Blog Post

Through the Labyrinth

Adam Boden • Jan 08, 2023

The early stages of our new immersive, interactive, promenade performance of Minotaur, based on Plutarch's Theseus.

Creating an ancient world for an audience to wander around in is a challenge in itself. Add one hundred young people whose education, enjoyment and experience you have to worry about, an ocean crossing, a giant maze and a minotaur... you might well have a problem. It takes planning, imagination, resources and talent - and if you want to involve the young people throughout the entire creative process, it also takes time.


For those unfamiliar with the terms immersive, interactive or promenade, there's some information below.

In our immersive productions, the audience don't sit at one end of a theatre and watch the action unfold from the safety of their world, we bring them into ours. They are immersed inside Ancient Greece with the world and story unfolding around them.

In more traditional theatre, the audience are usually separated from the actors by the invisible 'fourth wall'. In interactive theatre, that wall doesn't exist. The actors are free to communicate directly with the audience,  who are often expected to be directly involved in the performance of the play. In Minotaur, our audience  take the role of visitors to our special Museum, with their tour guides the Gods themselves.

To promenade means 'to walk' and in promenade theatre, the audience follow the actors throughout their performance. In Minotaur, our audience will journey from the houses and marketplace of Athens, across the Archipelago Sea, to the Banqueting Hall of Crete and the Labyrinth beneath the city.


In our first term, we began to unpick the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. We used media, literature and storytelling workshops to unlock the words and themes of this ancient Grecian story. Students recorded their thoughts and feelings; what stood out to them, what resonated with or unsettled them. While our intention is to set the story against the backdrop of Ancient Greece, we can't help but consider the story in our contemporary world. When Theseus breaks his promise to marry Ariadne for her help against the Minotaur, many of our young people wondered who the hero was after all. When you are collaborating with your cast, moving forward, this has to be at the forefront of our considerations. This is when the story ceases being Plutarch's, and starts to become theirs.

With any immersive theatre, a crucial decision to be made is how to bring your audience into the world of the play. With a story like Theseus, you have the added problem of history. How do you ensure your audience understand the world of the play and what has happened previously, before they begin to watch a story unfold within it? We have created the Museum of Athens where the audience will begin their journey under the watchful gaze of one of our tour guides: Aphrodite, Hermes, Apollo or Athena. Alongside ancient artefacts that the audience will later see in their original life, young performers will appear as animated history in our interactive exhibitions.

A promenade performance works by rotating some of the scenes. As the audience move from location to location in smaller groups, actors repeat sections so that everyone sees as much of the action as possible. At points during the piece (the marketplace, banquet and boat) the audience come together and experience the story as a whole. This requires the actors to have the ability to improvise either side of the scripted scenes, within the world of the play. Students spent a term working on their improvisation techniques in preparation for anything that might happen in a production like this. Improvisation is also a very important part of devising characters and story. When we are forced to generate ideas in the moment, we are more likely to create something new or different, that we wouldn't necessarily have put forward if we were sat discussing ideas around a table.

Having chosen the parts of the story to be included, we started the process of creating a script. In this challenging production the text is being written in different forms of verse. For example, the Athenians speak in Iambic Pentameter, similar to much of Shakespeare's verse. The cast have worked on finding the rhythm and poetry of the text, while trying to maintain the storytelling, or communication between the characters.


So as the setting sun softens her stare

Hides behind the earth like a glide downstairs

The dark of night fall shadows anxious air

And silence shrouds the Athens market square


Still you can hear the memory of the war

The dread and fear of what has come before

So long ago the Cretian prince was killed

Yet still the blood of innocents is spilled.


Every ninth year the names must be revealed

And for the chosen children fate is sealed

The people stand together, but alone.

Soon some will suffer heartbreak in their homes.


A booming voice, then the silence smothered

Breath held tight, a loved one clasps another

‘The time has come to read the names aloud!’

Waves of sorrow flood the frightened crowd.

So now we move onto the audition and casting process. Every single participant needs to play an actual part, with an emotional journey and an impact on the story. This term we have already begun the process of characterisation, considering the physical tension, openness, height and eye contact of the character, before working on the voice. Then we shall return to the finished script and make sure we end the penultimate term before the show ready to move into the final stages of rehearsals.


So the last remaining question... to make it a musical, or not a musical...

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by Adam Boden • 24 Apr, 2018
Director Adam Boden talks about why Bodens Performing Arts is providing their young participants with immersive theatrical experiences; students gain in confidence and ability, and through the provision of manageable risk, are helped in their transition to adulthood.

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Bodens New Fully Funded Summer Course

by Adam Boden • 09 Jun, 2017
I would have given my right hand for this kind of opportunity when I was sixteen years old. Instead of the Arts Depot stage and a microphone to sing out the soaring rock score of Spring Awakening, I spent most of my summer in the local park with a 40p can of Scandia Green and Bryan Adams on loop in the background. Bryan Adams. (Sigh). Following three incredible years at Bodens College of Performing Arts, we had already expanded what was on offer by introducing a brand new gap year course for 18-19 year old students with a year to spare before their next Drama School auditions, so what else could we offer? We wanted to share our brilliant teaching team and fantastic studios with those young people not studying performing arts full time that still share the same passion and enthusiasm as our full-time students; so we planned an amazing three week summer course, worked out the nitty gritty, got the funding in place, and now now ready to offer our New Fully Funded Summer Course. From Tuesday 1st - Saturday 19th August, we will be offering a three week long Performing Arts Course for young people aged 16-18 years. Depending on age and experience, students will undertake a Level 2 or Level 3 Certificate in Performing Arts. This fully funded course will enable the participants to perform in both a full length play and a complete musical. This will be a very rewarding experience and does require commitment, energy and passion from any young people wanting to take part. It is an intensive training opportunity, studying all aspects of Musical Theatre throughout each day. We will produce the full musical Spring Awakening, analysing text and lyrics, exploring movement and gesture through the discovery of subtext. Students also produce a contemporary imagining of the play Woyzeck, where together we will explore text, character and relationships through workshops, concentrating on a contemporary play. An intense opportunity to unlock, rehearse and develop these productions ready for performance to an audience. These are two incredibly demanding pieces of theatre, chosen to ensure we have the material that allows us to work at an advanced standard. Two very strong, character driven productions to challenge our young company to produce incredible performances in just three weeks. This is an opportunity for the complete drama school experience without the cost. And as it's packed in to just three weeks, it still leaves you over half your summer to hang about in the park. With the course currently just over half full, we are auditioning over the coming month on a Sunday afternoon to fill the remaining places with capable, talented and passionate young people, to help us produce some incredible theatre this August. So if that sounds like you, or someone you know, then get in touch at info@performingartscollege.co.uk or on 020 8447 0909. Remember, it's fully funded and students taking part receive an accredited qualification in Creative and Performing Arts. You can view a brochure here https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/3e9c4e73/files/uploaded/BODENS%20COLLEGE%20SUMMER%20COURSE%20201...

Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty...

by Adam Boden • 18 May, 2017
I remember when we took on High School Musical all those years ago. The only reason we did it then, is because we did it first. Producing the London Premier of the Smash Hit Disney Musical while it still held pride of place on the whole world's sky box office planner, was it's redeeming feature. We were all in it together before everybody else got their heads in the game. Thousands of production followed nationwide, and the start of something new definitely wasn't. But we got in first. Matilda was a different story. We couldn't get in first because you weren't allowed to produce the show, and by the time an abridged thirty minute version of the show became available for schools to perform, it was too late. Matilda was naughty in almost every school hall and community theatre across England; As far as we were concerned as an innovative and forward thinking organisation, an abridged version of Matilda was as attractive a prospect as High School Musical 3. Forward three years later, and we are in a very different place. While Matilda still maintains a rightful place on the West End Stage, schools have ironically returned to High School Musical, allowing us, to sneak along the hallway and mix up our own production of Matilda. We are blessed as a school with incredible talent across our groups, but it is in particular abundance with our 8-12 year old students. Matilda is perfect for them. An opportunity to be stretched with challenging choreography, demanding lyrics and musicality. We have studied the story, themes and characters and unlocked our performance through creative play: we use the image theatre of Augusto Boal, the naturalistic acting of Stanislavski, using our bodies as the set in a Grotowskian Poor Theatre style, exploring movement techniques of Laban, Jacques Lecoq's levels of tension and bringing it altogether through hardwork, passion and commitment; i'm talking about the students.

Bodens New Magazine

by Adam Boden • 04 May, 2017
With an uncurbed amount of pop-up performing arts schools emerging across the local boroughs, it becomes increasingly difficult for the proven and established schools to get their message across to those parents and young people searching for excellent performing arts training. With easy access to drama clubs after school, and franchises within a half a mile radius of one another, there is a lot of information to sift through when searching for a drama school to entrust with your most precious possession, and the development of their talent, confidence and most importantly, their ability to perform as themselves. So how do you make the right decisions. It's hard to say. At Bodens we have our purpose built performing arts studios and regularly assessed outstanding teachers. We have missions, values and aims in place, and at the heart of our school and college is a desire to transform the lives of young people through inspirational teaching, providing exceptional training in performing arts. But just because another school might be newly established, with classes held in a small village hall, run by a relatively inexperienced teacher, doesn't mean that you haven't stumbled across the beginnings of a brilliant new school, and the perfect pathway for the development of your child or young person; a three-year-old rolling around St. Cuthbert's Hall still has an opportunity to roly poly all the way to RADA. So how do you choose? We know that word of mouth is one of the most important factors in gaining new students, and of course search engines and social media play an ever-expanding part. I set myself a target this term, to work on search engine optimisation and improve our website to increase traffic to blah blah blah... but within two weeks I fell out with both google and bing, and my brains helpless merger of SEO, SMO, CTR, and CPC left me frustrated. TOO MUCH NOISE. How can we be heard? I can preach about qualifications and visions until Fagan's boys come home, but it doesn't mean anyone is listening. And is it really worth paying £2.78 a click so someone can visit my website that says it does what everyone else’s website says they do! So, we turned to our new magazine; and instead of filling it with information about us, it's all about them - our students - the children and young people who heard all about us, despite the pandemonium of performing arts promise, and joined our happy little family. We've also got them to write it. So, it's by them, all about them, which is all about us. Seemed to make sense that if we wanted someone to shout out above the noise, it might as well be them. After all, they have a lot of brilliant things to say. They're actually as passionate as I am... and that's saying something. So the magazine is online at www.bodens.co.uk and you can pick up a hard copy, for free, at any of our performing arts classes. It’s all about the shows, the classes and the students. If you're feeling really lazy, exhausted after all your studious studio searching, then just e-mail MAGAZINE to info@bodens.co.uk and we'll send you the link.
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