THE REP'S founding Artistic Director, Phil Willmott
talks about the ethos and history behind his multi-award winning work

Phil Willmott on the balcony of THE HITHE recent home to The Rotherhithe and East London Playhouse

​Since graduating I’ve always put on at least one free show each year, giving everyone in my community, regardless of background and income, the same change to discover theatre I’d had as a teenager from a working family in Bristol.

Back then, sitting in the dark watching wonderful actors bringing classic stories to vivid new life was where I was happiest. ​The inspiration and education I got from those great plays allowed me to think beyond the future laid out for me and empowering me to becoming the first person in my family to leave the area, first studying acting in London at Rose Bruford College and then fighting for a successful international career as a playwright,  and as a director at a time when it was almost impossible to be be taken seriously in that field if you hadn't been to Oxford or Cambridge. 

Twenty years later mum was finally persuaded her theatre hunch had paid off, when I was made an honorary fellow of my drama school and she got a pic of us for the living room with me in a cap and gown!
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