IT had been a good couple of days for Dominic Hill.

The previous morning, it had been announced that the Citizens Theatre, where he is artistic director, was to be given £500,000 by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

And on the day we meet, it was in the newspapers that he himself had received two nominations in the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) – his 11th and 12th nominations in the awards' history, more than any other director.

But today, in the dress circle foyer of the historic Glasgow theatre, it is strictly business as usual. Later in the morning he is due in the theatre's rehearsal room for the continuing rehearsals of a double bill of Caryl Churchill's plays, Far Away and the rarely-performed Seagulls, which he is directing, and which opens for previews on May 23. Breakfast is a quick cup of tea and a croissant as he talks to The Herald.

As his CV, which is littered with awards, shows, Hill, 44, is one of the best artistic directors in the country. He has been at the Citz since October 2011, the latest heir to the great pioneering triumvirate of Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald.

His own career includes an acclaimed production of Ibsen's reputedly unstageable Peer Gynt, which attracted ecstatic reviews when it debuted at Dundee Rep in 2007 and when it transferred successfully to London's Barbican. (The germ of his idea for a "wild and raw and contemporary" vision of the classic occurred when he was kept awake by a raucous wedding reception in a rundown hotel somewhere on the coast of north-east Scotland).

Hill is from west London. His mother was an artist, his father a graphic designer. He recalls: "From the age of about seven I wanted to be an actor. I don't quite know where that came from. We weren't a great theatre-going family, although we went now and again to the local panto.

"I always wanted to work in the theatre. I started acting at university but realised I maybe wasn't a good actor, maybe I was better as a director."

His first theatre job, shortly after university, was at the Orange Tree, in Richmond, Surrey. "I owe that theatre a lot," he acknowledges. "I went there as assistant director but they had a small studio theatre and they kept me on with a couple of others, and we ran the small studio.

"I was running it with Sean Holmes (now artistic director at the Lyric Hammersmith in London) and Rachel Kavanaugh (director of the Chichester Festival Theatre), both of whom are highly successful. It was almost like a little golden age at the Orange Tree.

"I was there for about eight years and in the middle of it spent two years at Perth Theatre as an assistant director. That's why I'm in Scotland now, really, because of that original gig in 1994. That was when I first met people in Scotland, including people who are still friends and others with whom I still work now."

It was in Perth that he first met Hamish Glen, then the artistic director at Dundee Rep. Hill and James Brining jointly succeeded him. Hill spent five profitable years at Dundee; his awards there included the CATS award in 2004 for best director, for Scenes From An Execution. The judges noted: "[His] exceptional production showed the work of a disciplined mind achieving exceptional effects with a complex and highly challenging text." He won the award again, in 2008, for Peer Gynt.

His next move was to the Traverse in Edinburgh, for four years, and further CATS recognition followed, including the award for Best Production, for The Dark Things, in 2010. But when the Citz came calling, looking for someone to replace Jeremy Raison and Guy Hollands, he couldn't resist.

"I remember being asked to write an article, years ago, about favourite theatre spaces," he says. "My top space was the Citz. I think it is, simply, a magical place. This part here is not so magical –" he gestures towards the dress circle foyer, which looks a bit tired – "but if you walk in there, there's something about that auditorium, and that stage, that is unique.

"It's the perfect size; it's not too big but it still has that ability to work on an epic scale. The relationship between the audience and the stage is terrific. And, in terms of its more recent history, with Giles, Robert and Philip, there was a taste for, and an interest there, in the kind of work that I can, and could, connect with.

"It just felt right, coming here. At the time I wanted to go back to the classics. I like working on a large scale, and I feel there is almost a permission here to be playful, to try things out, to present work that isn't just your typical rep fodder, and to present it in a way that hopefully is provoking and accessible and interesting."

The critics, and, crucially in these cash-strapped times, the theatre-going public, have taken to Hill's work at the Citz. There was a CATS award for best director for Pinter's Betrayal ("Brilliantly accomplished in every department," enthused the judges), and audiences flocked to the Gorbals to see Citz legend David Hayman as a commanding King Lear, pictured below left. A Beckett double-bill of Krapp's Last Tape and the rarely-seen Footfalls won acclaim, too, and Hill has been nominated as best director for them. The CATS awards take place on June 9, at one of his old places of work, the Traverse.

He's happy with the progress being made on various fronts at the theatre. Artistically, "I think we're doing what I wanted us to do be doing, which is more work, basically, and a repertoire based both on the classics and contemporary Glasgow plays. There seems to have been an increase both in audience and profile, too."

The theatre's medium-term future is dominated in part by a comprehensive redevelopment that will start in 2016. Construction costs alone are estimated at £6.5 million, and it will be the most detailed overhaul of the council-owned building since it opened back in 1878.

"I always knew it would be on the cards ... it absolutely needs to be done, so we will have to get on and do it," Hill says. "It's going to be fantastic, but not in a showy way. It will make this a better building, primarily for our audiences but also for the staff and the visiting companies and also as a central communal place for the whole regeneration of the area."

The £500,000 Paul Hamlyn award ("it's more manageable to think of it as a hundred grand a year for five years"), announced last week, will be used to attract disadvantaged groups and expand audiences. "A lot of it will be used to engage more with community groups," says Hill, "and we're also thinking about 2015 as our 70th anniversary in the Gorbals, so we want to use that year to celebrate us being here and, through that, to engage better with the area."

The 2013 autumn season will kick off with Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, a joint venture between the Citz, Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum and the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse. "It will hopefully be a very exciting project ... big story, big show, live music," says Hill.

He lives in the West End, and talks readily about his love for Glasgow. "It's a culturally rich city. All these things people say about the place – it's friendly but rough round the edges – feel true. I feel happy here. It's a beautiful city, as well."

Unfortunately, he doesn't have much space in a crowded life for culture away from the theatre. "Music is very important to me, and art. I don't read as much as I should. I go to the theatre quite a lot, obviously. I'd like to get out to the cinema more but I find it quite hard, given my schedule." The problem, really, is finding enough free time. Speaking of which, our interview really has to be wound up. Those rehearsals can't start without their director.