Chichester Festival Theatre Will Soon Announce a Fall 2020 Season Following Successful Test Event

Chichester Festival Theatre has announced that all of its staff, currently around 40% furloughed, will be back to work by the end of October with no redundancies, County Times reports.

The theatre is expecting to announced an autumn season following a successful test event.

"For the test event, we asked supporters back in with 420 seats, and Daniel (Evans, CFT artistic director) and I went on stage and talked through how things have been for us over the last six months," said CFT executive director Kathy Bourne. "We shared a couple of videos and then we did a Q&A, and it was wonderful to see everybody back in the auditorium. And from the stage, looking out, it didn't feel like a poorly attended show! The warmth of the audience was extraordinary."

After taking a questionnaire, 95% of people who attended said they would be willing to return to the theatre.

"Working with Daniel we have been looking at every show, what the risks are, all the minutiae detail, and we are getting there. It has created an opportunity to think about different types of programming for us. We are going to get the chance this year to do a little bit of experimentation perhaps - without pulling away from what is important to Daniel and to me in terms of our programming and our diversity."

They have decided that 600 patrons is what seems comfortable at this time.

Read more on County Times.