The Nest: Chichester's third theatre takes shape among the trees

SussexWorld

With a promise to incubate, hatch and showcase the creative talent of the future, The Nest is taking shape at Chichester Festival Theatre.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now it's a

00:07super exciting time of the year at Churches Festival Theatre with a new season soon to begin,

00:11but we are getting an addition this year, aren't we? From a man well known for adding things to

00:17Churches Festival Theatre, 12-13 years ago you were project director when we had the theatre in the

00:22park, now you are back masterminding the nest. Such an exciting thing. What's it going to add to

00:28the theatre then do you think? I think that the nest is going to bring a very new space to join the

00:37Minerva and the Festival Theatre, something that's sort of slightly more nimble and will just create

00:47a slightly more relaxed theatre experience. And the whole point is it's got to be different to

00:55the other two spaces? It has, it has. It's supporting very, very different, very different

01:00work completely. I mean, you know, it's supporting new work, new talent that otherwise wouldn't,

01:07you know, away from the commercial pressures of the other two stages. And such an interesting story

01:12to the actual building, isn't it? Given it's something that was successful elsewhere in Edinburgh,

01:18then had a quiet dormant time for a while and is now being brought back to, well,

01:22vibrant new life in Chichester.

01:26Yeah, yeah. And because we're, originally it was conceived as a very temporary venue for four

01:32weeks of the year in a protected courtyard in sunny Scotland, the sunny Scotland summer,

01:40we are now, we're now moving it 365 days of the year to Oaklands Park for the five-year period. And of

01:49course, then that brings its own challenges. So we bought the box, if you like, built by a brilliant,

02:02a brilliant product called ModTrust, which is a very flexible grown-up, Meccano for grown-ups really. We've

02:10then surrounded that with its own, with further insulation to cope with the winters and the hot

02:19summers. And we've put, you know, a rain screen on the outside. And the rain screen is also a reclaimed

02:27material. So we, the architects found a disused 1960s Dodgen ride in Hertfordshire.

02:38And we realised very clearly, very, very, very soon that it's quite an interesting thing that it's

02:43imprinted onto the substrate, which it sat on with these planks for 50 years. When you lift it up,

02:50it's very shiny on the top. But when you lift it up, you've got this wonderful quank patina on it.

02:57So with a bit of cleaning up, we then we've used that material to clad the whole box. And it's sort

03:03of rather, it reflects the silver birches that it's sort of all nestled between.

03:08That's fantastic. And that's entirely in keeping with the philosophy of the project,

03:15which is all about sustainability, isn't it? And also flexibility, because inside,

03:19you can have an end on, you can have a thrust, but you've also got to cater for the day use,

03:23haven't you? How on earth do you do that?

03:26Well, we didn't paint it black and close it all out. So we've included, we've put windows in it,

03:34so that it's a space that feels as though it's comfortable and welcoming during the day.

03:42It's a sort of green box. You know, we've used very light

03:46light colours within the upholstery of the seats.

03:50So it is a performance space, predominantly a performance space, but it has flexibility in

03:56which format you can use it. But I think it will, it is supposed to be a very accessible space for

04:04all sorts of users. And that will be reflected on, that's reflected in how it is intended to be used,

04:12how the programming works, how many days of the year it is open to other community groups,

04:19not just for theatre group use. So it's, hopefully it will be a very different space.

04:25It's a very, the front of house is not, you know, it's a small front of house and opens up to a large

04:32decked area. So, you know, it's, it's, there's not, there's, there's no, you know, big storerooms and

04:39front of house and foyers and dressing rooms. It's, it's, what you see is what you get.

04:44And you've got the next few months mapped out with completion of the building works,

04:50testings, public-facing events, leading through to full-on use in the autumn, then that's the plan.

04:57In the, yeah, in the autumn. We'll be testing it, testing it throughout the summer and then,

05:01then into the autumn. So it's, we started building it in December. So it's an incredibly

05:06quick and efficient build process and, you know, not laying foundations, putting it all on,

05:13on ground screws, working very carefully within tree roots and all those sorts of things,

05:18meaning that you, it's a very speedy and very efficient construction process.

05:21Well, it sounds super exciting. I've been writing about the theatre's third theatre

05:25project for probably about 25 years, probably more than that. How exciting it's finally here.

05:29Thanks to you, Dan. Lovely to speak to you for your time.

05:33That's an absolute pleasure. Thanks, Phil.

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