Chichester Festival Theatre Chichester Festival Theatre Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, Sussex, England, is a theatre designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. 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),
Michael Boyd (theatre director) Director a year later. In 1982 he joined the Sheffield Crucible as an Associate Director, and three years later became founding Artistic Director of the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, where he staged a production of "Macbeth" starring Iain Glen, an adaptation of Janice Galloway’s "The Trick is to Keep Breathing" and Michel Tremblay’s Quebec plays, "The Real World?" and "The Guid Sisters". Boyd joined the RSC in 1996 as an Associate Director, staging the three parts of "Henry VI" together with "Richard III" at the Young Vic in London in April 2002, as part of the "". During this time