The Halfway House
(2020)
The Halfway House is an amorphous, makeshift place emerging between two worlds. It is a place simultaneously paralysed by nostalgia and seduced by the unfamiliar. Its residents wander restlessly or remain trapped in loops, struggling to adapt to the constant transformation taking place around them. It is a refuge for the lost and lonely, and a haven for alter egos, deceivers, voyeurs and dreamers. The production invites the audience, in household ‘bubbles’ of up to three people, to accompany a resident of The Halfway House on a series of absurd encounters unfolding in unstable and dreamlike spaces.
This year 2020 we were resident tutors/artists/designers at The Koppel Project’s experimental campus at the Old Central St Martins (CSM) buildings. We worked with a diverse, intergenerational group of beginners and amateurs from the community to devise site-specific immersive theatre.
For each project we run community workshops covering performance and dance and - and for this project - lighting and sound design. Our workshops were built towards a final ticketed performance, opened to the public from 21st September to 4th October 2020.
During the lockdown period we delivered a programme of online devised theatre workshops, site-specific research and documentation of The Old Central St. Martins through a virtual creative workspace called are.na (https://www.are.na/persona-collective/persona-workshops). We were publishing regular short films with soundtracks and narration to enable participants to discover the building from afar.These cinematic prompts were enhanced by a virtual pin-up board of research,
references and mood boards designed to inspire, spark discussion and help participants design characters to inhabit, and scenes to unfold, in Old CSM and their own homes.
We are currently editing the film of this project for the audience who could not make the show due the current context , for the ones who wanted to know more about the other characters and routes that they didn't have the chance to experience and for the general public who love theatre an want to witness the last memories of this iconic art school in risk of being forgotten, which will be develop into a luxury hotel next year.
More information at http://personacollective.co.uk/



CAST & CREATORS
Francesca Costa
Mélanie Gautier
Emily George
Michael Hall
Valia Katsis
Tom Kim
Olga Lagun
Cameron Lee-Allen
Georgia Leefe
Anna Fil
Charly Monreal
Sally Plowman
Daniel Seifu
Michael Sookhan
Jean-Charles Wadja
PERSONA TEAM
Rocio Ayllon - Artistic Director & Producer
Michael Hall - Assistant Director
Elina Akhmetova - Choreographer
Finn Boxer - Sound Designer & Technician
Karolina Burlikowska - Photographer & Art Director
Satu Streatfield - Lighting Designer & Technician
LIGHTING DESIGNERS & TECHNICIANS
Laura Arroyo
Gaia Crocella
Steve Lowe
Luciana Martinez
Tom Wheeler
Alice Wilson
SET DESIGNERS
Emily George
Clary Montero
Alice Wilson
Emma Wilson
PRODUCTION
Emma LD
Clare McAndrew
Tom Wheeler
Alice Wilson
GRAPHIC DESIGN & MEDIA
Emily George
Emma LD
CINEMATOGRAPHERS
Finn Boxer
Olga Lagun
Hamish Nicholson
ART INSTALLATIONS
Charly Blackburn 'The Lab'
Jack Wates 'The Storm Room'
SPONSORS //
HOST
The Koppel Project
LIGHTING
White Light
Enliten Architectural Lighting
Mike Stoane Lighting
iGuzzini illuminazione
AUDIO EQUIPMENT
Orbital Sound Ltd
LIGHTING, EFFECTS AND LOGISTICS EQUIPMENT
Shakespeare’s Globe
FILM EQUIPMENT
Direct Digital
PROPS
Phoebe BP
COSTUMES
Putney Theatre Company
COMMUNITY
Holborn Association
Dragon Hall
