In The Spotlight With…A Q&A With Scenic Designer & Fabricator, Elouise Farley.

Elouise has been part of the family for nearly 9 years. She’s worked with us on numerous projects, wearing a variety of hats including making Requardt & Rosenberg’s latest outdoor work, ‘Future Cargo’, the world’s first hyper-reality opera, ‘Current, Rising’, staged at the Royal Opera House and an immersive experience that took place all over Barcelona, to name but a few.

Earlier this week she took some time out from testing some pieces of set in our workshop for a very exciting new project we’re working on (!) to have a chat with us about her journey in the industry.

So Elouise, where did it all start?!

“It started with Joanna Scotcher (designer for ‘Current, Rising’ at the Royal Opera House amongst many other things) at Latitude Festival 2012, weaving a giant wicker head to ceremoniously set on fire over a lake. Through Jo, I was able to gain some work experience as a trainee set builder at the Young Vic Theatre where I met the truly patient and wonderful human that is Emma Hayward, who was working as the Senior Construction Manager at the Young Vic. Emma invested a lot of time in teaching me woodwork and metalwork. I am forever grateful that Emma and Jo came into my life when they did.”

 “It was fairly soon after my work experience at the Young Vic that I found Ian Moore (or maybe he found me?) darting in and out of a maze of hotel rooms for a LookLeftLookRight immersive theatre show at the Corinthia Hotel which, again, was another Joanna Scotcher design. The piece took guests on a wild journey around a hotel in Embankment, through staff elevators and service corridors, up to the hotel’s luxury 5-star rooms – I‘m pretty sure I even took a car ride at one point during the show… It’s still hands down up there with one of the best shows I’ve seen. It was my first experience of participating and working on something that was a ‘one on one’ journey and totally reshaped what I thought theatre was.”

It sounds like that was a really pivotal moment in your career. What happened after that – did you and Ian go on to collaborate?

“Ian and I then became close work colleagues (even friends!!) and over the past 9 years have worked on a real range of projects together. From underground vaults with UNICEF for their annual Halloween Balls, to building theatres and puppets inside the Natural History Museum, through to immersive journeys with Lexus and the Royal Opera House. I think I can say for all of us that the projects that have been the hardest work have been the most rewarding, but I think that just shows how much we care about what we are doing.”

Absolutely! What would you say your favourite TPF job has been?

“My favourite TPF job was probably one of the more recent projects, ‘Future Cargo’, which is a sci-fi dance show set inside a 40ft shipping container with a travellator that runs its length. There were lots of strange props that I was able to make like candy floss wigs, giant sausages, and bowling ball effects, as well as working on the scenic construction – this was my first time converting a shipping container into a set so there were lots of new ways of working – it was a great learning curve.”

Speaking of learning curves, we can’t get through our conversation without bringing up the pandemic – how did Covid effect you? Are you able to draw any positives from it?

“The arrival of Covid made me have to start thinking outside of the box…in order to work I had no choice but to try and embrace the changes and be adaptable to them. I found myself a million miles away from theatre and in the world of interiors and home renovations. I’m very grateful for having transferable skills, such as carpentry, which enabled me to continue working and also for having the self-motivation to learn new skills and seek out broader opportunities.”

…and with broader opportunities in mind…what’s next on the horizon?!

“I’m really enjoying getting stuck into the Associate Designer and Construction Manager role for your new project – but I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about that yet so should probably stop there…and get back to building and testing this prototype!”