Last year the Everyman and Playhouse invited people to take part in a photography project to create a Portrait Wall on the front of the new Everyman theatre on Hope Street. Designed by architect Steve Tompkins, this large-scale artwork is a powerful expression of the fact that the Everyman is and always will be for everyone. Photo sessions were held at venues across the city and many hundreds came along to take part.

Everyman and Playhouse Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz said, “The variety of wonderful people who came along to take part really blew us away and it was great to hear everyone’s stories about themselves and their connection to the Everyman. They ranged from young children to theatre-going veterans, jugglers, cricketers, expectant mothers and whole families from all walks of life who took part in the fun.”

Now, from thousands of photographs, photographer Dan Kenyon, architect Steve Tompkins and Gemma Bodinetz have selected the final composition of 105 images that will form the Portrait Wall. Their task was to find the 105 portraits that complement each other in the overall make-up of the wall, and also create a visual signature for the spirit of the Everyman that suggests the broadest range of people to represent the whole of the city.

Steve Tompkins said, “It has been terribly difficult to whittle these wonderful portraits down to just 105. But the main driver for this project is an aesthetic one and so final selection was based on how the individual images related to others in the makeup of the shutters and the overall composition of the wall”.

The people who will feature on the 105 shutters range from babies to grandparents and come from across Liverpool as well as North Wales, Cheshire and Warrington. The Everyman and Playhouse has organised an event later this month to get everyone together for the first time now that they make up a special group of people forever connected by the Hope Street theatre.

Liverpool film company, Handstand Productions are making a film about the Portrait Wall project and will be following several people through the process as their shutters are produced and the Wall created.

Stephen Nze, 47, from Toxteth, is one of the people on the wall who is taking part in the film, he said, “Hearing that I was chosen as one of the 105 was amazing news and makes me very proud as in my late teens I performed at the Everyman with our then drama group Catalyst. I no longer act but hold those days very close so now to hear that I will be part of this piece of art that makes up the front of the new Everyman is just amazing, just can’t wait to see it and also for my family and friends to see it and one day hopefully, god willing, my grandchildren.”

The Portrait Wall, representing the people of Liverpool, will encapsulate the spirit of a building that truly will be an Everyman for Everyone.

The images are currently being cut from aluminum plates using pioneering water jet technology. A full size shutter is approx 800mm wide x 1900mm high.

Photographer Dan Kenyon said, “This has been a really exciting project for me as a photographer. To draw out people’s personalities but also fulfil the technical and compositional requirements of the manufacturing process for each individual shutter. I can’t wait to see the wall.”

One of the five people who will have the honour of having their image on the Everyman wall, Lauren Fitzpatrick, was there on the day to be part of the announcement; she said, “I am really excited and a bit nervous. It is for a great cause.  The photographer, Dan Kenyon, made us all very relaxed on the day and he was lovely. It is a bonus to be part of Liverpool forever.”

Designed by Britain’s leading theatre architects, Haworth Tompkins, the new Everyman will combine the trademark wrap-around auditorium and basement Bistro with many new facilities. Light, open front-of house spaces and a pavement café; rehearsal and workshop facilities; a dedicated space for the theatre’s work with young people and community groups, and a workspace for writers will allow the whole building to be a vibrant, creative hub, by day and night.

Liverpool-based portrait photographer Dan Kenyon was appointed as the photographer for the Portrait Wall project. A visiting lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, Dan is well known for his 2008 book Liverpool: Sung and Unsung, 86 portraits of such diverse figures as Ken Dodd; former Chief Constable, Bernard Hogan-Howe; Speke Headteacher, Alan Smithies; and cultural historian of the Black Community and social campaigner, Dorothy Kuya.

The new Everyman is scheduled for completion at the end of 2013.

 Ian D. Hall