Christmas and the New Year at Chichester Festival Theatre

SussexWorld

As Chichester Festival Theatre’s Christmas programme launches, new CFT artistic director Justin Audibert – aside from directing The Three Billy Goats Gruff in the Minerva Theatre this Christmas – is finalising his first summer season.

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil here at Group Arts and Determinants, Sussex Newspapers.

00:06 Always a huge pleasure to speak to Justin Odie-Baird, who is just completing six months

00:11 at Chichester Festival Theatre. Now Justin, so far, so very, very good.

00:16 Yeah, it's been absolutely great, Phil. Daniel left a really interesting and eclectic mix

00:23 of shows. It's been really nice to help to kind of steward those, you know, and by doing

00:30 that get to know our audiences and also obviously the team and the strengths of the team. And

00:37 on both of those things, I felt, you know, very supported by the audiences, even when

00:42 they don't necessarily like a show, you know, that's useful too. And then more importantly,

00:50 or not more importantly, as importantly, you know, the fact that our staff and the team

00:57 here are so strong and so kind of cohesive. I've really enjoyed that, you know, they really,

01:04 really care so much.

01:05 Now it's clear when you arrived that you did have a good sense of Chichester, but tell

01:09 me what things have you learned? What things have surprised you in your first six months?

01:14 So I've really liked getting to know people at the college and people at the cathedral,

01:22 and people and the team at Pallant House. And it's been lovely to and actually recently

01:28 with the district council, and getting to get a sense of the kind of deep civic pride

01:34 in Chichester. That's really, really positive. And I think, you know, I will look in my time

01:42 to continue those links and continue developing those links and forge new ones with the university

01:47 and other people.

01:48 Well, that's the point, the theatre isn't an island, it's so interconnected.

01:52 Yeah, yeah. And actually, I've loved things like the fact that the park run takes place

01:56 on Oakland Park. You know, that's really nice.

01:59 I knew you had that.

02:01 Yeah, I've done a couple. Feeling part of it, feeling part of the city in a really meaningful

02:07 way. It's been really nice.

02:09 Yeah. And really interesting time for you too, because you're saying very tantalisingly,

02:14 you're probably 90% towards 90% done towards the season, your season, your first season,

02:20 which you'll announce presumably February, will it be?

02:22 That's right. Absolutely. Yeah. So we're in the kind of contract, getting everyone to

02:27 sign everything and

02:28 And of course, you can't give away details, but you can maybe tantalise a little. What

02:35 are the sort of general thoughts?

02:37 Yes, of course. So for anyone worried, I promise you there's an incredible blockbuster of a

02:45 summer musical next year. So if that is your thing, do not worry, you are going to be very,

02:50 very happy with what's coming next year. And I would say that in the balance of things,

02:55 we're still, you know, I would say there's lots of continuity, you know, there is, you

03:01 know, we will have some revivals of classic shows, you know, as well as lots of nice new

03:10 writing. And then there are there are a few things which are kind of like regional premieres

03:15 that maybe haven't been done elsewhere, maybe you've done in London, but haven't been done

03:18 elsewhere. So it's a kind of it's a I would say the balance is relatively similar to what

03:23 people here are used to. The one thing that I hope I will achieve or the thing that I'm

03:29 trying to achieve is that the shows in the festival theatre, having a really big sense

03:35 of theatre about them, kind of celebrating all the joys that that brilliant space can

03:41 bring in terms of both scale and effect and kind of spectacle.

03:47 Yeah, and the big house calls out for scale, doesn't it? Big scale.

03:55 The things that I think have worked really well there have done that for sure. Yeah.

03:58 And then what's lovely is you get the delicate, you get room for delicacy and intimacy in

04:04 the Minerva. I mean, although obviously, you know, as Rock Folly shows, you can do a big

04:08 spectacle in the Minerva as well. You can do both. But but it's lovely that you have

04:12 a space which can be softer and gentler and quieter.

04:15 That's fantastic. And obviously, you're masterminding the whole season. Will we see you as the director

04:20 as well? Will you be directing shows?

04:23 Yes. At the moment, the aspiration is I will do a show in each theatre. There is a slight

04:28 caveat on that, but I'll definitely be doing at least one show and hopefully I'll be doing

04:32 two.

04:33 Brilliant. And it must be so exciting waiting for people to respond to the season that you

04:37 will be announcing in a couple of months.

04:40 Well, what's amazing about Digitech is obviously still the brochure is so important. And you

04:46 kind of will know pretty quickly whether or not people have had an instant kind of burst

04:54 of enthusiasm for your season because the brochure, when the brochure lands, we know

04:57 quite quickly, you know, which is kind of great on one hand, but scary on the other.

05:03 Brilliant. Well, congratulations and can't wait to see what you're doing. Thank you.

05:09 Really good to speak to you as always. Thank you.

05:12 Thank you.

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