No 제 목 이 름 조회수 입력일시 29724 soul head phones sdVFTyf 55 2013-03-27 15:07 내 용 Unsung hero of British theatre He is unfailingly courteous, apparently unflappable, and exudes an integrity that never becomes solemn. Though there isn't a hint of the luvvie about him, this modest 53-year-old family man is one of the great unsung heroes of British theatre. The Chichester Festival Theatre, launched in 1962 by Laurence Olivier, who formed what was to become the nucleus of the National Theatre there, has long been anathema to Leftward leaning metropolitan critics. Unashamedly middle-class, and sometimes over-reliant on elderly star names, it has been described as "the safest house in Britain", a theatre in a green field where the sun shines on a sea of blue rinses and glints off the Zimmer frames of its ageing clientele. But beneath the prosperous fa Chichester found itself in dire trouble in 1997. Duncan Weldon, the West End impresario who had unexpectedly succeeded Patrick Garland as director, stormed out in the autumn of that year after a disastrous falling out with the theatre's boards of management. There was a deficit of and Weldon threatened to sue the theatre - which was hovering on the brink of liquidation. After 35 years, there was a real risk that the theatre, whose construction was financed largely by the public subscription of local worthies, would be forced into closure. Andrew Welch, "a colonial child" who became hooked on theatre while appearing in a Christopher Fry play at his English prep school, was the man who inherited what looked like a lethally poisoned chalice. What on earth persuaded him to take on such a daunting task? "I suppose for many people of my generation, Chichester is an iconic theatre. I first went there as a teenager, and it was very influential on my view of theatre. "So I was tickled when I was approached to become theatre director, and I'd done jobs in the past that looked a Street By 50 Headphones bit barmy. I went to the Plymouth Theatre Royal when it had a big deficit, for instance. My main feeling was that Chichester was well worth saving." There have been plenty of what he describes as "hairy moments". His first production as the new boss, Eduardo de Filippo's great Italian comedy, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, was, in my view, disastrously misdirected by Jude Kelly, and the revival of Orson Welles's Shakespearean Chimes at Midnight with Simon Callow also proved a disappointment. "Oh yeah, it was a bumpy first season. Audiences weren't big enough overall and although we just about managed to scrape through, it was very scary. There were times when I was really worried that we faced closure. "One of the reasons I never moved my family down to Chichester Sms Audio Headphones was that I was never sure how much longer I'd be here. But, even when the cash flow was pretty frightening, I was excited by the opportunities." The summer festival season that opens this week, Welch's fifth, will also be his last. It is, he says, a "knackering" job, and he wants to spend more time with his family and with his own production company, which has been on hold throughout his time in Sussex. But Welch has done much more than save the theatre from bankruptcy. In a move that doubtless caused the theatre's notoriously prudish founder, Leslie Evershed-Martin, to turn in his grave, Chichester presented the regional premiere of David Hare's steamy Blue Room - and saw it transfer to the West End. There have also been welcome revivals of a host of first-rate contemporary plays, including Brian Friel's Aristocrats, Peter Whelan's The Accrington Pals, Martin Crimp's scabrous reworking of Moliere's Misanthrope, as well as work by Terry Johnson and Catherine Johnson. Indeed, the Minerva's repertoire has more in common with the hip Donmar Warehouse than it does with the average regional rep. Welch has a particularly fine eye for promising young directors. Loveday Ingram, Rachel Kavanaugh, Edward Kemp, Lucy Bailey and Indhu Rubasingham have all blossomed under his patronage, and Welch is particularly proud that in his final season, three of his proteges will be directing main-house productions. Chichester was in desperate need of rejuvenation, and Welch has somehow pulled the tricky task off. Last year that figure had doubled to 70 per cent and Welch has quadrupled the number of people under the age of 25 attending the theatre. He has, inevitably, had to play safer on the main stage, but Brian Friel's translation of Three Sisters, Ayckbourn's blackly comic state of the nation play, A Small Family Business, David Hare's excellent C of E-in-crisis drama, Racing Demon, and Tom Stoppard's gloriously witty and mind-stretching Arcadia are far from stodgy choices for the main auditorium - especially when you remember that not Street By 50 Headphones so long ago the theatre under Patrick Garland was offering such dispiriting fare as Harry Secombe in the umpteenth revival of Pickwick. It's a dauntingly large house for straight plays - as big as the National's Olivier - and, with 350,000 theatregoers a year, Chichester plays to the largest audiences in Britain apart from the RSC and the NT. "Not bad for a town of 25,000 people," as Welch says. He admits he has lost a few regulars - Catherine Johnson's ribaldly filthy Shang-a-Lang caused particular outrage. He's going out with what promises to be a cracking 40th anniversary season - the great newspaper comedy The Front Page; Chichester favourite Patricia Routledge in a rare Jean Anouilh; Cabaret with Alexandra Jay (who shot to fame covering for that notorious absentee, Martine McCutcheon, in My Fair Lady) and the deeply sinister Julian Bleach from Shockheaded Peter as MC; plus Romeo and Juliet. In the Minerva, Corin Redgrave stars in his own play about Anthony Blunt and the actor Sam West makes his directorial debut with Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning, among other goodies. Meanwhile, the search is on for Welch's successor. The job has been advertised, interviews will be held at the end of this month, with an appointment expected in June. Whoever inherits the theatre he so stylishly brought back from the brink will have an exceptionally tough act to follow.

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No 제 목 이 름 조회수 입력일시 29724 soul head phones √ sdVFTyf 55  2013-03-27 15:07