Martin Witts is a big man, less half an inch - ('six foot one and a half - it used to be two') - with grey spikey hair. He's the charming and fleet-footed, rugby-playing artistic director who transformed London's Arts Theatre into a West End centre of excellence, but hates men wearing wigs. 'Though I did dye my hair once,' he confides. 'Everyone said it looked fine, except my son who said: "You have purple hair". So, never again. But I have fabulous binoculars. I've been a compulsive bird-watcher since my parents put me in the back room facing the garden as a child. In chains.'

He's not a huge fan of the Arts Council either. 'Arts Council funding gives venue directors a chance to look at more things. That's the only respect I've got for them. I've never engaged with the Arts Council. It's become a very begging-bowl business. Anybody can get funding if they spend 6 months filling in forms. Filling in forms? If you're going to set up a business, set up a business. It's amazing how many people write to us saying "We have an idea. We'd like to produce it with you.' He's a hard man. And don't get him going on free tickets. 'Russ Abbot used to say "If you ran a sweet shop, would you give me a Mars bar every time I came in?"' So what about that tank?

Martin Witts is a term he never uses - an artistic director. He's managed acts including Russ Abbot and Lily Savage, programmed and directed venues, but started off as a bad lad. Not immediately, quite the opposite - he was an extremely good small boy. All the other lads were in Boy Scout patrols called after rugged birds of prey - Kestrels, Owls, Eagles. Martin Witts's patrol drew the only limp name in the pack. 'Being patrol leader of Woodpigeons has stayed with me for life.'

'Look, I was a Cub and a Scout. I got the Chief Scout Award 1976. My Hungarian Goulash and Chicken Poulet Merengo won the Kent Camp Cook Competition - I have the photograph. I had an armful of badges - Housekeeping, First Aid, Wood Chopping. The maximum was 28, I had 24. I went to first-ever mixed Scout and Guides Camp. Saturdays, I worked at the local blacksmith. But I was still a Woodpigeon.'

Martin Witts (MW) was born in 1962 in Bromley, Wales, but counts himself a true Cockney. He's always elegantly dressed, usually in hand-cut two-piece silver-grey city suits - with brown country brogues. His corgi-cross dogs Max and Max attack men on skateboards, and it's only surprising that it's not the dogs riding the boards - after all, his grandfather was Red Fred The Human Gyroscope.

Red Fred was married to Rita, and they performed together. MW remembers them fondly. 'There's a video of them in the 1926 Tower Circus in the Tower Building, Blackpool. Red Fred And Rita were still performing up to the late 1970s. Red Fred was a speciality act to all the great British circuses. He rode anything on one wheel and used to unicycle round steamship funnels. He promoted himself and the circus, and as well as performing he was a skilled painter, builder, decorator. The circus wintered in Anglesea (the wintering grounds are famous now as a magic mushroom Nirvana). Rita ran the donkeys on Church Bay, Anglesea.'

'My father's side of the family were originally scrap metal merchants in Wales, who became merchant seamen', some moving to South Shields and Newcastle. 'My great uncle was Big Billy Of The Tyne, laying telecoms cables round the world. My father was one of seven brothers, Edwin 'Ted' Henry Witts, the youngest-ever chief engineer in the merchant navy. Ted and his identical twin Bill served on the Monarch, based from Newcastle. My father met my mother Anna Louisa at Butlins Margate where she was working as a chef.'

Anna Louisa had been adopted by the man who therefore became MW's maternal grandfather, a headmaster who founded Claringbold House, a public school which, unusually for the time in the South of England, took non-white children - mainly the children of diplomats based in London. MW was brought up in Broadstairs. His father was away at sea, particularly laying the cable from Everglades in the US, to Cuba - 'There's a picture of Dad piping Batista aboard.'

Moving towards his fall from grace, MW spent a model childhood, attending Chatham House, a public school grammar in Ramsgate, on at scholarship as a day boy. It was a rugby-playing school, and his life-long enthusiasm for the game started there. He was in Kent Under-16s and trialled for England Under 16s, playing Number 8 in the back row of the scrum. He played for English Colleges.

He enjoyed acting, and, as the boys played women in their school plays, he was Madame Pouette in The Siege of Carcason, and did the pig noises required by the script, off-stage, enthusiastically. He was dashing Major Wimbourne VC in Conduct Unbecoming.

An indication of the future came when he left school halfway through A levels to join the fire brigade. He worked as sewerage inspector. He returned to school and did A Levels in geography, history, English, and Religious Education.

MW went to St Johns College York, part of Leeds University, doing a BA Hons in Human Movement Studies, which included drama, dance, film, television - and PE. His main lecturer was theatre designer Bill Pinner who he learned a lot from and admired.

He didn't graduate, for a couple of reasons. He turned the principal's car over in the quadrangle. Pissed, he climbed into the top of Debenhams 'and shopped for 6 hours.' He dropped a TV off the roof. 'My lesbian lover of the time told the police.' He was locked up at Fulford Police Station - 'arrested as a teenage cat-burglar'.

He went back to college the day before he was due to go back into second year. They threw him out. 'I went on a bender.'

He didn't turn up at court, and left the country. 'I spent 11 months as a civilian tank driver in the Israeli army - a tank delivery boy. Tanks arrived at Ashkelon, the port on Gaza. We drove them to Zikim, and then to Lebanon. The crews were Palestinian Christians.'

He came back to the UK to face the music. He phoned the police in advance, and his original arresting officer Detective Inspector Rowen drove down from York to Gatwick, where MW handed himself in. DI Rowen bought him a Chinese meal on the drive back up to York. MW spent his 21st birthday on 18 December 1983 in court. He was given a 2-year suspended sentence - it was the front-page story in the local papers.

MW started work at York Theatre Royal as trainee designer / carpenter. He bought a house. He had loads of jobs including sweeping a pub, the Kings Staithe. He worked for York Theatre Royal for a year at the height of its rep. The master carpenter had been there 20 years. Vic Ecclestone was an elderly fly man, age 78, who collected the union subs. At Theatre Royal, MW met the late Tony Young, ex-Cambridge Theatre and now company manager for a touring production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Tony Young took MW with him, and MW ended up working for the Old Vic, London and the Ed Mirvish dynasty - they owned all the theatres in Toronto. In Toronto, MW was the only English member of the backstage union Local 58. He was production manager, doing all the fit-ups and get-outs.

It was here that MW met the legendary Paul Elliot, in Toronto as co-producer of 7 Brides For 7 Brothers - and didn't know who he was. MW was sweeping the stage at the time and Paul Elliot wandered in. Thinking he'd just come in off the street, MW kicked him out. Paul Elliot gave him a job as production manager for a panto via his company E & B Productions - Elliot and Bernard - which later became Kudos. MW looked after 8 of the 10 pantos they had round the country including Les Dawson's. He did the cooking for Les Dawson's engagement, was usher at his wedding, and a sidesman at his funeral.

Panto attracted lots of the stars at the time, including John Nettles, Ruth Madoc (Hi De Hi), John Noakes (in Babes In The Wood at the Manchester Palace), Russ Abbot, Cannon & Ball, Little & Large. A routine developed in which MW worked for E & B in pantos during winter, and every summer at Glyndebourne as deputy master carpenter - it's now called stage director. It was here that he had the accident that nearly killed him.

The Glyndebourne job came via his friend Tony Young. He put MW up for the interview. Peter Hall was resident director, Simon Rattle was conductor. He got the job. His boss was Glyndebourne's master carpenter Ivor Green and there were 30-odd people on the crew. MW's 2nd dayman was Jerry Gunn, now the general manager for Peter Hall at the Rose Theatre in Kingston.

Porgy and Bess was Martin Witt's literal downfall, and almost extinction. He was in the grid putting up bolts. He pulled a rising rope, and fell out of the roof. He fell 30 feet and landed on his back, ripping open his right forearm and his right hand, and chopping his heel off on an anvil. 'When I stood up, my boot and heel flapped across the floor'. He was 24.

He survived, perhaps because of his strength and fitness, certainly because of luck. They stitched his heel back on, repairing it completely. He was sewn back together with 136 stitches.

He came back to work, but couldn't climb any more. He'd been a specialist as a high-level rigger. But he went back into construction work. Once again, it was 7 Brides For 7 Brothers. 'My arm was in a sling, my foot was in a pot.'

Martin Witts kept, and still keeps, a strong connection with York. He took 5 people from York to work with him at Glyndebourne. 'My boss at York Mystery Plays was Jude Kelly - she was Festival Director.' She's now director of SouthBank. 'Victor Bannerjee was the first Indian to play Jesus - it was 1988. When Victor arrived in York, the company put him in the main hotel. They only had baths in the rooms. Victor regarded baths as highly unhygenic. He wanted a shower. There were no showers. So he came to stay with me.' MW was production company manager, the director was the late Steven Pimlott - with 2 professional actors and 300 amateurs.

MW had founded a company making scenery and sets in York - initially in chicken sheds. It was called Scenic Happening, with the slogan 'Your fantasy is our reality'. They did fit-ups and specialised in props. When the Theatre Royal workshops closed down in 1992 all the staff joined Scenic Happening. They did work such as museums, the Dover White Cliff Experience in Dover, the Young Vic in York, the Sea Life Centre Works. The workshops were a constant in MW's life while he was doing all kinds of other work, right through to 1999 when he sold it to the company's directors.

Around 1988, Tony Young was asked to work as general manager for Mike Hughes. Mike Hughes's business partner was Barry Clayman; Mike Hughes Entertainment was based an office over London's Prince of Wales Theatre. Tony Young couldn't, so suggested Martin Witts. MW started off Russ Abbot, Les Dennis, and Michael Barrymore. He looked after all the venues in Blackpool - the North Pier, Central Pier, South Pier, Empress Ballroom, Tower Ballroom, Pavilion Theatre - from the late 1980s to 1996, returning to Blackpool from 1999 to 2004 as a consultant to Leisure Parks. He first met Bernard Delfont, Michael Grade's uncle, when Mike Hughes and MW did the show Mr & Mrs on the end of Blackpool's North Pier, while doing Russ Abbot's Madhouse. Mike Hughes was independent, but Bernard Delfont had vested all his venues with him, including Scarborough, Great Yarmouth, Bournemouth, Margate.

MW spent most of the 1990s in light entertainment - producing independently with Brendan Murphy and Helen Montague, eg the musical of Prisoner Cell Block H with Lily Savage (Paul O'Grady). MW would build sets at the workshops in exchange for investments in shows. He built the set for Buddy Holly The Musical. He was close to Brendan Murphy and Paul O'Grady, and produced all Paul O'Grady's live work - the Lily Savage Lily Live tours. He produced the Royal Philharmonic's outdoor festivals, such as the event to open The Big One (the giant roller coaster) in Blackpool in 1992. The workshops got busier and busier. His son was born in 1992, and he was spending as much time in York as possible.

There were corporate clients - eg Boots and Tesco. MW did their national conferences, using acts he was involved with as the corporate speakers. 'I went into full-time management producing acts (as above, such as Russ Abbot (with Mike Hughes) and Lily Savage (with Brendan Murphy)). The aim was to create the management company that never quite happened.' For Leisure Parks, he did Legends, the look-alike show in Blackpool. He was programming venues for them till 2004. Back in 1999 he'd met Kenneth Feld at the TV series Goose Bumps in Blackpool. 'He owns Barnum & Bailey Circuses - the biggest promoter in the world.' 'We tried to do Old York, New York - it didn't happen. I was going to New York every two months for two weeks to find productions. Kind of "Hands across the ocean".' He laughs.

He became involved in an initiative between North and South Ireland. 'I was chairman of Dream Island, Belfast, a fund about cross-border initiatives. We were creating a mixed-media O-Level, being taken by 120 mixed-ability kids. It was the only O-Level they passed.' He bought The Black Box 200-seater theatre in Belfast. He manages the snooker player Hurricane Higgins and Jimmy White, and took on the production Hurricane, a one-man show based on Hurricane Higgins. 'We took the show to Belfast, then to the Edinburgh Fringe where it got awards for Best Production, and Best Actor for actor Richard Dormer. We brought Hurricane to The Arts for 6 weeks in 2004, and I saw the theatre for the first time. Jo Rigg was front of house manager.' She's still there, at present on maternity leave.

Back from New York, MW came again to The Arts in 2006. 'I was looking for rehearsal space.' He'd met Ed Bartlam & Charlie Wood, directors of the Underbelly, and they asked him to get involved in developing the Underbelly and its new venue, the inflatable cow, the Udderbelly. The Arts Theatre wasn't open at the time, so MW met with the leaseholders and landlord Carlo Mattatuci and said he would like to get involved. 'Carlo Mattatuci has The Carlyle pub, 12 Bar, Enterprise Studios, Sin, Intrepid Fox. His speciality is music rehearsal rooms.' MW and Carlo teamed up - and that was it.

In such a busy life, setting priorities becomes crucial, and Martin Witts is in no doubt of his. 'Family comes first.' His son is Adam William, 16. 'He plays rugby,' says his father with obvious pride, 'he's a sought-after flyer player and 6'-7".' Dogs get included in the family area of life. 'Two Jack-Russell-corgi-crosses called Max and Maximus. When you call them, they both come. They went for a man on a skateboard today, they hate skateboarders. They pulled my shoulder out.' Hardly a drama for a man held together by elaborate needlework. Adam's mother is Linda, and Linda and MW continue as friends. MW's longstanding partner is Lesley Ackland, the distinguished writer on Pilates, and former physiotherapist to the Royal Ballet. Family life is in York.

He is not religious. 'Yes I am. My mother's adopted family includes two or three Baptist ministers, and I was in St Peter's Church Choir in Broadstairs. I believe in Christian values, being morally correct and courteous. Unless they're in the business.'

'I've always got to work hard, it's my central purpose. If you work too hard, you don't work efficiently. I work in intense bursts, then coach the rugby team, walk the dogs, swim. I've never been venue-based. It's very easy to be sucked in, and that's a danger, you need to check reality. I don't believe theatre has to be your whole life. With theatre, you have to have a completely opposite life. Otherwise you become bitter later, because of what you haven't achieved. Depth.'

He's a continual thinker, and listener. He listens to people in business, and to own family. 'My son and I had a discussion as to whether he should go to a public school. He said "I can't go, because my mother doesn't have a decent car, and because they'll all be of a kind". And I understood what he was saying. Having been with all kinds of people makes it easier to get along. A lot of my own life has involved guilt at letting down my parents at a young age after a perfect upbringing. I couldn't have joined the English army, become a lawyer, because of my criminal conviction. Sometimes doing wrong at an early age tars you for life. I'm a great believer in: mistakes, history, and that people change a lot in 5-year cycles. Because I had an opportunity to flourish, I threw it away. So my impetus has been to help other people's potential - whatever they have done previously. I will always take people. I will never listen to other people's opinions - especially in this business, in the arts. A tiny little misdemeanour at any time in your career, lasts. So it's important to me not to take people on the word of others.'

'A separate life is crucial. The more time you spend in the theatre and entertainment business, no matter how hard you work in it, there's always someone to knock you down. Someone said to me about the Arts Theatre: "You're not really West End. If we were going on tour, we'd not be allowed to mention playing at The Arts."' He finds this variously annoying, neutral, and funny. 'During Peter Hall's tenure of The Arts, it was called England's Pocket West End Theatre.' All these names for the theatres across London. The Soho; The Cochrane, run by Deirdre Malynn; Jermyn Street, run by Penny Horner; and the many others. West End? Off Broadway? Fringe? ('In the business world, Fringe is not seen as a breeding ground, it's seen as amateur', he mentions in passing - not a view he shares.) His aim at his venues? '"A passport for all", no matter where it comes from.'

It's very difficult to keep Martin Witts away from dogs. 'I've had loads of dogs. My first dog was Rye, a cocker spaniel. He died when I was 12. He was bought the day I was born. My late brother Mark had a labrador called Robbie. My sister Marian - her dog was Nutty. We had a tradition that whenever we took a dog to be put down, we bought a dog on the way back. We always had three. And there was a poodle called Bobbin.' And, back to his aim for the venues?

'I want to create an internationalist, no-passport, proper hotbed of ideas without any pressures. Like an old working men's club that occasionally has good acts on and occasionally does not. Tripe and white pudding and poached eggs.

'It needs to be access to all, international theatre that doesn't recognise the fact that it's from Guatemala, but brings people in. For example, having the Ishmaelis having a prayer service in one part of the building, and Tara Arts doing The Tempest in another part at the same time. It's not about buttonholing, pigeonholing it, like the National Theatre does. It's just continually showing work for which there's an audience in town. Drink. Debauchery. Pole Dancing.'

During MW's time at The Arts Theatre he's opened up long-forgotten spaces all round the building, repaired, painted, refreshed, made it welcoming in a whole new way. The formerly dowdy and inhibiting entrance foyer is now relaxed, friendly, inviting. At New Year 2008 there was a party for 900 people right round the building. There's the Pigeon Loft - a theatre rehearsal loft; the dance studios and rehearsal rooms (with drum kits, soundproofing, and recording wiring); the original Arts Theatre Club bar; the 351-seater main theatre; and the Cellar. 'The idea is to create a building with a proper heartbeat.'

'We have 16 nationalities working in the theatre,' he says, delighted. Currently the staff are: Martin Witts (Director); Gilda Frost (General Manager); Andrew Ivanov (Technical Manager); Max Ferreira and Pat Macdonald (Front of House Manager); Laura Fares (Rehearsal Rooms Co-ordinator); Richard Fitzmaurice (Press / PR / Marketing); Madeleine Ford (Box Office Supervisor); Tom Sawyer, Lisa Mendes, Aga Janiszewska (Box Office Assistants); Sean Duffy, Catherine Jones (Technicians); Dave Clark (Fireman); Claire Lawrence (Accountant); Johanna Rigg (on maternity leave) (Theatre Manager).

Another interest is rehearsal space, and rugby. 'We started rehearsalroomsrus.com because I found it difficult finding rehearsal space that was no more than 10 minutes' walk from Charing Cross, that was at a reasonable price - and clean. I play rugby, coach the under-17s. Pocklington Rugby Club have asked me to play in their 2nd XV, but I really can't. I train twice a week there, rucking and mauling.'

'I've enjoyed not working from home as much. It's nice to have just two bases - office and home - as opposed to being on the road. It's getting the balance right. I've got a pension now. The danger of being in the theatre is risking what's gone before. Three out of eight projects in theatre can be successful. One out of eight makes money. There is no point in doing theatre if you don't do it as a business.'

He often talks about people he's grateful too, in fact he doesn't speak for long without thanking someone who's helped him along the way. 'It's so important to do something first, before theatre. The people you meet in the business who have a balanced view have all done that. Paul O'Grady was a care assistant and a nurse. My mentors were Tony Young, a chum, chemist and geographer; Howard Jepson was a violin teacher, a highly organised man, highly sincere. Brendan Murphy and Mike Hughes too. Unless you've been in the background, you're not used to dealing with 70% of people in the business. It's a terrible sin if you go to drama college and then if you aren't successful become an administrator. That's not so much so with the old crowd. The old lot, Pinter - there were less of them. Now going into theatre seems to be an alternative to the City. There's certainly no money in it. Nobody likes an old actor - unless they've been successful. My son is doing drama at school, and there's lots of courses like events. Advice? Do something else first. If you don't have an education in addition to your RADA training, you become the ultimate bore.'

'Me? I'd love to run something like Rainbow Nation and retire to a desert island with lots of children and many wives. But on the other hand I want to stay in Yorkshire - it's God's Own Country.'

Last word goes to fellow impresario Charlie Wood, co-director with Ed Bartlam of the major Edinburgh and Brighton Festival Fringes venue Underbelly:

'I'll probably be slated for saying this as there are misplaced reports that Martin is actually my father, but Martin is a whirlwind of energy and innovation - not only at the Edinburgh Fringe where we will be eternally grateful to him for taking the risk in Udderbelly's first year of bringing us Tossers, but also of course where he produced the show of the year, and some say decade, Hurricane at Assembly.

'Now he has proved he can do the same in London by reinvigorating the Arts Theatre as a genuine hub which, I think, many artists whether comedians, actors or writers will come to view as their home in the West End.'

END

John Park 8 February 2008

Martin Witts is Director of The Arts Theatre, London

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008