Theatre Professionals > Exchange For Change

Year One • Year Two • Year Three

Half Moon is committed to developing new artists and new plays for young people which reflect the diversity of our community. Exchange For Change, a three year artform development project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation is a product of this commitment.

The aims of Exchange For Change are:

•  to develop emerging artists, particularly those under-represented in the sector
•  to encourage established writers to write for young audiences
•  to create new challenging and relevant productions for the theatre for young people sector
•  to encourage debate within the sector

Each year Half Moon will work with emerging artists from a variety of artforms and an experienced writer new to the age range. They will partake in a process of development and exchange, including specialist training and participating in facilitated workshops with the target age group. The resulting scratch performances / rehearsed reading will be showcased at an annual one day festival accompanied by discussions and provocation.
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Year Two 2010
Age focus: teenagers.

This year's Exchange For Change has drawn to a successful close. The festival day was a great opportunity to showcase the pieces that the ensembles and Courttia had created. We're very grateful to all the delegates who attended from across the theatre sector, particularly the panel members Lyn Gardner, David Lane, Zena Edwards and Half Moon Youth Theatre members.

In 2010 three brand new cross-artform ensemble companies formed and presented scratch performances of new shows they had created for teenagers. The artists had input from teenagers from schools and groups in our local area.

The 2010 artists and plays were:

Glass Knickers
Lissia Fraser - digital media artist
Jacqueline Johnstone - contemporary dance athlete
Conrad the Scoundral - MC/producer

This ensemble produced a piece exploring male attitudes to women, in particular a brother and sister relationship.

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Frag-mENTAL
Amberin Huq - visual artist
Sean Graham - theatre artist / choreographer
Marv-Ill - beatbox/ MC

Set in twisted game show state of mind, this ensemble explored identity - what makes you who you are.



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The Closer I get the Distant I am
Vipul Bhatti - dance artist
Tamsin Kayembe aka Concise One - lyricist
Nick Tyson - musician

A physical piece looking at how young people communicate and how they find release.


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Look To The Sky
by Courttia Newland

A new play which challenged the stereotypes that young people face in a piece of writing full of lyricism.



The rehearsed reading featured actors: Pedro de Sousa, Ayesha Antoine, Divian Ladwa and Kim Hardy.


You can download the booklet with further details of Exchange For Change 2010 here.

However do contact us if you would like more info:
020 7265 8138 / exchangeforchange@halfmoon.org.uk
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Year One 2009

Age focus under 7's.

Year One of Exchange For Change has now drawn to a successful close. The project has worked with artists from a wide range of backgrounds who have participated in research and development and gained valuable insight into producing theatre for this age range, which was new to many of them.

The following artists devised new work as part of Exchange For Change 2009

Rip, Fold, Scrunch: Chris Elwell (Half Moon director), Jesal Patel (dancer), Gauri Sharma Tripathi (choreographer), Ayanna Witter-Johnson (musician) and Maria Thomas (actor).

The Magical Adventure of Spud & Plum: James Grant (composer), Temujin Gill (choreographer), Wai Yin Kwok (designer), Angela Michaels (Half Moon Associate Director) and Megha Sharma (actor).

Genie and Moon: Established Writer Tanika Gupta

This year's successful festival day was held at Half Moon's building in Limehouse on July 16, it was attended by theatre professionals from across the country. Patricia Cumper (CEO/Artistic Director Talawa Theatre Company) and Karena Johnson (CEO/Artistic Director theBROADWAY Barking) were visiting speakers on the day, leading the provocation session.
Click here to download a pdf of the delegates booklet from the day.

Rip, Fold, Scrunch

This piece is in development for a short residency at Half Moon in February 2010.
Please click here for more information about this show.

The Magical Adventure Of Spud & Plum


This exciting piece was well received and discussions are being had about its future.

Moon And Genie


We are in talks to develop this piece into a full commission, watch this space!

In Year One an exciting additional dimension to Exchange For Change has been made possible by funding from the Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre (CETT) at Central School of Speech and Drama. A video artist documented the development processes and the individual journey of each artist. This video will be used by CETT as a tool for vocational performing arts training and learning.

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Year Three 2011

Age focus 8 - 12 year olds.
Further details tbc
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