At a certain point last year, Tony Reekie found himself listening to an inner voice that kept insisting "time for a new challenge, Tony!

Time for an adventure. Time to let go... and go!" So Reekie did just that. He followed the instincts of that inner voice, wrote the goodbye note and stepped down from his role as director of Imaginate, Scotland's International Festival of Performing Arts for Children and Young People. He hasn't quite stepped away yet - but we'll get to that.

There's a kind of "magic numbers" backdrop to his decision, as Reekie explains. "I'd been Imaginate's director for 20 years, I was turning 50..." The neatly trimmed moustache can't hide the boyish grin, but no - this wasn't his mid-life crisis, it was as much to do with the current state of children's theatre in Scotland and with his gut feeling that Imaginate itself needed a fresh outlook, maybe even a re-structuring of roles and responsibilities that would help the organisation forge ahead in new directions.

Listening to Reekie talk about why he gave up a job he clearly loved - without another one already lined up - is Paul Fitzpatrick, formerly Producer and joint CEO at Catherine Wheels Theatre Company and now Chief Executive at Imaginate. Fitzpatrick is that rare and game-changing being: an utterly charming, uncannily shrewd operator with tremendous management skills who sees the business side of the arts as a creative process in itself. Like Reekie, he has an overview of the children's theatre sector that extends well beyond Scotland, but as Imaginate 2015 launches next week, it's the current state of the art, its funding, the gaps in provision across the country, the nurturing of new audiences and talent, that is his pressing concern.

"We know that we produce really good work here," says Fitzpatrick."We know that, not least because of the huge international recognition that Scottish-based children's companies have won in recent years. You only have to look at a show like Andy Manley's White - it's been in America, toured to Australia, been all over Europe - or the kind of tours that Shona Reppe, Catherine Wheels, Visible Fictions all go on, to see that their work travels globally. It just doesn't travel in the same far-reaching way across Scotland and we'd like to do something about that."

He's spot on. It's strangely dispiriting to think that Sarah Jessica Parker enthused about White in New York, declaring it the "best 40 minutes of my life" when hundreds of small tots far nearer home haven't been similarly entranced. Come to that, hundreds of tots and teenagers - their teachers and their parents - have never heard of Imaginate, let alone connected with any of its programming, or workshops. And even those who do rush to the box office every May, when the festival takes to the stages in (mostly) Edinburgh, tend to think that it's like Christmas - a jolly swag-bag of goodies that only manifests once a year.

"We want all that to change,"says Fitzpatrick. He has a plan. Not just a notion scribbled on the back of an envelope, but a set of strategies that he knows won't click into place overnight but which - as they gain ground - could transform the way Imaginate functions and interacts with other organisations, venues and communities across Scotland. "It is very much about building partnerships," he says. "About sitting round tables, talking with venues about co-producing proper collaborations. It's about providing year-round support for children's theatre artists who aren't regularly funded, and who don't have our experience or our skills when it comes to dealing with funding bodies or local authorities. At Imaginate, we've seen the number of permanently funded children's theatre companies shrink from five to only two - Catherine Wheels and Visible Fictions. We've also seen the positive effect high quality professional theatre can have on young imaginations. We want to ensure that experience can reach out to new audiences across Scotland."

As Fitzpatrick heads off to deal with VAT returns, Tony Reekie picks up on that thread. "We've known for a long time that we needed to push forward, do more in those areas," he says. "But when I was travelling, sourcing shows for future festivals, I couldn't always sit in on the networking meetings that see organisations join forces or share resources. Whoever comes in as the festival director won't have to juggle priorities: Paul will be masterminding that part of the Imaginate operation, leaving the director free to programme."

But not until 2017, probably, since Reekie has already put most of next year's festival in place. "Sometimes, when you see a really amazing show you just have to fit in with their booking schedules - and that can be a year, two years down the line." Meanwhile, there's Imaginate 2015 to enjoy and Reekie is a kid again as he flags up one show after another. Take Mess. "I'm watching it, and I think 'why am I laughing at a show about anorexia?' But actually, it works because it is funny. Half of the teenagers around me had already seen it, and come back again. It was theatre that spoke to them, that meant something to them. Like Henry the Fifth, for an 8+ audience. It's Shakespeare, but not as their parents or teachers know it. It's set in a sandpit, it makes history come alive and feel exciting because it's not so far removed from the power games children and adults both play. Johannes and Margarethe, for slightly younger children, but actually - who wouldn't want to know what happened to Hansel and Gretel when they grew up and grew old?"

Who wouldn't want to know what Reekie himself is going to do next? He has ideas, all tied into taking children's theatre into everyday spaces like school halls, community centres, places where lighting rigs and sound systems don't exist.

"When I said I wanted a change, I suppose I meant I wanted to keep doing what I was doing, just differently."

Imaginate runs, in various Edinburgh venues, from Mon 11 - Sun 17 May.

www.imaginate.org.uk