on on the stage. At a place like the Symphony Hall, it was about putting on a whole variety of work, from classical to pop concerts.

"Leaving the theatre I saw all the other buildings, which make it a cultural quarter in central Birmingham and I had the idea of working in an industry which gives people such great experiences.

"My favourite part of the job is still standing in the foyer and watching the audiences come out of a show and seeing their faces."

Michelle certainly put smiles on the faces of teachers at Stourport-on-Severn High School, when she became their first pupil in five years to go to Oxford or Cambridge. But after winning a place to read English at Wadham, she had been initially reluctant go to Oxford University.

"I had preconceived ideas about what it would be like. I thought it was going to be very alien. I'd wanted to go to Warwick to read English and Film studies."

But the Playhouse was not to become a major part of her life immediately. "I went to a few student productions and to see a pantomime. It's an eternal struggle to get students into the theatres. Terms are short and they are so wrapped up in their student world and I was as guilty as anyone."

She was almost certainly unaware just how close the theatre had been to disappearing only a few years before her arrival in darkness.

When her predecessor took charge in 1989 (Tish Francis and Hedda Beeby were co-directors for the first ten years), the Playhouse had already been in darkness for three years.

Within 18 months it had reopened and it has remained open 50 weeks a year ever since. From starting with a staff of two, the Playhouse has grown into a £3m business with a staff of 40 and a pool of 150 volunteers.

As assistant to Tish Francis (who is on a sabbatical until October), Michelle had a front row seat to witness the Playhouse's continuing success. It now stages more than 80 shows a year to audiences of 150,000 annually.

Her experience was further widened when she left office to work for the British Council's Drama and Dance Department. The job involves seeing dozens of performances, in order to select the ones most suitable for touring overseas.

"I went to four shows a week for two years. It was great training because I had funding. It meant all the directors wanted to talk to me because I obviously could be helpful to them."

She also enjoyed a spell, based in Milton Keynes, working in regional programming for the Ambassador Theatre Group, before returning to the Playhouse five years ago.

As deputy director she has been heavily involved in programming both the main stage and the Burton Taylor Studio Theatre.

"It's a huge responsibility. We are incredibly lucky with the audiences in Oxford. People are generally interested in seeing good work. We are not reliant on strong casting to get people through the door.

"The theatre is already achieving excellent audiences and we work at about 70 per cent capacity.

"We receive support from our core funders - the city council, the county council the University of Oxford and the Arts Council - but we receive less subsidy than many other theatres.

"It's so important for audiences that we get it right. We want people to trust the Playhouse so they will come to see something because it's here. If people have a bad time, it is hard to get them to come back."

In moments of doubt, she will happily reflect on the screams of children shouting out their disapproval when Dick Whittington had suggested selling his cat. "Every night when I was behind the follow spot that moment would make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck," she recalls.

"I now spend a lot of time choosing the work that we put on stage. Whenever possible, I see it before it comes here." True to her word, she reveals that she will arrive at the Musical Youth Company of Oxford's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, the first Playhouse show under her directorship, hot foot from Russia.

She is soon to travel to Moscow, where she will see nine shows in three days for a festival that brings together the best of Russia's theatre companies.

"I am looking forward to welcoming some of the finest theatre companies to Oxford," she said. But she said there were other clear priorities as she set out her vision for the future. "I will be working with the team here to develop more of our own productions, to tour more regularly and to ensure that the Playhouse plays a key part in the cultural lives of the people of Oxfordshire."

As part of the theatre's 70th birthday celebrations she will be overseeing the launch of a major fundraising campaign and aim to raise £1m by October 2009 and boost regular gifts from the audience.

The money will support a range of new initiatives, including bringing new work to Oxford and building up the Learning and Community programme.

Prof Upton will kick things off by cycling more than 1,100 miles visiting regional theatres of England and plans to see a play at each venue on his itinerary.

But it is Michelle who now has the job of keeping Oxford in the spotlight, as the curtain rises on a new era at the old theatre.