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Overseeing a new era at Chichester Festival Theatre
SussexWorld
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22/04/2024
After coming in at the tail-end of the pandemic, Mark Foster, chairman of Chichester Festival Theatre’s board of trustees, now finds himself overseeing an exciting new era.
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00:00
Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Brewparks Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, as a new
00:06
season begins at Chichester Festival Theatre, it is lovely to speak to the Chairman of the
00:10
Board of Trustees of the Festival Theatre, Mark Foster. Now, this is coming up for your
00:15
third season at the Festival Theatre, isn't it, in effect? Does it feel different, new
00:20
Artistic Director?
00:22
It does feel different. I mean, it feels exciting. I mean, a new Artistic Director is an opportunity
00:28
for us to kind of just add an extra dimension and flavour of newness to what we're doing.
00:34
Of course, we want to build upon all the greatness that's been the past of Chichester and the
00:39
last few seasons have been hugely successful as well. So it's not about changing course
00:44
dramatically. It's standing on the shoulders of Daniel and the work that came before.
00:50
But you suspect it will feel different in some ways? It has to feel different, doesn't
00:55
it?
00:56
Well, it does. It brings a different perspective. Anyone brings a different perspective to the
00:59
work. Justin, in particular, obviously brings a perspective that comes from actually a lot
01:04
of his focus on working with younger people. His prior role at the Unicorn was obviously
01:09
a children's theatre, apart from the work that he had done with the Royal Shakespeare
01:14
Company before that. And he brings there for a very particular perspective that comes from
01:19
that, as he does with, I think, a very exciting vision for the role that different aspects
01:25
of what it means to be English right now means as a theme for this year's season.
01:32
It's going to be really exciting, isn't it? And Daniel's, Justin's predecessor, Daniel,
01:38
was making the point that obviously theatre needs to move on and it does so by changing
01:42
artistic director.
01:43
Yes, as I say, any organisation benefits from changes in leadership. In my world of business,
01:53
I always felt there was a time when CEOs met their sell by date. And I think that is true
01:58
of artist directors, though it's fair to say that we would have been very happy to have
02:02
had more years of Daniel. But that's just where we are.
02:06
Well, you were lucky to have had the two because Daniel did such a fantastic job steering the
02:10
whole organisation through the pandemic, which in some ways seems a long time ago, doesn't
02:14
it? But what a brilliant thing he did.
02:18
It was Daniel and Cathy. I mean, I think the key thing, again, about our model that you
02:22
should do is this, the double headed executive director, artistic director model that we
02:26
have. And I think it's actually a fantastic model. And it was the way that the teamwork
02:32
between Daniel and Cathy was fundamental to that successful period.
02:36
And I'm delighted to see the teamwork already coming to fruit between Cathy and Justin as
02:43
well, because it's that combo of understanding, yes, the art, yes, the work that's going to
02:49
be exciting and interesting on our stages, but it's putting it into the model of an organisation
02:53
that in the round has to be financially successful, has to think about the marketing, has to think
02:58
about how we build a team of people who are going to execute everything on the stages,
03:02
behind the scenes. And it's that combo of leadership that actually is, I think, at the
03:06
heart of the success, certainly for Chichester.
03:10
But in overseeing that, you've brought some incredible experience as a businessman to
03:14
the business, haven't you, to the organisation. What are the principles from all your years
03:18
of business leadership that you are now applying to the theatre, do you think?
03:23
Well, one of them I just touched on there, which I think is that in the end of the day,
03:26
it's around the leadership and around the team that is important. Leaders do set a tone,
03:33
the collaboration and the teamwork between players and your team is fundamental to making
03:37
any organisation successful. And without it, frankly, it's always a problem. But also,
03:43
I think the idea of about clarity of vision and the direction of an organisation and being
03:48
able to communicate that clearly to all those stakeholders who are engaging with it. And
03:52
I think that the opportunity for us as a board and leadership team at Chichester to be clear
03:58
about what we want to be famous for and then make sure that the work we do, the collaborations
04:04
we undertake, the people we bring on board are all part of making that be true. And I
04:09
must admit, I'm very excited by the fact that we've had a number of new people join the
04:13
team as recently in some key roles, and they're all playing a part, I think, in helping us
04:19
to think about how Chichester can be even more successful in the period ahead.
04:24
So the theatre is in a really good place, isn't it? A very good summer last year and
04:27
an excellent winter, renewal, new people and bookings doing well for the summer.
04:34
Yes, I'm delighted. I don't take any of the credit so far of the process of success. But
04:41
clearly, the organisation has been in good health. It's seen through the tough times
04:47
of COVID better than many. It's hugely dependent upon the fantastic support it gets from the
04:54
community of Chichester and all those supporters of the organisation to make it be successful.
04:59
But we are lucky that we are in good place. It's allowing us to think about doing even
05:03
more new things. So you will have seen that we're thinking about the creation of this
05:07
third space, The Nest, which is going to be a very exciting project that we're getting
05:12
our minds around right now. And as I say, I think that we're looking forward to Justin's
05:18
first season. But we're already thinking about exciting things for the next year as well.
05:22
So I must admit, there's lots of really good stuff coming down the track.
05:27
Fantastic, clearly very exciting times. Lovely to speak to you, Mark. Thank you very much
05:31
indeed. It's a pleasure.
05:33
[BLANK_AUDIO]
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