LivEveryPlay newspaper March 2016 by EVERYMAN & PLAYHOUSE THEATRES

LivEveryPlay SPRING 2016

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The work that the Everyman & Playhouse has undertaken with Liverpool City Council with some of the most disadvantaged and challenging young people in the city has been exceptional. Colleen Martin, Liverpool City Council

Photograph by Collette Rawlinson

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Welcome Welcome to the spring edition of LivEveryPlay, which shines the spotlight on some of the lesserknown aspects of life in your theatres. It’s the time of year when we’re all looking to the future, so when better to celebrate YEP’s contribution to preserving the planet; draw out the impact the e&P can have on young lives, and announce two fabulous new appointments to our board.

David Morrissey and Kate Willard join e&P Board We’re delighted that David Morrissey and Kate Willard have become Trustees of the Everyman & Playhouse. David is a renowned actor of stage and screen who began his career in the Everyman Youth Theatre. David has sat on the Board of the Everyman before, famously, when he was still in the Youth Theatre. Since then he has gone on to star in on screen in The Walking Dead, State of Play, Thorne, The Driver, One Summer, Welcome to the Punch and Centurion. On the stage David played Macbeth at the Everyman in the final production in the old building and his other theatre credits include Hangmen (Royal Court, London), In a Dark House (Almeida) and Peer Gynt (National).

We like to celebrate the unsung heroes who make the work on our stages, so this time our Head of Stage, Geoff Dennard, steps briefly out of the shadows to talk about his role. And some of the people who have dedicated seats in the new Everyman tell the wonderful stories behind the plaques.

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But the biggest news is in our centre spread, where we reveal the exciting new way we will be making shows from next year… We hope you enjoy this insight into life at the e&P, and look forward to sharing the onward journey with you.

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Gemma Bodinetz Artistic Director

SEFTON

Deborah Aydon Executive Director

Kate is Corporate Affairs Director for Stobart Group. With a background in culture and creativity, Kate has lived and worked in Europe as an independent regeneration expert with the European Commission on major transnational projects in employment, social cohesion and regional development and was also CEO of the UK’s first rural regeneration company (Rural Regeneration Cumbria). Originally trained as an actress, Kate studied at Theatre Royal Stratford East. She later became Associate Director at Liverpool Playhouse and then Founder Director of Brouhaha International Festival in the 1980s. She is a Churchill Fellow, FRSA and is Chair of both the Atlantic Gateway and the Thames Gateway, South Essex Growth Partnership and is also on the Board of Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership.

1,000

2,192 3,578 24,132

WIRRAL 1,108 86

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Everyman & Playhouse and the Liverpool City Region As our charitable trust name - Liverpool & Merseyside Theatres Trust - suggests, the theatres serve the wider region, attracting visitors and contributing a significant amount to the local economy.

Tickets School tickets

YEP* tickets

Participants in our community programme

Our value to the Liverpool City Region Economy is

120

ÂŁ15.6m 135

5,075

2,588 895

ST HELENS

10,959

46,791 67

people visited from outside Liverpool City Region

KNOWSLEY

LIVERPOOL

794 221

8,052 40

6,776

1,789

HALTON

*YEP is Young Everyman Playhouse, a youth programme that mirrors all aspects of our work, embodies our ethos and puts young people at the heart of everything we do. The figures detailed are from the e&P Annual Review 2014-15

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Sustainability

of the Everyman Have you ever wondered why the Everyman has four magnificent chimneys on its roof, or how the new auditorium is so quiet? Have you noticed how few radiators there are or wondered if there’s more to the shutters on the front of the building? All of these features help us reduce energy use, run more silently and generally be kinder to the environment. Here’s how… The Everyman was conceived from the outset as an exemplar of sustainable good practice. An early feasibility study had considered replacing the Playhouse and Everyman in a much larger and more expensive building on a new site, but the importance of continuity and compactness on the original site was too important to lose. Carefully dismantling the existing structure, the nineteenth century bricks were salvaged for reuse as the shell of the new auditorium and the majority of other

Natural Ventilation schematic

materials were recycled for use elsewhere. As it was not possible to acquire a bigger site, it was necessary to make efficient use of the site footprint. Together with the architects the space brief was distilled into its densest and most adaptable form. Having minimised the space and material requirement of the project, the fabric was designed to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating, unusual for an urban theatre building. Natural ventilation is used for all the main performance and workspaces. 1 Intake intersection taking

air from outside and cooling by thermal mass within intersection in summer, heated in winter.

2 Air enters auditorium beneath

stalls and circle seating

3 Incoming air warmed

by occupants

4 Air further warmed by lighting,

helping to drive buoyancy

5 Acoustic exhaust intersection 2

6 Exhaust intersection 7 Warm air exhaust

In the auditorium, outdoor air is supplied to the audience without the need for mechanical assistance for the majority of the summer and all through the autumn and spring. This is achieved by drawing in air from an inlet to the rear. An air-source heat pump allows incoming air to be heated or cooled when necessary with fan assistance for smaller winter air volumes or as a boost during exceptionally high temperatures.

Ventilation strategy for ev1, Rehearsal Room & Foyer

via chimney stacks

The air is then supplied to the space through an arrangement of openings behind and below the seats. The people and lighting help to warm the air, making it buoyant, and causing it rise to high level to the exhaust chimneys. Ev1 also has a street level intake, feeding floor grills, and has chimney slots for extract. The rehearsal room is ventilated by roof mounted windcatchers, supplemented with opening terrace doors. The foyers are vented via opening screens and a large lightwell.

The Everyman won Building Performance Champion at the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Awards in recognition of its outstanding energy performance.

The fully exposed concrete structure (with a high percentage of cement replacement) and reclaimed brickwork walls provide excellent thermal mass, while the entire west façade is glass, allowing the capture of afternoon sunlight. Offices and ancillary spaces are ventilated by opening windows. The basement bistro is the only principal space to be mechanically ventilated. All of this means the building minimises heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer. A low carbon energy combined heat and power plant powers the hot water needs for the food and drink offer and bar counters, shelving and furniture use iroko timber recycled from old laboratory work benches. Rainwater is harvested to provide a proportion of WC flushing demand, while the front of house and auditorium house lighting schemes use entirely low energy LED fittings. On the roof there are now new homes for local wildlife including bat and swift boxes and bee hives.

RIBA Stirling Prize judges: “It is exceptionally sustainable; not only did the construction re-use 90% of the material from the old theatre, but all spaces are naturally ventilated including the auditorium with its 440 seats. Clever, out of sight concrete labyrinths supply and expel air whilst maintaining total acoustic isolation. It is one of the first naturally ventilated auditoria in the UK.”

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Inspired by the green credentials of the new Everyman the awardwinning Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) wanted to create a new play all about the environment. They felt that if the building was able to reduce its impact on the environment then we should all think about what we could do ourselves. YEP continue to break boundaries and this spring they set themselves the ambitious target of creating the UK’s first carbon neutral play. The production, The Environmentalists, was devised by YEP, telling the story of the environment and their concerns for its future in their own words. As well as tackling the issues of climate change, The Environmentalists brought attention to the impact our daily lives have on the environment. To create the UK’s first carbon neutral play the stage, costumes and props were all be recycled from previous productions and LED lighting was used to minimise the carbon footprint of the play. The play featured a song ‘Just Do it Anyway’ which struck at its core message that we need to act now. Matt Rutter, Director of Young Everyman Playhouse said: “If it is happening, if the environment is in trouble, we should do something about it. If it isn’t and we can do stuff anyway, why wouldn’t you do it anyway? Just as a little bit of a backup, just in case global warming is real! Because there’s no plan B.”

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One of the largest contributions to a play’s effect on the environment is the audience travelling to see it. So prior to all of the performances audiences joined walking buses from different locations in the city. They were also encouraged to use public transport while YEP worked with CityBike to offer cheaper access to the scheme.

of the set was recycled All rubbish attached to the set was recycled, the flats were given to the city of Liverpool college and the AstroTurf was donated to local primary schools.

Pledges made by YEP, staff and individuals saved

155.83kg of carbon

The Environmentalists reduced the energy used by 13.7% compared to average, saving over ½ tonne of CO2 emissions

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YEP, Everyman & Playhouse staff and the public were encouraged to make pledges to off-set the carbon used in creating the play and, to try and stick to them to have a longlasting positive impact on the environment. These pledges were displayed in the theatre on a Chinese pledge tree using origami cranes. When researching the play YEP also consulted with Julie’s Bicycle, an organisation who work with the creative industries to make environmental sustainability a core component of their business. Nick Doran and Fiona Brannigan from the University of Liverpool, experts in calculating the carbon output of businesses to ensure the carbon neutrality of the play was fully verified. Read the social media reaction to The Enviromentalists at https://storify.com/ LivEveryPlay/theenvironmentalists

www.everymanplayhouse.com/yep @YoungEveryPlay facebook.com/YoungEveryPlay

The Everyman Company Take a little inspiration from the past, plus a dollop of the philosophy of British theatre luminary Joan Littlewood, and you might start to get an idea of where we are heading in 2017.

The New Year will see the Everyman doing things in a new way, shaping the theatre and its relationship to the city like never before. For the first time in decades, the venue’s own Company will take a new approach to how work is created and seen, not only on stage but around the city as well.

People appreciate the history of the Everyman and this city, and I hope this feels like a fresh way of creating a company. Gemma Bodinetz Artistic Director

Now we are well and truly settled into our new (award winning) building, the Ev is taking a fresh look at how it makes work, its relationship with Liverpool, and the people and productions that like to visit us.

“The theatre will be invigorated, energised,” says Everyman & Playhouse Associate Director Nick Bagnall.

And from January next year, at the heart of this will be a new experiment taking the best of an old idea: A dedicated company that can rise to any challenge.

“Naturally, the Everyman has been very much focused on getting the new building alive and animated, and generating a buzz. Now, the focus can be about what we put on stage.”

1971-1972 Everyman company

The Everyman will be looking for multi-talented performers to form the Company who must also be able to act, sing and play instruments. The Company will include ‘Liverpool voices’ – whether born and bred, or honorary Scouser – whilst also canvassing for the best talent from around the country. Open auditions will be held for professional actors later in the year. The Company will operate from January to June, and actors must be able to commit to this time frame. For the rest of the year,

collaborations with theatre companies that share a similar ethos will fill the calendar until it’s time for the Rock ‘n’ Roll panto. Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz – for whom the revolutionary Joan Littlewood has always been a ‘guiding star’ - explains: “It’s a new kind of repertory company. We want to be able to do the kind of work we want; it’s a way of making work that is bespoke, and being able to do much more research and development and investigate stories.” “It has to be more than a typical rep company dishing out parts to mean anything to me,” she adds. “The idea is the company plays an integral part in the ethos of the theatre.” Nick continues: “The ethos is, if what we do doesn’t respond to the city - as a play or a piece of work with YEP, or a community project - then we have to question why we are doing it.”

The Warp company 1980

Between them, Gemma and Nick will direct all the Company's shows, and its members will need to be prepared to throw themselves head first into whatever opportunities come their way – “that could be playing Piglet in Winnie the Pooh for a family matinee, and Coriolanus in the evening,” Gemma laughs – and that might only be the beginning. There is, many will recognise, more than a passing feel of the almost mythical Everyman rep of the 70s in this new way of working; the troupe that launched the careers of a plethora of British acting talent including Julie Walters, Pete Postlethwaite, Bill Nighy, Sir Antony Sher, Bernard Hill, Matthew Kelly and many others. They, famously, cut their teeth not only on stage, but by pitching in with the Ev’s general upkeep, cleaning up and tending bar. They worked tirelessly to devise new pieces, responded to events in the city and performed it wherever they could, touring Liverpool in an old minivan and learning their craft through a wide variety of different roles that played against type. And it’s that spirit of independence and passion that is part of the inspiration for the new Company. There is a strong desire to if not exactly discover then truly nurture a new generation of regional performers and theatre makers that have the potential to break out just as those before them.

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Twelfth Night company 2014

Original Everyman company 1964

It is now Everyman folklore that back in the 1970s, the Company would head out into the community to perform new works reflecting the issues affecting the city, looking for audiences wherever they were to be found, and letting local audiences take ownership of the theatre and its output. Gemma Bodinetz sees the appeal in that purpose: “Times have changed and in times of austerity, as a theatre we have to respond to these times quickly, urgently – and really creatively, “ she says. “And we need to be ready to respond not just by political tub thumping, but by making things with heart and joy, and positive energy.” “The actors who join the company will need to absolutely embed themselves in the very fabric of the building, understand that need to connect with the city, not just behind closed doors – also opening those doors,” says Nick Bagnall. But it’s not about reliving past glories. Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) will have a major role to play. One YEP actor will graduate into the main Company, and in turn

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The new Company may serve, Bagnall says, as a ‘rapid response’ to local, national and international issues deserving of scrutiny. Traditional lengthy ‘lead-in’ times on in-house productions - the process of a play going from a concept, to script, to stage - may not always be the way new works make their appearance. n Va

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Company members must be willing to teach and perhaps even mentor young talent starting out. It is hoped YEP may be incorporated into main stage productions in different ways. “It’s a very exciting time,” says Bagnall. “When I joined as an Associate Director I was very aware of the current climate in all theatres in the land, it didn’t come as a shock that things need to shift.”

The theatre will be invigorated, energised Nick Bagnall Associate Director

The theatres will also be reinvigorating the programming of touring shows at the Playhouse, furthering established relationships and chasing high-profile new ones. These ‘Residencies’ will ensure that companies choose to see the venue as a place to base themselves while delivering tailor-made productions, complete with community outreach, rather than just passing through. “We have nurtured some really important relationships over the years,” says Nick. “Now, co-productions will be more bespoke for both theatres. We would like to develop relationships with companies with international kudos to come here and base themselves here. Companies will need to engage in the city, do education work, respond to events. That will take time and it’s not something that will happen overnight.” “Having a great body of artists in your building can only be a good thing,” says Gemma. “People appreciate the history of the Everyman and this city, and I hope this feels like a fresh way of creating a company. If we can make it work, learn lessons and pass them on I think other people might be excited to try it out." Interview by Vicky Anderson

Everyman Unbound company 2010

Everyman company 1991-1992

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Everyman & Playhouse in the community Our community programme is an essential part of what we do at e&P. We offer creative opportunities and activities to those who wouldn't ordinarily think that theatre was for them. Below are a few highlights from our current programme of activities.

Knowsley Adult Disability Services The Everyman & Playhouse have been working in partnership with Knowsley Adult Disability Services. The five centres based across Knowsley – Huyton, Stockbridge Village, Halewood and Kirkby – have worked with the theatres’ Community Outreach Programmes on creative and arts-led projects since 2011. Projects have included a Cinderella themed ball in the centres, a small scale performance of Goldie in the Hood in the Playhouse Studio, an exhibition of retrospective images and film premiere at the Everyman and supported numerous trips to see a range of shows at both theatres.

Thirty of the service users led the way on the Lights Up parade which helped to open the new Everyman on 1 March 2014 and one of their service users takes pride of place on the Everyman’s iconic Portrait Wall. Recently the service users chose an unsung hero from their area; an ordinary person doing extraordinary things for others. This person was transformed into a collage artwork which was exhibited it the Everyman theatre bar for Unsung in March 2016.

"It is good to have worked so closely with the theatres to produce the project. All the participants were engaged and developed new skills through the workshops, fun and freedom of expression was encouraged throughout." Sue Comer of Knowsley Day Centres

Summer Arts Colleges are intensive educational projects designed for young people run nationally by arts organisations and local authorities across the UK.

Liverpool Summer Arts College Last year we began working with Liverpool Targeted Services for Young People on a Summer Arts College. Although the theatres have often worked with Targeted Services for Young People it is the first time they have supported the annual arts college which is funded by Unitas and Arts Council England.

Last summer the group created The Trial of Hansel, a reimagining of the classic fairy-tale. Over a three week intensive period the group of young men worked to produce every element of their production, including set building, puppetry, film making and editing, photography, performance skills, aerial theatre, lights, projection and sound.

The theatres will be working with Knowsley Adult Disability Services on another project this year linked to The Government Inspector. The production includes a mix of disabled and ablebodied performers and the service users will be responding artistically to the production.

Liverpool Summer Arts College has since been recognised nationally by CEO of Unitas Martin Stephenson as an outstanding example of the project and featured heavily in the Youth Justice Board conference this year. The Everyman & Playhouse, working with Liverpool Targeted Services for Young People, have been chosen as one of 10 projects which will receive funds to run for the next 3 years. With this in mind we created two mini-projects which will act as recruitment into this year’s Summer Arts College. One project engaged 8 ‘at risk’ young women and another was a construction project linked to YEP show The Environmentalists.

Each young person achieved Discover, Explore, Bronze and Silver Arts Awards for the programme. Two of the young people attended YEP Drop In sessions following the project and 80% of the young people went onto positive engagement in training or employment following the project. Delaney Millward of Targeted Services for Young People said: “The young people have made such massive strides in such a short period and it was an honour to join them on that journey. This was such a fantastic opportunity that they really did make the most of, and one I’m sure they will never forget.”

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Liverpool Confucius Institute Liverpool is home to one of the oldest Chinese communities in the UK and in recent years the connections in the city to China, including students studying in the city, has continued to grow. Both the resident community and Chinese students are in our neighbourhood and we have begun a programme of work with the Confucius Institute.

TIBER Project S CE NE CHA NG E p re s e n ts : Com i ng of A ge

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Want to see new The Tiber gr and exciting talent? night of da oup are producing a ncers, singe rs, rappers, comedians , and much more...

Thanks to the City of Liverpool for its financial support

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Together we have developed a pioneering programme involving Chinese young people and professional artists to create cross-cultural events inspired by Chinese and British culture. A Chinese Arts Forum during the project has also been engaging the wider Chinese community in experiencing and understanding the culture of British Theatre performance. Over 6 months this young local Chinese community connected to the Confucius Institute has been engaging with participatory work, accessing skill development through the theatres’ programmes and working with experienced artists to create events that bring both cultures together.

YEP have teamed up with The Greenhouse Project to train young people in Arts Events Management for their innovative and exciting new performance space. TIBER, based on Lodge Lane in Toxteth, was set up in 2004 and have since secured awards to support the build which will spread over their 5 acre site including; outdoor performance space, public art pieces, café, changing rooms and a full size sports pitch. The group of young people aged 11-17 years-old were first introduced to the programme by YEP Director Matt Rutter at the Everyman in 2015 and now meet weekly in the community to develop their skills in arts event management. The group have created a bespoke set of research questions which have helped inform meetings with cultural organisations across the city, including: Culture Liverpool, 20 Stories High, Africa Oye, Brazilica, Brouhaha, Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival and Nothing But the Music.

The programme is a progression of the pilot Chinese Arts Forum created by the Everyman & Playhouse and the Confucius Institute last year which is led by Chinese young people. The forum has developed introductory activities before performances at the theatres for Chinese young people to encourage theatre-going, an understanding of British theatre culture and participation in arts The resulting participative events of the project have weaved together British and Chinese perspectives, rich traditions and contemporary practice within the arts.This is already proving to be a successful model for audience development and evidence of the impact of the arts in integrating Chinese young people and celebrating Chinese and British culture.

organisation we will be able to up our game in terms of providing high quality activities and events that will animate the Tiber Square and Lodge Lane Neighbourhood.” The success of this project means the young people from TIBER have a bridge into the wider YEP programme. As a feeder into YEP Producers the group of young people aged 14 to 18 years old are worked with second year YEP Producer Lucy Graham to produce their own L8 Scene Change at the Playhouse Studio in March. The young people on the Arts Events team will be instrumental in planning and delivering the launch of the square which will take place later this summer.

Greenhouse Project Manager Debbie Wright said: “The Greenhouse Project is working with a highly ambitious group of young people who are aiming to put together a programme of events that will both engage the local community and attract international audiences. Working in partnership with the Everyman & Playhouse will not only enable our staff to enhance their own learning and development but means that as an

Staff Spotlight... Geoff Dennard Head of Stage at Everyman & Playhouse

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“Sometimes there are limits to what we can do, but we try and say yes to everything,” he explains. “We make stuff work – that’s our job.”

Geoff has been with the Everyman & Playhouse for three years, and so has worked on every production in the new Everyman. “When I came for the interview, it was still a building site,” he explains. “But I had been wanting to get back into theatre and had been looking to make that move.”

However, in between theatre jobs, Geoff had worked as a rigger on big rock shows touring across Europe, for bands including the likes of Motley Crüe and Iron Maiden. Before coming to the Everyman & Playhouse, he was based at Birmingham’s NEC venue.

It's more rock 'n' roll than rock 'n' roll these days Geoff Dennard

To achieve the pneumatic system to create the ship’s movement in The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead, the stage team had to pull an all-nighter to rebuild the set to work properly. Geoff says: “Working here has been a fantastic experience so far. I’d heard about the old Everyman but never been, and it’s just wonderful now. The intimacy of the venue and what it can do – transforming the seating, the whole sub-stage system, a computerised flying system – it’s fantastic. “Liverpool is a really cool city and working here means working with really good people.” Interview by Vicky Anderson

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by Gary Calton

Highlights as Head of Stage for Geoff have included Twelfth Night, which was the first production in the new Everyman, and the recent The Haunting of Hill House last Christmas at the Playhouse – a play praised above all for its technical excellence - where devising a small trap door to make an optical illusion work proved to be as much of a puzzle as any flamboyant rock star’s requirements.

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Some productions will keep changing their requirements up until the last minute; on others, making small things work can often be a bigger challenge than putting any large-scale stadium gimmick safely in situ.

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“I started off in theatre, and really, it’s more rock ‘n’ roll than rock ‘n’ roll these days,” he says. “I just love the creativity and the spontaneity, and working out how to find inventive solutions to different problems.” Jodi

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Later, he went to the Royal Shakespeare Company as a scenic workshop coordinator, before becoming tech manager at the Royal Albert Hall and eventually teaching at drama school.

The Head of Stage is involved in in-house productions from the very beginning, working with the set designer from their very first sketches, to advise on the best way to achieve their ideas. &E

Geoff heads up a team of three full time colleagues, increasing to as many as ten casual staff at especially busy times.

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This is where Geoff Dennard comes in. As the Everyman & Playhouse’s Head of Stage, it is his role to co-ordinate and ensure a production’s set makes it onto the stage properly, with all the technical elements working as they should. With touring shows that arrive at the theatre with their own sets and scenery in tow, the team are on hand to adapt and install this to ensure everything works perfectly on all of the theatres’ stages.

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London-born Geoff started out as an assistant carpenter with a local rep theatre, and built up his experience from there. He went on to work in various theatres around London and set up a business building theatre scenery.

It’s a different story behind the scenes of course, where a dedicated crew work to ensure such fancies of theatrical imagination can be made a practical, logistical reality in the first place.

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olon M ey c From such memorable yss d eO Th on-stage moments in recent years as the big reveal of Kneehigh’s dead dog, Viola’s soggy entrance in Twelfth Night, Alan Icarus in winged flight in Bright Phoenix, or the action on board a moving ship in The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead, a little spectacle, wonder and escapism is all part of the appeal of watching a tale unfold.

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Supporter Spotlight... The stories behind the seats Edna Pye

Matt Woodburn

"Harry Wright was ‘a truly good man’, who touched the lives of everyone he met. He was a committed Christian who lived his faith; dedicating himself to helping young people as a teacher and youth club leader. He was a talented actor who also directed numerous memorable productions for his amateur dramatic society, school, church and youth club. His enthusiasm for the theatre was infectious and his support and encouragement led

Sue Hedgecock "The reason for 'naming' a seat was really that I had made the donation to the rebuild so I thought I would get some of the kudos! However, I did not just want to be bland, with a bare name check = "donated by..."etc. In the late 60s my friend and I went to see the Christmas offering at the Ev, which was 'The Cricket on the Hearth' and we really enjoyed it. On the way out of the theatre we noticed a small sign saying 'usherettes wanted' (it was pre PC days), and we thought "why not"? We then 'ushered' for about 18months - 2; years mainly during the reign of Alan Dossor. I have to say that we once had a performance where there were more people on stage than were in the audience (and no, I can't remember what play it was)! After we hung up our tabards (imagine it), I carried on coming to most productions and gave a covenant to donate to the first rebuild, when the stage was moved up to the old balcony level and the new frontage and the foyer bar was created.

to young people attending, participating and working in professional theatre. I thought it very apt that he should be remembered in a place where he spent many happy hours."

My friend and I are the Big Sue and Little Sue immortalised on the plaque! We were so named by Spud, who used to run the bar in the basement in pre Bistro days. When the latest call went out for the funding of the complete re-build, I was in the process of retiring and therefore had a bit of my lump sum hanging about, and as I still have this sense of loyalty to the old place, the cheque book came out again. I also have an interest in architecture and I was captivated by the idea of the web cam feed, and I was so excited by the Stirling Prize win! (I cried!!!!). The fact that I got to hold the actual prize at the inaugural Director's Dinner was the icing on the cake."

"I first became involved with the Everyman during the Everyone 4 Everyman funding campaign in order to help with the building of the new Everyman theatre. I have always believed in the power of bringing quality drama to people and I’m proud to support two theatres whose ethos in delivering classic drama blends with supporting new and exciting actors, writers and directors to create a vibrant and powerful champion for the dramatic arts in Liverpool. I chose to dedicate my seat to the people of my home city, even though I now live and work in London I am still hugely passionate about the work that the Everyman and Playhouse do and I wanted to give something tangible to show my support. I dedicated the seat but I didn’t want it to belong to me, I wanted it to belong to whoever chose to sit there. It makes me incredibly proud to know that every week somebody will sit in that seat and hopefully see something that in some small way changes the way that they see the world. I always love to come home and to see the theatre from my seat but ultimately it’s my contribution to the amazing ongoing work that the Everyman and Playhouse do to champion the very best in quality theatre, it’s my tiny gift to the city and the theatres that have given me so much."

A dedication on one of our seats is a very special way to support e&P and become part of the very fabric of the theatre. For more information on naming a seat in the Everyman, visit everymanplayhouse.com/name-a-seat or contact Anne Irvine Development Manager on 0151 706 9124 a.irvine@everymanplayhouse.com

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Hilary and Jerry Henry "From our first date, through our 42 years of marriage, we have always enjoyed a night out at the Everyman. The plaque recognises this...and promises many more. It is important and rewarding for us to play a part, no matter how small, in helping to ensure that live theatre lives on."

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A, ing at RAD the After train returned to e c ry P n a an Jonath son Steadm li A h it w n x Everyma h broke Bo ic h w e m o rs highest in The Fou selling the r fo s rd o c than Office re seats. Jona le g in s f o g number e advertisin th to is th y’. The attributes tains nudit n o ‘c g in rn ’s… wa s Jonathan ‘nudity’ wa

Those who have left us a legacy: DOROTHY SMELLIE MALCOLM AND ROGER FROOD IN MEMORY OF GRAHAM AND JOAN FROOD ANNI PARKER & BRIAN BARRY Lovers and Supporters of Theatre

And everyone who has supported the new Everyman

Mau on the d Carpente r bega Playh 1911, was t ouse Box O n he Th ffice in and li eatr c the fir ensee by 1 e’s manage 922, st w r in 194 oman to jo and was 5. Her in the spann b P ed a w layhouse c oard areer hoppi ng 51 years!

Hope St, Liverpool, L1 9BH

Williamson Square, Liverpool, L1 1EL

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SPRING 2016