The Minerva Theatre is a studio theatre

Studio Theatre

A studio theatre is a 20th-century term that describes a small theatre space. Studio theatres often have a flexible auditorium whose stage and seating may be re-arranged to suit the specific requirements of a production...

 seating at full capacity 283. It is run as part of the adjacent Chichester Festival Theatre

Chichester Festival Theatre

Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....

, located in Chichester

Chichester

Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and was opened in 1989. The current artistic director

Artistic director

An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...

 is Jonathan Church

Jonathan Church

Jonathan Church is a British stage director.He is the son of the actor Tony Church and the actress Marielaine Douglas.Church was the artistic director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and since 2006 he has been the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre.-References:...

.

University of Chichester

In November 2009, The Minerva allowed the University of Chichester

University of Chichester

The University of Chichester is a university based in West Sussex, England. Campuses are based in the city of Chichester and the nearby coastal resort of Bognor Regis...

's Musical Theatre Degree programme to perform a run of Oh, What a Lovely War!

Oh, What a Lovely War!

Oh, What a Lovely War! is an epic musical originated by Charles Chilton as a radio play, The Long Long Trail in December 1961, and transferred to stage by Gerry Raffles in partnership with Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop in 1963...

, lasting a week. The show was well received and garnered positive reviews. It was directed by Garth Bardsley, with musical direction by Julian Kelly.