Rows of monochrome headshots line the walls of the reception at Rare Studio's site on Wood Street.
The ECHO is told these are the faces of the successful graduates who learned their trade at the performing arts centre. The breadth of rising Merseyside talent on show is remarkable as there's an author of a number one bestselling book on Amazon, an actor who starred in a Netflix show and a dancer who just finished touring with Years & Years.
The latest Rare Studio success story is Kayleigh Coleman, who starred in the acclaimed Aftersun last year. The talented youngster from Walton told the ECHO she is "still pinching herself" after her silver screen dreams came true when she appeared in the BAFTA nominated film.
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However, stories such as Kayleigh's are becoming the norm for Rare Studio as the school is being justly rewarded for the faith it has shown in the supreme pool of performing talent available in Merseyside. Rare Studio is the brainchild of Lindsay Inglesby, who became frustrated with the unfair barriers of access preventing people from working class backgrounds to forge a career in the performing arts.
The 46-year-old from Huyton is a LIPA graduate and recalled how her mum had to work three jobs to fund her dance education. Lindsay was the only Scouser to graduate from her class in 2002 and told the ECHO this inspired her to pioneer a new approach so nobody would be denied access to a performing arts education due to finances.
She said: "I was really interested in the football academy model and wanted to know why there was this provision for sport so young kids were taken from a very young age and given the opportunity to train at the highest level, but there wasn't the equivalent for dance, acting and musical theatre."
Lindsay put the academy model into practice in 2011 as she left her job as head of a dance course at LIPA to launch Rare Studio and held auditions to see which students would make it onto the pilot programme. She said: "About 800 kids turned up, but, from the get go, what I wanted to be really clear was that if these kids couldn't pay fees then they didn't have to.
She added: "Kids we knew were from really poor financial circumstances paid nothing then we offered a pay structure for the others. The people who were paying full fees were subsidising the ones who weren't but they were in a position to do so and were happy to do so."
Lindsay puts a lot of stock in the audition process and uses this to manage youngsters' expectations as she aims to run a bespoke training programme with a maximum of 300 students. However, the principal explained why the energy of the region means there is no shortage of potential stars on Merseyside. She said: "There's a hunger for it. The one's with an artistic temperament and nature really do want to commit to something and get better. Forget the talent, it's the work ethic for me.
"We audition all of our students and say 'do we think these have got the intuitiveness to go on and have a career in this?' It's too hard. If it's not there, why give people that false hope?
"That's my argument to schools who take on hundreds of kids who are probably not going to make it to the next stage. Encourage them to do something where they're going to make a living and pay the rent."
A tangible pathway to a career in showbiz is something Lindsay takes very seriously and is why she surrounds herself with people who have already trodden the route to success. Joe McGann is an established actor, known for roles in Hollyoaks and The Upper Hand, and is able to pass on that most valuable advice of personal experience to students.
The 64-year-old from Kensington is a teacher and patron at the school and explains why he chooses to be a part of Rare Studio after turning many other similar positions down. He told the ECHO: "All around the country there are places that purport to be performing arts schools, but basically they're just bad childcare. You indulge in people's dreams while shattering them at the same time."
Joe describes his time at Rare Studio as life-changing and fondly recalls the joys of being able to witness a young person from a working class background fall in love with Shakespeare for the first time. He said: "Acting is still considered as a vocation, which annoys the hell out of me because it is possible to make a good living out of this and a good life. There are transferable skillsets involved and students turn out to be really well rounded human beings."
Joe heaped praise on Rare's ability to foster special relationships as the actor has now found love with the company's business director, Frances Molloy.
Frances' association with the school was born out of tragic circumstances as Rare named a scholarship in memory of her son, Michael, who died on his way home from Bestival in 2012. Frances said she was touched by Lindsay's tribute and hailed Rare as the sort of place her son would have loved as they continue to support students even after they graduate.
She told the ECHO: "I remember Michael's frustration when he was younger. I know in my heart if Rare would have been there, he would have came somewhere like this because of its values." The 59-year-old went to watch one of the school's acclaimed stage productions and then said she was hooked.
She added: "It gets in your blood. I invited a previous Lord Mayor and he was raving 'this is a jewel in the city, how have I not known about this?'" Frances is now a key cog within Rare and shared how the school has been hit with serious challenges to survive in the current tough economic climate.
She said: "The pandemic has massively impacted us because we got no government support and no business rates relief. Even the most basic things people got, we didn't. The scholarships have been vitally important and we don't have the resources to sponsor first year students for the first time ever. After the last show I put out an appeal to say if people want to sponsor these kids going forward, then please get in touch.
"We've got a separate community fund that we can ringfence so it's not going into the business and people can see exactly where that money is going."
However, the team at Rare Studio is not ready to give up the fight in the face of an uphill battle as Lindsay said the feeling of helping youngsters achieve their dreams will never get old. She said: "I keep saying that when I get another message from a student who says I've booked this job that I can hang my keys up now but I still keep going.
"All I want is for my students to be able to pay their bills doing what they love."
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