The Festival Theatre is on the left, the Minerva to the right.
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Location of Chichester Festival Theatre
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Address | Oaklands Park, Chichester, West Sussex |
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Coordinates | 50°50′35″N 0°46′39″W / 50.843048°N 0.777390°W |
Designation | Grade II* listed |
Capacity |
Festival Theatre: 1206 Minerva Theatre: 283 |
Construction | |
Opened | 1962 |
Architect | Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya |
Website | |
http://www.cft.org.uk |
Festival Theatre: 1206
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, Sussex, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently 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 in London. The opening productions in 1962 were: The Chances by John Fletcher (first production 1638) which opened on 3 July; The Broken Heart (1633), by John Ford, opened 9 July; Uncle Vanya (1896), by Anton Chekov, opened 16 July. Among the actors in the opening season were: Lewis Casson, Fay Compton, Joan Greenwood, Rosemary Harris, Kathleen Harrison, Keith Michell, André Morell, John Neville, Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Michael Redgrave, Athene Seyler, Sybil Thorndike and Peter Woodthorpe.