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),
New Vic Theatre New Vic Theatre The New Vic Theatre is situated in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. It was purpose-built as a theatre in the round and opened in 1986, replacing a converted cinema, the Victoria Theatre, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent. In the early 1960s Stephen Joseph was searching for a permanent base for his "Studio Theatre" company, which specialised in theatrical productions "in the round", that is with audience on all sides. He found it in a disused cinema in Hartshill, Stoke, which was converted to theatrical use and opened as a playhouse on 9 October 1962. The first resident director was Peter Cheeseman, and he