Everyman News issue 5

Opening date Announ ced

EVERYMAN NEWS ISSUE 05 November 2013

BUILDING PROGRESS

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WE’VE GOT IT BACK! After a summer which saw the Portrait Wall shutters go on, the chimneys and flytower completed, the floors laid and Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson topping out the building with a ceremonial bottle of beer, the autumn season began with a balcony, a new sign, an actual Stage Door and even new road markings.

Now, project builders Gilbert-Ash have proudly given us the keys to our new Everyman.

Thank you Gilbert-Ash. At one point there were 100 people working on site from chippies to electricians, plumbers, IT specialists, gas fitters, painters and artists. Project managing the site itself has been a great feat.

Next steps for us over the coming months are to start testing and training on the new-state-of-the-art technology in the auditorium, move into the Box Office, bistro and cafĂŠ bar, offices and Youth and Community Studio, and of course prepare for the opening season (see centre pages pull-out). Watch this space...

Mayor Joe Anderson, Deborah Aydon, Will Mesher (Haworth Tompkins Architects) Prof Michael Brown (Chair of the Trustees) Gemma Bodinetz, Ivor Wilson (Gilbert-Ash)

Photography by Steve Aland

Detail of the Portrait Wall from the top floor offices

The lighting rig gangway above the stage

BUILDING PROGRESS

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First floor Theatre Bar

Hope Street CafĂŠ Bar Entrance

The lights in the bistro covered for protection

The roof

Detail of natural ventilation chimneys

Detail of glass pavement lightwells

THE NEW EVERYMAN BISTRO & BARS 04 He’s stepping into big shoes, but new Everyman Food and Drink Director Thomas Lang has the experience, Verve and just a little bit of naughtiness to take that spirit of the Everyman into the future.

Here he tells us about this exciting new challenge.

I’ve always lived within half a mile of the Everyman. I first found the bistro when I was about 18 years old and was gigging in different bands around Liverpool. It was a sanctuary for me, full of like-minded people.

Coming from a big working class Toxteth family, the Everyman bistro was a place where people could talk and you weren’t considered a lunatic if you wanted to have a conversation about something more than football.

It was a sanctuary for me, full of like-minded people.

About 7 years ago, I bought Parr Street Studios with my business partners. By 2011 the Studios and 3345 Bar had been doing really well for a while so my partner and I decided to go travelling, spending an amazing year and a half living in Sri Lanka and India. Then earlier this year I was ready to come back to Liverpool and find a new challenge. I didn’t know exactly what that challenge might be and had lots of ideas, then this opportunity came up for Food and Drink Director for BaxterStorey – the UK’s leading independent corporate restaurateur – at the new Everyman. I met with Deborah and Gemma and the team at BaxterStorey and there seemed to be a natural fit, where we all understood where the Everyman has been and where it was going.

I very much believe in taking the best of the past and mixing it with the future.

I’d known Paddy Byrne, the former bistro owner for years, he’s a great guy. He actually made the introduction between me and Deborah and Gemma. He’s been really helpful and even came on site with me to look at the new Everyman bistro and bars. He’s been great about handing on that baton, advising on suppliers for the old Everyman, who worked well. I very much believe in taking the best of the past and mixing it with the future.

I like to be sociable, I like to party, I like being around people, my partner’s a chef so I’m also very much a foodie. I’ve owned restaurants and bars before and I think I know what customers want and in particular I think I know what Everyman bistro people want. We also need to recognise that there is now a whole other aspect to the food and drink offer within the new building.

If we start at the top, there’s this fantastic theatre bar on the first floor which leads into the auditorium. It’s a very light, airy space, you can do anything in, not just for entering and leaving the auditorium.

On the ground floor, we will have a café bar with a deli which will be open for breakfasts from 8.30am and the bar will run to 11pm every night. The building is built back a metre so in the summer this area opens up onto a pavement café with these big sliding windows.

Then going down to the basement is the bistro. We want to keep that whole creative nook element, where people can sit off in little corners, or they can have the big tables if they want to. It has very much been designed with all that in mind. There’s a wood burning stove down there for people to sit around in the winter, a third space which can be used for writing clubs, small gigs, poetry and private parties.

So it’s a much, much bigger thing than it was before. There’s even a hireable event space on the first floor! We want people to find their natural settling place within the whole building, have a coffee, a meeting, pick up a salad from the deli, have lunch in the café bar, meet friends in the bistro.

Thomas Lang, Food and Drink Director for the new Everyman bistro and bars

What excites me most is a new generation discovering the Everyman for themselves and taking ownership of it.

It’s about the past coming through to the future. We’ve tried to keep the heart of the Everyman like it was and I really want to see how people react to it. But for young people in particular, with that same spirit I had when I was 18, I want to see them finding it really is a place for everybody.

What excites me most is a new generation discovering the Everyman for themselves and taking ownership of it...

Thomas with former Everyman bistro owner Paddy Byrne

Time to celebrate,

the is back Save the date for our opening weekend 1-2 March 2014

Lights Up Saturday 1 March

Housewarming Sunday 2 March

Join us on Saturday 1 March as we Light Up the building for the first time and on Sunday 2 March for our Housewarming, when we invite you to make yourself at home, explore and discover the new theatre. More details to be announced in the New Year

In Association with Liverpool Lantern Company and Walk the Plank

opening season announced Sat 8 Mar to Sat 5 Apr Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse presents

Twelfth Night Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Gemma Bodinetz The new Everyman springs to life with Shakespeare’s anarchic tale of love, loss and transformation. A wave crashes onto the shores of Illyria, bringing with it new life, fresh love and a whole heap of complications and possibilities that suggest nothing will ever be the same again.

With Neil Caple, Pauline Daniels, Paul Duckworth, Adam Keast, Matthew Kelly, Adam Levy, Jodie McNee, Alan Stocks and Nicholas Woodeson

Tue 8 Apr to Sat 12 Apr Actors Touring Company presents

The Events Written by David Greig Directed by Ramin Gray Screams echo through corridor.

The sound of gunfire rings out. David Grieg’s Edinburgh Fringe First Award winning play asks how far forgiveness will stretch in the face of an atrocity.

Fri 9 May to Sat 31 May Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse presents

Hope Place A new play by Michael Wynne Specially commissioned for the opening season of the Everyman, acclaimed playwright Michael Wynne returns to Liverpool with a story of myths, memories and secrets. Rattling around in a house on Hope Place, Maggie searches for the truth within a sea of family folklore.

Sat 21 Jun to Sat 12 Jul Kneehigh with Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse present

Dead Dog in a Suitcase (& other love songs) A New Beggar’s Opera Written by Carl Grose Music by Charles Hazlewood Directed by Mike Shepherd Our first Everyman collaboration is with the irrepressible Kneehigh on a radical new version of John Gay’s musical satire, The Beggar’s Opera. Bursting with wit, wonder and weirdness, an extraordinary Kneehigh cast of actor-musicians shoot, hoot and shimmy their way through this twisted morality tale of our times.

...and at the

Thu 20 to Sat 22 Feb

What the Ladybird Heard Julia Donaldson’s colourful farmyard adventure is brought to life with music, puppetry and lots of joining in for those aged 3 plus.

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Based on the award-winning picture book by Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks

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Thu 27 Feb

Punt and Dennis; Ploughing On Regardless Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis bring their new satirical comedy for one night only.

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Tue 25 Feb

Phoenix Dance Theatre Works by Ivgi & Greben, Darshan Singh Bhuller and Didy Veldman A triple bill featuring the first UK work by European duo Ivgi & Greben, and pieces from former Phoenix Artistic Director Darshan Singh Bhuller and Didy Veldman.

Wed 5 Mar to Sat 8 Mar

Private Peaceful

By Michael Morpurgo Adapted and directed by Simon Reade The author of War Horse recounts the story of Private Tommo Peaceful, a young First World War soldier, as he awaits the firing squad at dawn.

Tue 4 Mar to Sat 8 Mar

Dial M for Murder

By Frederick Knott Directed by Lucy Bailey Frederick Knott’s thriller (famously filmed

by Alfred Hitchcock), is an erotic tale of betrayal, passion and ultimately murder.

Mon 17 Mar

Thu 27 Mar to Sat 19 Apr

Three Little Pigs

Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse presents

The perfect opportunity to introduce little ones to the magic of live ballet, music and storytelling as Northern Ballet return for only 3 performances.

A View from the Bridge

By Arthur Miller Directed by Charlotte Gwinner

Tue 29 Apr to Sat 3 May

On the waterfront, Eddie Carbone is working hard and keeping his head down.

But times are changing and Eddie’s losing his grip. Arthur Miller’s devastating portrait of an ordinary man in a clash of cultures, of generations and of moral duty.

An August Bank Holiday Lark A new play by Deborah McAndrew Directed by Barrie Rutter A new play by Deborah McAndrew for Northern Broadsides set in the summer of 1914 rural Lancashire, as war looms above the Wakes week celebrations.

Tue 13 May to Sat 17 May Wed 7 May to Sat 10 May

This May Hurt A Bit

By Stella Feehily Directed by Max Stafford-Clark In this biting, buoyant new political comedy from Out of Joint and Bolton Octagon, Britain’s beloved NHS is under the stethoscope. So what’s the prognosis?

Spring Awakening

By Frank Wedekind in a new version by Anya Reiss Directed by Ben Kidd The play that caused riots when first staged in 1906 is brought bang up to date by Headlong in an unnerving and entertaining account of the intensity and confusion of teenage life.

Wed 9 Jul to Sat 2 Aug Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse with Mercury Theatre Colchester, Salisbury Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse present

Mon 19 May to Sat 24 May

Under Milk Wood

Betty Blue eyes

By Dylan Thomas

Based on Alan Bennett’s film A Private Function

An unforgettable journey into the heart and soul of the Welsh language and people, Terry Hands directs a new production celebrating the centenary of Dylan Thomas’s birth.

Book by Ron Cowen & Daniel Lipman Directed by Daniel Buckroyd Music and Lyrics by George Stiles & Anthony Drewe In post war austerity Britain, Gilbert and his wife Joyce look forward to the social event of year, a rations-busting illegal pork roast. But when the invitation doesn’t materialise they take matters into their own hands. A feel-good musical treat based on Alan Bennett’s film A Private Function.

Tue 27 May to Sat 31 May

Catch-22

By Joseph Heller Joseph Heller’s explosive and subversive novel set in the closing months of World War 2 is brought to the UK stage for the first time by Northern Stage.

facebook.com/everymanplayhouse @LivEveryPlay youtube.com/everymanplayhouse

0151 709 4776 everymanplayhouse.com

EVERYONE FOR THE EVERYMAN

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THE RACE IS ON Thanks to public bodies, charitable trusts and over 1,000 local people who love their theatre, we have raised almost £27m of the funds needed to create the new Everyman and bring it alive. Now we’re less than £400,000 away from the finishing line, the race is on to bring the new Everyman fully to life.

Visit www.everymanplayhouse.com/Ev4Ev Call 0151 706 9124 Email donate@everymanplayhouse.com

OWN A PIECE OF EVERYMAN HISTORY

Lend us your support, in whatever way you can, and let’s secure the future of brave and brilliant theatre in Liverpool.

Alongside the theatre’s construction, we have been working to build up a Talent Fund to invest in new plays and new ideas.

Donations to this final stage of the Appeal will fit out the creative spaces – rehearsal rooms, workshops, a Youth & Community space, a Writers’ Room – and complete the Talent Fund that will populate them with the artists, technicians and young people who will sustain and provoke us all in the years ahead.

The Talent Fund will dare our artists to work in new ways. We want to bring big ideas to the stage. To expand our stable of artists.

To take our programme in bold new directions. And to help Young Everyman Playhouse members get their first

Legendary musician and photographer Mike McCartney has given his support to the new Everyman by donating a Scaffold poster from a gig the group did at the Everyman in 1966. Signed by Mike and his brother Paul McCartney, the poster features a colourful Everyman doodle Paul made following the gig.

We have a limited edition of prints (sized 51 x 76cms) of the original poster for sale at just £36 each. To order your limited edition poster call the Everyone for the Everyman team on 0151 706 9124 or email donate@everymanplayhouse. com. Alternatively the prints are available to buy from Rennie’s Gallery on Bold Street, Liverpool.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS People have climbed mountains, run marathons and jumped off buildings and out of planes for the Everyman. They have also entered quizzes, created poetry collections, and had lovely garden parties. Why not use the Everyman as your excuse? Visit www.everymanplayhouse.com/Ev4Ev for fundraising ideas and inspiration.

professional opportunities, as so many others did here before them.

So donate today to invest in tomorrow.

You can play your part with a one-off gift or by making a regular contribution.

Call 0151 706 9124 or visit www.everymanplayhouse.com/Ev4Ev. We hope that your love for the Everyman will encourage you to help us reach the finishing line, which is, of course, the starting line for the Everyman’s future.

“Because home is where the heart is, and our heart is at the Everyman” Jimmy & Chris O’Brien, donors

“This poster of Scaffold at the Everyman in 1966 (on my birthday!) was painted on by my big (cheeky!) elder brother when we all had.... time! It was later signed by me and our kid (a RARE occurrence!) to raise money for the Hope Hall...oops!..Everyman Theatre, where I started my career with 'The Liverpool One Fat Lady Non-Electric show', which became...Scaffold.”

Mike McCartney

“We wanted to do our utmost to raise funds to help support the Everyman, which has given so much pleasure to audiences young and old.Their 'behind the scenes' work is equally important, working alongside the local community, young people, and encouraging new talent.”

Cynthia King, Chair of Aughton & Ormskirk Theatre Fans

SUpporters THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED THE NEW EVERYMAN

The Monument Trust

The Wolfson Foundation

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Garfield Weston Foundation

J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust

The Hemby Trust

Foyle Foundation

The Granada Foundation

The J P Jacobs Charitable Trust

The Johnson Foundation

The Oglesby Charitable Trust

The Oliver Stanley Charitable Trust

AND EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED THE APPEAL SO FAR www.everymanplayhouse.com/NewEverymanSupporters

MEET THE TEAM

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10 YEARS ON 10 YEARS FORWARD

By Victoria Anderson

It has been ten years since Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz and Executive Director Deborah Aydon took the reins of the Everyman and Playhouse theatres.

In that time they have become one of the most recognisable double acts in Liverpool culture and the theatre industry nationwide.

Back in 2003, it was quite unusual for the two top positions in a venue to become available at the same time – now, recruiting creative and business leaders together is a much more common practice.

But successful collaboration has been the secret of the success of the Everyman and Playhouse all round over the last decade.

Gemma and Deborah did not come as a ready-made team; they had worked together on just one occasion before, and had stayed in touch. The play, co-incidentally, had been Caravan, the debut of Liverpool writer Helen Blakeman.

“We got on well when we worked together and had kept an eye on each other’s work afterwards. When I saw the ad, I emailed Gemma and said ‘what if…?’” said Deborah.

We headhunted each other, they joke.

Gemma was a former staff director at the National Theatre; her freelance career had seen her at the helm of productions at major London theatres including the Royal Court, and the Bristol Old Vic; and she had worked closely with theatre legends including Trevor Nunn and Harold Pinter.

Deborah came to Liverpool from Dublin and the acclaimed Rough Magic Theatre Company, a leading producer of new and contemporary Irish work; and before that

had been the general manager of the Bush Theatre in London, where they had met.

Liverpool, however, had a strange allure.

“People always asked – more than any other job that ever came up – ‘are you going for Liverpool?’ I don’t know why people thought that was the theatre I’d go for,” said Gemma.

“We got on well when we worked together and had kept an eye on each Other’s work afterwards. When I saw the ad, I emailed Gemma and said ‘what if…?’”

Deborah “We both come from new writing backgrounds, and we both had a taste for passionate, urban, theatrical experiences and challenges. There was a lot of personality to the theatres, and what the Everyman had been made us feel this was the right city and the right theatres to be going for – it made a lot of sense – I could see myself in Liverpool.”

David Judge as Ryan and John McGrellis as Morse in Scrappers

Photography by Dan Kenyon, Stephen Vaughan, Christian Smith and Trinity Mirror

Deborah Aydon and Gemma Bodinetz

By the time of their recruitment and arrival in 2003, Liverpool’s Capital of Culture bid had been won, and as preparations began, it all added to the buzz – and the confirmation that each had made the right decision.

The ambitious plans to completely overhaul the Everyman and the Playhouse were already on the cards, but at that stage the theatres’ futures were not as clear as they were to become. Even then, the Everyman was, undeniably “past its sell by date”, and there was work to be done on the Playhouse.

“The theatres were a little sad at that time, but gorgeous. We knew the Everyman couldn’t really be improved without something radical,” they said.

Ten years down the road, and the Everyman and Playhouse team has staged 100 original productions on Deborah and Gemma’s watch, not to mention hosting touring work year round.

There have been regular milestones and other things to celebrate along the way; the Playhouse has turned 100, and its fringestyle Studio space is open once more; the theatres led the theatrical programme for the city’s 2008 Capital of Culture; the Everyman turned 40; Young Everyman and Playhouse – now YEP – has been revived and is on course to become the leading

Jonathan Pyrce as Davies in The Caretaker

Leanne best in The Match Box

“We need to carry on that journey to find Out what people want, but also imagine beyond that.”

Gemma

meet the team

Amanda Drew as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire

company of its kind; productions including Ghost Stories (2010) and The Caretaker (2009) have been acclaimed, international hits, and The Ladykillers (2011) is currently the toast of the West End; and a now brand new Everyman is just around the corner…

As a team, Deborah and Gemma have been at the helm of two theatres flying the flag for the community and the region. Providing a welcoming space and allowing audiences to have a sense of ownership of the Everyman and Playhouse is every bit as important as staging the productions with big names that attract national interest.

From nurturing young writers working on their debut plays to boasting must-see shows with international stars, the theatres are an absolute testament to the importance – and renaissance – of regional theatre. The old-style rep may be no more, but there’s been no shortage of old faces willing to pop back in and tread the boards once more.

Gemma says that is something that can never be taken for granted: “People should never do you a favour out of sentiment ,” she says. “Corin Redgrave was the first to dip his toe in the water with The Entertainer [2004], and we will always be so grateful.

With David Morrissey [Macbeth, 2011] and Kim Cattrall [Antony & Cleopatra, 2010], Matthew Kelly [Endgame, 2008] or Jonathan Pryce [The Caretaker, 2009], they have come back for ambitious projects and we were able to support them.

“The real joy has been people who have been here all along – discovering people like Leanne Best, and Neil Caple, the past, present and future, Liverpool actors are really inspired. The regions are the places putting on adventurous work. It’s important theatres have a national profile. But anyone

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DeLight, a Young Technicians project

living in a city needs to know about you and feel some ownership.”

“Finding out the needs and wants of the community has been a big part of what we do,” says Deborah, citing their young technicians programme as an example. The scheme has provided jobs and training for young people from more deprived areas of the city who might not ordinarily have even ever set foot in a theatre, never mind end up working in one.

It is testament to the care and effort put into every season at the Everyman and Playhouse that both Deborah and Gemma refuse to be drawn on naming a favourite production. There are so many facets to the work of the theatres, that to name one of their big hits would do a disservice to their newer or more community focused work – and vice versa. Or perhaps it is just a matter of being spoiled for choice.

Kim Cattrall as Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra

With as much passion and enthusiasm for the city and their work as ever, both say with conviction that they intend to stick around for a good while yet.

“We need to carry on that journey to find out what people want, but also imagine beyond that.” Gemma.

“I don’t know if anyone would have ever asked us to do a mad musical about the Adelphi [Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi, 2008], or do Molière with Roger McGough [Tartuffe, The Hypochondriac and The Misanthrope]. You have to listen, but you also have to try to imagine what people don’t know they want – and you can’t make assumptions.”

Lighting up the Rec project

WATCH OUR 10 YEAr showreel In 10 years, 100 productions have been created and performed on our stages, in our communities and far beyond.

Watch our 10 year showreel: www.bit.ly/100showreel

Pete Postlethwaite as King Lear