Chichester Festival Theatre is a
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
and
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
situated in
Oaklands Park in the city of
Chichester
Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...
,
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. Designed by
Philip Powell and
Hidalgo Moya
John Hidalgo Moya (5 May 1920 – 3 August 1994), sometimes known as Jacko Moya, was an American-born architect who lived and worked largely in England.
Biography
Born 5 May 1920 in Los Gatos, California, US, to an English mother and Mexican f ...
, it was opened by its founder
Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. The smaller and more intimate
Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989.
The inaugural
Artistic Director was Sir
Laurence Olivier, and it was at Chichester that the first National Theatre company was formed. Chichester's productions would transfer to the
NT's base at the
Old Vic
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
* Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The opening productions in 1962 were: ''
The Chances
''The Chances'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher. It was one of Fletcher's great popular successes, "frequently performed and reprinted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."
The play's Prologue assigns the ...
'' by
John Fletcher (first production 1638) which opened on 3 July; ''
The Broken Heart
''The Broken Heart'' is a Caroline era tragedy written by John Ford, and first published in 1633. "The play has long vied with Tis Pity She's a Whore'' as Ford's greatest work...the supreme reach of his genius...." The date of the play's authorshi ...
'' (1633), by
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
, opened 9 July; ''
Uncle Vanya
''Uncle Vanya'' ( rus, Дя́дя Ва́ня, r=Dyádya Ványa, p=ˈdʲædʲə ˈvanʲə) is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1898, and was first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre under the dir ...
'' (1896), by
Anton Chekov, opened 16 July. Among the actors in the opening season were:
Lewis Casson
Sir Lewis Thomas Casson MC (26 October 187516 May 1969) was an English actor and theatre director, and the husband of actress Dame Sybil Thorndike.Devlin, DianaCasson, Sir Lewis Thomas (1875–1969) ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ...
,
Fay Compton
Virginia Lilian Emmeline Compton-Mackenzie, (; 18 September 1894 – 12 December 1978), known professionally as Fay Compton, was an English actress. She appeared in several films, and made many broadcasts, but was best known for her stage per ...
,
Joan Greenwood
Joan Mary Waller Greenwood (4 March 1921 – 28 February 1987) was an English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She played Sibella in the 1949 film ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'', and also app ...
,
Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris (born 19 September 1927) is an English actress. She is the recipient of such accolades as a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. In ...
,
Kathleen Harrison
Kathleen Harrison (23 February 1892 – 7 December 1995) was a prolific English character actress best remembered for her role as Mrs. Huggett (opposite Jack Warner and Petula Clark) in a trio of British post-war comedies about a worki ...
,
Keith Michell
Keith Joseph Michell (1 December 1926 – 20 November 2015) was an Australian actor who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, and was best known for his television and film portrayals of King Henry VIII. He appeared extensively in Shakespeare ...
,
André Morell
Cecil André Mesritz (20 August 1909 – 28 November 1978), known professionally as André Morell, was an English actor. He appeared frequently in theatre, film and on television from the 1930s to the 1970s. His best known screen roles were as ...
,
John Neville,
Laurence Olivier,
Joan Plowright
Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier, (née Plowright; born 28 October 1929), professionally known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English retired actress whose career has spanned over seven decades. She has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony ...
,
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elec ...
,
Athene Seyler
Athene Seyler, CBE (31 May 188912 September 1990) was an English actress.
Early life
She was born in Hackney, London; her German-born grandparents moved to the United Kingdom, where her grandfather Philip Seyler was a merchant in London. Ath ...
,
Sybil Thorndike and
Peter Woodthorpe
Peter Woodthorpe (25 September 1931 – 13 August 2004) was an English actor who supplied the voice of Gollum in the 1978 Bakshi version of ''The Lord of the Rings'' and BBC's 1981 radio serial. He also provided the voice of Pigsy in the cul ...
.
The
Festival Season usually runs from April to early December and includes productions from classics to contemporary writing and musicals, reaching an audience of 230,000. Productions originated at Chichester frequently transfer to London or tour nationally and internationally.
A range of additional events is designed to add to the experience of visiting the theatre, including performances, cabarets, family days, tours and talks. Through the winter months, the Theatre presents touring productions and a Christmas show mounted by Chichester Festival Youth Theatre. The Theatre runs a large and active Learning, Education and Participation programme for all ages; its Youth Theatre is one of the largest in the country, with over 800 members.
The Theatre is a registered
charity
Charity may refer to:
Giving
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing
* C ...
and is chaired by
Sir William Castell.
Daniel Evans has been the
artistic director since July 2016.
History
Leslie Evershed-Martin drew parallels between Chichester and the
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
city of
Stratford, Ontario and concluded that Chichester could sustain a theatre similar to the
Stratford Festival.
Evershed-Martin contacted
Laurence Olivier via
Tyrone Guthrie
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie (2 July 1900 – 15 May 1971) was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at h ...
and offered him directorship of the new theatre.
Olivier directed the theatre until 1966, when
John Clements took over.
Artistic directors
* Sir
Laurence Olivier (1962–1965)
* Sir
John Clements (1966–1973)
*
Keith Michell
Keith Joseph Michell (1 December 1926 – 20 November 2015) was an Australian actor who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, and was best known for his television and film portrayals of King Henry VIII. He appeared extensively in Shakespeare ...
(1974–1977)
*
Peter Dews (1978–1980)
*
Patrick Garland
Patrick Ewart Garland (10 April 1935 – 19 April 2013) was a British director, writer and actor.
Career
Garland was educated at St Mary's College, Southampton, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he studied English and was Literary Editor of Isi ...
(1981–1984)
*
John Gale (1985–1989)
*
Michael Rudman (1990)
*
Patrick Garland
Patrick Ewart Garland (10 April 1935 – 19 April 2013) was a British director, writer and actor.
Career
Garland was educated at St Mary's College, Southampton, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he studied English and was Literary Editor of Isi ...
(1991–1994)
* Sir
Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', '' Macbeth'', ''Twelfth Night'', '' The Tempest'', ''Kin ...
and
Duncan C. Weldon (1995–1997)
*
Andrew Welch (1998–2002)
*
Martin Duncan,
Ruth Mackenzie and
Steven Pimlott (2003–2005)
*
Jonathan Church
Jonathan Church, CBE (born 1967), is a British stage director.
Church was the artistic director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (2001–2005) and Chichester Festival Theatre (2006–2016).
In August 2015, Sydney Theatre Company announced ...
(2006–2016)
*
Daniel Evans (from July 2016)
See also
*
Chichester Festival production history
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, is one of the United Kingdom's flagship theatres with an international reputation for quality and innovation. The following is a chronological list of the Chichester Festival productio ...
References
Further reading
* ''Chichester Festival Theatre at Fifty'' by
Kate Mosse
Katharine Mosse (born 20 October 1961) is a British novelist, non-fiction and short story writer and Television presenter, broadcaster. She is best known for her 2005 novel ''Labyrinth (novel), Labyrinth'', which has been translated into more ...
, 2012
External links
The Chichester Festival Theatre websiteThe Art of Chichester Festival Theatre:A Celebration at Pallant House Gallery 3 March – 3 June 2012'Chichester Festival Theatre at Fifty' launch, June 2012
{{Authority control
1962 establishments in England
Theatres in West Sussex
Buildings and structures in Chichester
Tourist attractions in Chichester
Brutalist architecture in England
Grade II* listed buildings in West Sussex