Collage Voices and ImagiNation

Collage Voices is very proud to have taken part in Theatre Centre’s and Theatre 503’s ImagiNation project this summer, where 19 writers were asked to create and donate 19 plays to the UK public to read, rehearse and record.  We used it as part of our schools partnership programme during lockdown and worked online with students from St Thomas More Catholic school in Haringey.  We produced Jon Brittain’s Up in Your Head, a play that vocalises some of the internal monologues that many have experienced during the height of the coronavirus epidemic.

Steve Medlin, Artistic Director at Collage Voices says: “This was my first time directing over Zoom and there was something very humbling about navigating the process with the eight young people I shared the digital space with, a completely even playing field. 

I met the very impressive young people for the first time in session 1 and by session 5 we had read, learnt, rehearsed and performed the piece. All sessions were an hour in length so 5 sessions/5 hours later we had a play. Not many good things have come out of lockdown but a reminder of the pure creativity that exists in the community and the desire to apply that and have unique voices heard has certainly been one of them.” 

Cheryl Rosen, Assistant Headteacher at the school explains: “It has been a fantastic opportunity for both myself and the pupils of St Thomas More School to work with a professional director to create a performance of Up in Your Head by Jon Brittain. Over five weeks we met with Steve who directed the play via Zoom. This gave myself and the pupils something to look forward to each week and we are all very proud of what has been created. The pupils are from all different year groups and have never worked together before, let alone created a play on Zoom so its very exciting to see what they have produced. It has definitely been one of the highlights of the lockdown experience for all.”

Watch the full film ‘Up in Your Head’ (rating 12A) developed by Collage Arts and St Thomas More Catholic School:

Watch the montage of a selection of films of ‘Up in Your Head’: