Oxford People’s Theatre was launched in 2022, combining the shared passion for community and theatre held by its co-founders and co-directors, Emma Webb and Lizzy McBain.

Emma trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has worked as a performer, director, movement director and facilitator nationally and internationally for over 30 years. Most recently she has worked with Justice in Motion, Red Dog, Creation Theatre, Hidden Spire, Living the Drama and Seabright Productions. Emma teaches workshops for the Bristol School of Acting, Pegasus Theatre and Oxford Playhouse.

Lizzy grew up in Oxfordshire, trained in Bristol and Wimbledon, and worked in design for large-scale landscape and site-specific theatre companies such as Geraldine Pilgrim, Punchdrunk and Wild Works, before moving back to Oxford in 2010. Since then, she founded the OFS Theatre Scratch Night, has been Creative Director of the Hidden Spire Project for the Old Fire Station and Crisis for 11 years, leads weekly Theatre Workshops, makes her own work for her company Under Construction Theatre, and spent 3 years as CEO of Ark-T Centre.

OPT’s mission is to create high quality performance projects throughout the city of Oxford that are free to take part in and accessible to all aged 11-99, which enhance a sense of community across generations.

In 2023, OPT created the People’s Pantomime: Robin Hood, at OFS in January, devised a site-specific promenade performance for TORCH at the Radcliffe Infirmary in June, and is currently in rehearsal for their next production, a collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales at Pegasus Theatre in February 2024.