Film star Ian Hart puts his stamp of approval on newly revealed plans for his beloved Everyman Youth Theatre, writes Laura Davis
“When I heard it was to close I thought a visit was long overdue,” he explains.
“I wish I’d gotten to see the youth theatre and the back stage area but the three-hour queue to get in the bistro kept me occupied.
“The choir were, as always, brilliant and the choice of final song (So Long Farewell from The Sound of Music) was perfect – funny and sad with dark overtones.”
Work is due to begin on the new building next week and once it is completed it will include designated space for its youth theatre.
Hart is impressed by the plans for the new YEP.
“As not everybody is cut out for performance, the opportunity to learn the skills involved in theatre production from all angles is long overdue,” he says.
Not that its members will be waiting until the new Everyman is built to begin work. They already have four shows programmed in for this year starting with Intimate, a site specific piece of promenade theatre about young people’s experiences of war taking place at Camp and Furnace on Greenland Street next month. You Are Being Watched, about the prevelance of CCTV, will move through various Liverpool city centre locations, beginning at the Static Gallery, and Excuse Me, a piece focusing on asylum seekers, will be performed at the Albert Dock.
The fourth play – Illyria by Bryony Lavery, about a journalist in a wartorn country – will be shown at the Playhouse Studio.
On top of this packed performance schedule, the young people will work on help on professional productions where possible and a YEP representative is likely to sit on the Everyman and Playhouse board.
With the Young Actors, Young Communicators and Young Technicians strands up and running, work now begins on future Young Directors and Young Writers programmes as well as a dedicated company of actors aged 18 to 25 and a children’s theatre for three to 11-year-olds.
Those who prefer to watch can become a YEP member to take advantage of its discounted ticket scheme. A £30,000 Arts Council grant has helped fund the project’s starting costs, while nominal fees charged for some of the strands will enhance the theatres’ subsidies.
Matt Rutter, YEP director, says: “It’s really exciting and is quite unique in terms of its diversity,” he says.
“The theatres really want to put young people at the heart of what they do.”
