Chichester Festival Theatre hoping for May start to summer season

Chichester Festival Theatre are currently hoping to go into rehearsals in April for a May start to the summer season.
Chichester Festival Theatre's Kathy Bourne (Executive Director) and Daniel Evans (Artistic Director) Photo Seamus RyanChichester Festival Theatre's Kathy Bourne (Executive Director) and Daniel Evans (Artistic Director) Photo Seamus Ryan
Chichester Festival Theatre's Kathy Bourne (Executive Director) and Daniel Evans (Artistic Director) Photo Seamus Ryan

In the meantime, they have applied for funding through the second round of the government’s Cultural Recovery Fund.

They are hoping to announce the first half of the summer season around Easter time; the outcome of their Cultural Recovery Fund application will then help shape the second half of the season which they are hoping to announce in June.

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Chichester Festival Theatre executive director Kathy Bourne said: “We are being sensibly cautious, but we are hoping for the best. We will get some idea from the government on February 22 as to what is happening. They won’t tell us when we can open, but we might get a steer.

“We felt nervous about thinking we might be able to start in April (the usual start to the summer festival); May feels more sensible, but with the caveat that we are expecting the first shows of the summer season to be socially-distanced.

“With the Cultural Recovery Fund, they have asked us to put together a budget with the suggestion that social distancing will remain until July. To me, that feels bonkers. We will be starting with social distancing and then increase the numbers (of audience members) incrementally throughout the summer and then maybe not back to full capacity until the autumn.”

If the CFT’s application for Cultural Recovery Fund money isn’t successful, “then we will have to consider what is possible for the second half of the season.

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“We will announce the first half of the season around Easter time, about six weeks later than our usual time, and then the second half of the season we will announce around June. It is important to have plenty of wriggle room. (Chichester Festival Theatre artistic director) Daniel (Evans) has got a myriad of ideas. We will just have to make decisions on the size of our audiences and on how our audiences are behaving. At the moment, there is really not a lot of work planned on the touring circuit. We would usually be pencilling in shows now for the autumn and winter.”

But as for the summer: “We are trying to balance how much of a booking period we need. What we learnt from last year is that audiences are booking much later. We feel we are better to announce a little bit later which will allow people to feel much more confident even if we have a shorter time (to sell the tickets). We feel that that is much better than making a big statement and then having to retract.”

Kathy suspects CFT audiences will be a mix of cautious and chomping at the bit to get back: “We have got a really loyal audience that have been incredibly supportive to us throughout and are so desperate for us to open, and fortunately the vaccine roll-out will hit the cohort of our primary demographic. But we are also well aware that there will be some of our supporters that will not feel comfortable until everybody has had the vaccine – and that is something that plays into what we think we can programme for the year.”

Already announced for this year is a show which had originally been intended for last year, South Pacific featuring Gina Beck, Julian Ovenden, Joanna Ampil and Rob Houchen (July 5-August 28).

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“All the way through this pandemic we have wanted to keep going and to believe that we can do this. We don’t know what is happening with London theatre, but I do think they will be behind us (in reopening).

“A big musical is something that we are determined to deliver this summer, and we hope that people will travel south to see a new incarnation of a classic musical. Daniel is determined to find a way to do it.

“And I have budgeted to make sure that we can cope with a socially-distanced production. We might have to run it slightly longer, if need be, in order to have more of an audience. We had already invested in the show last year. We had already started work on the set.”

And that will be the approach with other shows where investment has already begun: if they can’t happen this year, they will happen next year or the year after.