MORE than 100 Liverpudlians will be immortalised in the new design for the Everyman Theatre.
Life-sized, abstract portraits of 105 local people of all ethnic backgrounds, shapes and sizes will be cut into aluminium shutters lining the front of the building.
They will form a physical representation of the community to which the theatre has always belonged.
The participants will be chosen during an outreach programme due to be carried out in the autumn.
Steve Tompkins, director of the building’s architect Haworth Tompkins, said: “The 1970s version of the Everyman is part of Liverpool’s heartbeat. In developing our proposals, we have tried to honour its unique spirit while equipping it for a new generation of brilliant theatre.”
Opened in 1964 in a converted chapel on Liverpool’s Hope Street, the Everyman has not been upgraded since the mid-70s.
From the beginning, its focus was on attracting new, young audiences, and it became a pioneering centre for politically- and socially-engaged theatre.
Founders Terry Hands, Martin Jenkins and Peter James stated their intention was to “promote, maintain and advance education; to promote understanding and appreciation of the Arts – of drama, music, mime, poetry, film”.
Since then, the theatre has launched the careers of an extraordinary roster of artists – including Willy Russell, Alan Bleasdale, Julie Walters, Pete Postlethwaite, Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher, Matthew Kelly, Bill Nighy, David Morrissey, Cathy Tyson and Ian Hart, and inspiring a young Daniel Craig.
Since joining forces with the Playhouse in 1999 to create the Liverpool and Merseyside Theatres Trust it has experienced a creative renaissance, producing 20 world premieres in just over five years and welcoming home alumni Pete Postlethwaite (King Lear), Matthew Kelly (Endgame), and Jonathan Pryce The Caretaker).
The Hope Street building had started life as Hope Hall, first built as a chapel in 1837 and used as a concert hall from the mid-19th century. In 1912, it was turned into one of Liverpool’s early cinemas, a role it continued to play for almost 50 years, lastly under independent owner Leslie Blond.
