Exclusive look at plans for Liverpool’s new look Everyman Theatre
This is the first images of Liverpool’s new Everyman Theatre as it will look when fully rebuilt in 2013.
The designs, revealed exclusively by the Daily Post, will allow the venue to expand its already ambitious programme and attract the country’s leading theatre companies.
Work is due to begin in spring, 2011, to build a “creative hub” which will further cement Hope Street’s status as a tourist destination.
The pictures, which will be submitted to Liverpool Council’s planning department later this week, reveal some of the best-loved elements of the theatre will be retained.
New incarnations of the 400-seat “thrust”-style auditorium, the basement Bistro, iconic red sign and orange seats will all be featured in the new building.
Artistic director Gemma Bodinetz said: “The new Everyman takes all that is most loved about the present theatre and reinvigorates them in the context of a theatre fit for future generations of audiences and artists.”
Visitors will enter through a foyer on Hope Street, taking them to a cafe-bar with outside seating and the box office.
Above this will be the main theatre bar, with a balcony overlooking the road below.
Play Slideshow« Previous PhotoNext Photo » Show Caption .The auditorium will retain the current “thrust” design, with the audience sitting at three sides of the stage.
But the seating will be arranged over two levels, improving the view of those further away from the actors.
The space will be flexible, allowing it to be re-arranged for promenade-style and in-the-round performances.
Executive director Deborah Aydon said the public areas will help further develop Hope Street’s status as a tourist destination.
She said: “When it opens in 2013, the new Everyman will emphasise Liverpool’s continued status as a cultural capital and will be a further boost to the city’s rebirth as a richly rewarding place to visit.”
Technical facilities will also be improved, meaning the theatre will be able to welcome more innovative touring shows, as well as creating more ambitious set designs for their own productions.
A lighting rig will be accessed via a series of bridges rather than the current system of technicians changing the lights by standing on a stepladder.
A fly tower will allow larger and more adventurous scenery to be used, while trapdoors will be able to be placed anywhere on the stage instead of just in two places, as in the existing arrangement.
Also key to the plans is a dedicated Youth Theatre space, returning the work of young people to the centre of the action, as it was when Liverpool-born actors David Morrissey and Cathy Tyson were members.
Ms Bodinetz added: “The addition of a dedicated space for our youth and outreach work, rehearsal room, writers’ hub, natural ventilation, full disabled access and 21st century technical facilities will mean this much loved theatre will live on in a physical incarnation which fits its national reputation and idiosyncratic personality.”
Offices and further rehearsal and studio space will also be included on a footprint which takes in the existing Everyman, 11 Hope Street next door and a newly-acquired slice of a car park behind the building.
In October 2008, Arts Council England, the North West Development Agency and the council identified the Everyman as the highest priority cultural capital project in Liverpool in response to an independent study commissioned by Arts Council England and funded by the NWDA. London-based architect Haworth Tompkins was chosen for the project in 2007.
The funding plan includes £15m from Arts Council England and £2.5m investment from the NWDA.
The balance is being sought from a combination of public sector sources, fundraising and appeals.
A revamp of the Playhouse theatre will follow.
For more images follow the link.
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