Chichester Festival Theatre tour 18th July 2023
  

Eleven of us met in the foyer of Chichester Festival Theatre (CFT) for the back stage tour. We were welcomed by John and Susan, who are to be our guides. While in the foyer, we learned that CFT was opened by Leslie Evershed-Martin, (twice mayor of Chichester, city councillor and local optician) in 1962.

In 1959, he had decided to realise his ambition to build a theatre in Chichester. Firstly he set about raising the funds to start this enormous challenge. The first summer season produced three plays, The Chance, Broken Hearts and Uncle Banya. Actors in the early years included Sir Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, and Michael Redgrave.

We took the lift to the first floor, where we saw the wardrobe room. much smaller than I imagined, and we met the lady responsible for laundering most of the costumes after every performance. The pretty little tops worn by the Von Trapp children in the Sound of Music were actually being ironed while we were there.
Onto the wig, makeup and hairdressing room, the wigs can cost 2-3 thousand pounds.
We saw the scene:dock which is immediately behind the stage, and where scenery items are kept at the ready for quick scenery changes.
Finally we were invited on the thrust stage where we looked out over 1316 seats. John took a photo of us all. The visit was very interesting and we thanked John and Susan for making our tour most enjoyable.
We were all hungry by now so we trooped to the nearest pub for lunch. The staff there accommodated us very well, the food was good too.
Best Wishes
Gill White

p.s I have since been to see Sound of Music at CFT, it was a first class performance.