She started a revolution in Westgate
Eastern Angles pays heartfelt tribute to Valerie McMillan, whose extraordinary courage, creativity, and belief in the power of the arts laid the first foundation stone for what has become one of Suffolk’s most cherished cultural homes, the Eastern Angles Arts Centre.
In the early 1970s, Valerie did something remarkable. Faced with an empty building and a dream, she squatted in the old school on Bramford Road and transformed it into The Drama Centre, a space that would become a vibrant hub for creativity, community and performance with a dedicated theatre at one end. It was a daring act of vision and defiance: to claim an abandoned space and fill it with life, art, and opportunity.
What she built quickly became a vital home for drama groups, professional touring companies and local creatives. Under her leadership, The Drama Centre flourished — hosting some of the great touring companies of its era and nurturing generations of performers and audiences. Later, Alan Austin and Jos Leeder built upon Valerie’s foundation, creating something extraordinary that inspired Ivan Cutting, who would go on with others to found Eastern Angles.
The new Theatre Company moved into the building in 1984, carving out a small corner of the site which was then taken over by the new Suffolk Record Office.
Decades later, that same spirit of determination — first sparked by Valerie — led to the company securing a 100-year lease, reclaiming the entire building and transforming it into the Eastern Angles Arts Centre. The building reopened fully in 2023 with a new Artistic Director and CEO Jake Smith, now buzzing with youth theatre, over-50s drama groups, homework clubs, writing clubs, artistic and talent development schemes and community projects serving West Ipswich and beyond.
Without Valerie’s action all those years ago, this vital home for culture, creativity and connection would simply not exist. Her spirit remains in the very walls, in every rehearsal, every performance, every moment of community wonder that the Eastern Angles Centre continues to Grow and Nourish.
Quote from Jake Smith, current Artistic Director & CEO of Eastern Angles:
“Valerie’s act of courage didn’t just create a building — it created a legacy. Every young person who joins a drama workshop, every local resident who finds community through creativity, is part of the world she made possible. We honour her spirit by keeping her vision alive: a space where art, community and hope belong to all.”
Quote from Ivan Cutting, Founder and former Artistic Director & CEO of Eastern Angles:
“I remember Val (as we knew her) floating around the building in the early days when I was but a shy teenager and only met her properly once about ten years ago when she popped in to have a look round. She was stunned to see what her legacy consisted of. And we never dreamt that one day we would have the whole building and become a vital hub for the whole of West Ipswich and East Anglia.”