A new play written and directed by acclaimed Liverpool playwright Dave Kirby, about a broken family’s hardship through unemployment, poverty and gang culture will be premiered to students at a Liverpool school next month.
Heaven For A Day is a joint project between Dave Kirby (playwright, director, producer) and Voice In The City’s Liam Moore (songs and music, producer) – with the play’s overall theme centering hope.
This emotive musical drama is the latest initiative in Voice In The City’s continued journey to unite communities, by giving them a voice to help bring about hope and change through adversity.
Heaven For A Day aims to deliver a thought provoking message before leaving a sense of hope.
Voice In The City is a community-based social project, which in recent years has staged two large-scale musical events – Voice In The City and Merseyside Unites – to give young people the opportunity to perform and have a voice in response to events which have brought Liverpool communities together.
There will be four performances across three days Wednesday 12 November to Friday 14 November at Alsop High School in Walton [please note these performances are for invited guests, press and dignitaries only, public tickets are not available].
The production will feature 25 pupils from the Alsop Drama & Vocal Group, who will be joined on stage by a trio of professional Liverpool actors – Andrew Schofield, Paul Duckworth and Gillian Hardie who are all soon to appear in Dave’s festive show, ‘Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas’ at the Liverpool Echo Arena Auditorium.
Following the play, pupils will take part in a question and answer session with cast members, the writers, and a guest panel addressing the social issues tackled in Heaven For A Day.
The play’s long-term objective is to engage with the wider Merseyside community by staging the production at a city centre venue in 2015, giving up to 5,000 schoolchildren from across the region the opportunity to see the play. This would be supported with an education pack for schools and youth drama groups, enabling them to create their own future productions of the play.
The project has the support of a number of partners, including Liverpool City Council, The Big Lottery Fund, Your Housing, Awards For All, Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service.
Playwright Dave Kirby said:
“I first encountered the work of Voice In The City in 2012 when I was invited to be a guest speaker at their concert at Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral. It became very clear that it was a momentous and special occasion. To see so many of my city’s youth gathered together singing as one voice and standing up against issues that blight their communities was not only powerful, uplifting and heart-warming – it was also inspirational.”
“People like Liam Moore represent what is good in today’s society. His songs, passion and unconditional crusade to help others is a lesson to us all. Liam’s songs cover a wide range of social themes, two of which were often prominent, despair and hope. It was around these two themes that the idea of a drama for schools was born and inspired by one of the song titles, Heaven For A Day.”
“Throughout my writing career and all my theatre success it has always been an ambition to write a play for schools. To do so with an issue driven piece of musical theatre is extremely fulfilling. There’s an old literary adage that says, ‘You don’t choose to write, writing chooses you’. In Heaven For A Day, I knew that it wasn’t just the writing that chose me.”
Liam Moore, from Voice In The City, added:
“Heaven For A Day is the latest step in our journey to encourage and support young people in our fight against the culture of youth crime. Our main aim is to empower children to find their own voice and speak out against the social issues that blight their communities.”
“Dave has been extremely supportive since he first worked with us two years ago. And as a result, we have some of Liverpool’s best home-grown acting talent involved in the project – I am thrilled. Their involvement will also help to engage with the students and get those key messages across so they think about their own communities.”