Exciting time to join the Chichester Festival Theatre team

SussexWorld

Luke Shires, new director of marketing & communications at Chichester Festival Theatre, comes into the role at an exciting time – the beginning of Justin Audibert’s time as CFT artistic director.

Transcript

00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers.

00:06 Fantastic this afternoon to meet for the first time the new Director of Marketing and Communications

00:10 at Chichester Festival Theatre, Luke Shires. Fantastic to meet you. Now what an exciting

00:15 time to come into this job. There's so much that's so obviously well established over

00:20 so many years about the Festival Theatre, but there is an element of change with Justin

00:24 coming in now. How do you see this role that you've come into?

00:29 Well I think with any kind of new role in a theatre or any organisation that's so well

00:33 established, the first thing to do is try and understand the organisation, its history

00:39 and have a respect really in Chichester's case for the audience who are so incredibly

00:43 loyal, the people that carry and are the through line through all of this. But at the same

00:47 time coming in at the beginning of Justin's tenure here means that there's a lot of buzz

00:53 and fizz and excitement around what might be happening and the creative thought process.

00:59 And from my point of view, my role as I see it is to be able to make sure I'm translating

01:05 that excitement through to the audience and also making sure that they know that they're

01:10 still absolutely a part of it. And presumably your starting point has to

01:15 be that there are so many more people who don't at the moment come to the theatre but

01:18 would love it if they did. Yeah, and I think trying to work out who

01:24 those people are and trying to work out the best way to make sure they understand that

01:28 this is a building and an organisation for everyone, that there are things on stage,

01:34 things off stage, which appeal to so, so many people, is very much front of mind as we kind

01:41 of piece together what the festival season looks like next year, what Justin's kind of

01:46 overarching vision feels like for the next few years. But he and I are really closely

01:51 aligned with Cathy there, 100% supportive of saying the people and the audiences are

01:58 what really make this venue special. So I'm trying to...

02:01 That loyalty you've touched on, is that unique, the extent to which this venue has loyalty,

02:06 do you think? Hugely, hugely unique.

02:08 Possessive audience you have, doesn't it? Possessive of the theatre.

02:12 I think proud, I would say, not necessarily possessive. I think that there's a real

02:17 pride that people have about the fact that Chichester has this amazing kind of civic

02:22 centre with such high cultural and creative ambition. And that sense of pride is really

02:28 contagious, I think, which hopefully goes some way in trying to get some more people

02:32 that are a bit... If people can be our advocates and our ambassadors and speak on our behalf

02:37 from the heart and passionately, then it means quite a lot.

02:40 Absolutely. And now the wider context, are we still in any way post-pandemic? Is that

02:45 still a hangover? Have we moved on? Have audiences changed?

02:48 I would love to say that, no, no, it's all back to normal. But I don't know if what we're

02:54 chasing is back to what it was before. I think part of the role now is to understand what

02:59 it could be. I think a lot has changed and people's behaviours have changed, not just

03:02 with theatre, but across the board. How has theatre going behaviour changed,

03:06 do you think? It's...

03:09 From a very kind of day-to-day point of view, there's a lot more... There's a high percentage

03:13 of people in the book a little bit closer to performance, not people in the book in

03:18 advance. But I would say that Chichester, again, because of that lovely, loyal audience,

03:23 does buck that kind of national trend ever so slightly in that there is that early support.

03:30 But I think that what we need to do is make sure that that support continues and grows,

03:34 because alongside the pandemic, there is a cost of living crisis that we do have to

03:40 be aware of. So making sure that...

03:41 Sense that there's always something, isn't there, really? It's always a challenge.

03:44 Absolutely. But in theatre, there is that kind of optimism of driving through difficult

03:51 times and historically, not with pandemics, but when you look at economic impact, that

03:57 theatre does often show itself to be one of the earliest green sheets. So, you know, we

04:04 put shows on every night. We have an element of optimism about what we do on a daily basis.

04:08 And it's going to get more and more interesting, isn't it? I can't wait to see what Justin's

04:12 first season is going to be like, you know, to what extent and how it's going to be different,

04:15 and all will be revealed early next year. But these are genuinely exciting times in

04:19 the theatre, aren't they? Yeah, really, really exciting. There's

04:22 such a lovely energy about the place through the workforce and with attendees. It's an

04:27 exciting time. Justin's energy is contagious. Brilliant. Well, really nice to meet you and

04:32 very best wishes and good luck for the role. Thank you.

04:34 Lovely to meet you. Thanks, Phil.

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