City company Theatre in the Quarter is about to recruit a young company of actors and musicians to take part in an ambitious theatre project later this year.

Director Matt Baker is looking for a company of 13-20-year-olds to tell the story of the young people of Cheshire who lived during the Great War.

The piece For The Fallen is being written by Helen Newall, who along with Matt Baker, created the award-winning Over by Christmas which won a national award for its impact on communities during its theatrical tour of railway stations.

The winning combination also created Silent Night, directed by Emma Lucia, which received a national five star review for its re-telling of the Cheshire soldier’s story leading up to the Christmas Truce of 1914.

The company has been commissioned by Cheshire West and Chester to bring to life the many stories which were collected during the Cheshire Great War Stories Roadshow.

The piece, which will be staged in St Mary’s Creative Space at the end of the summer, will serve as a pilot to an even larger production which is earmarked to take place in 2018 in the city, and will serve as a commemoration to mark the end of the centenary.

Matt Baker said “We have a really talented pool of young teenagers who regularly attend our Quartz Youth Theatre, and we would like to give these people an opportunity to take part in another ambitious piece of theatre. Of course, we would like to open this up to any young people in this area who may wish to take pat in such a project.”

The company of young actors will perform alongside an adult choir and the production will contain projections of local images captured during the First World War.

Writer Helen Newall has just received a distinction for a multimedia installation Remember Me in which she brought to life many images captured during this time. This was part of her MA in Illustration.

Helen said “The installation received some amazing feedback and I am thrilled to be able to combine this work with that of my writing. For the Fallen will include projections of cartes-de-visite portraiture of soldiers and nurses, and landscapes from the Great War. For the most part, those depicted in such photographs are now unidentified and unidentifiable: they have become a new kind of missing of the Great War because their identities fall away as those who once knew them themselves pass away taking memories and knowledge with them. In this sense all of those depicted will constitute the fallen regardless of whether they survived the war or not.”

Helen added “There have been so many stories and images from the First World War recently collected throughout Cheshire and it is an honour to be able to make such a dynamic piece of immersive theatre which will serve as a commemoration of the fallen, irrespective of whether they survived the war or not.”

The project for young people will take place from Monday, August 22 leading up to two public performances on Friday, September 2 and Saturday, September 3 at St Mary’s Creative Space.

There will be an audition workshop for any young people interested in being part of this project on Saturday, May 22 from 10am to 1pm.

Anyone interested in more information should contact Julieeelston09@aol.com or visit the company’s website www.theatreinthequarter.co.uk