Long before Liverpool dominated pop music, Liverpool's theatre scene was once the envy of all the world. Current and former theatres spanning 250-years are being put under the spotlight together in a new exhibition, Lights Up on Liverpool, at Liverpool Central Library.
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00:00Art Group ECIC have teamed up with Liverpool Libraries and Information Services for a public
00:05exhibition of Liverpool's theatre history from the archives.
00:08There was over 100 theatres that have existed in Liverpool, but due to space we couldn't
00:15get them all in, so this is just a snapshot of that history. So it begins from the 1700s
00:19right up to the present day. What's really fascinating about this exhibition is that
00:24you get a real sense of the social fabric changing through its theatres.
00:28Long before Liverpool dominated pop music, its theatre scene was once the envy of all
00:33the world. Current and former theatres spanning 250 years have been put under the spotlight
00:38together for the first time for the exhibition Lights Up on Liverpool.
00:42Lights Up on Liverpool is part of a project that we've been doing all year, which was
00:47an Arts Council funded project. So all summer we've been going out to the regional libraries
00:52and community hubs around Liverpool and delivering workshops, drama workshops, to 8 to 13 year
00:57old children and then signposting them to other drama classes and opportunities within
01:02Liverpool's city region.
01:04The exhibition is a response to the decreasing numbers of working class professionals in
01:07performing arts.
01:09Less than one in ten people working in the arts across music, dance, film, television
01:15and theatre are working class. This exhibition is being supported by Liverpool legend Alan
01:21Bleasdale and UK theatre legend Zoe Wanamaker. I really feel that people are understanding
01:27that it is mission critical that we change access to the arts now.
01:32Arts Groupie hope to expand the work around the exhibition in what will be a large scale
01:36effort to tackle the issue.
01:38As part of this exhibition we've got free heritage walking tours around Liverpool showing
01:44you the locations of the theatres that are currently still there and those that are not
01:49there like WAP in the middle of Clayton Square.
01:52Lights Upon Liverpool runs until March 2025 in the Holmby Library at Liverpool Central Library.