BODENS AUTUMN 2017 MAGAZINE

THE PLACE FOR PERFORMING ARTS 

BODENS 

INTO THE 

WOODS 

Allie who played the part of Little Red 

Riding Hood writes this month’s lead 

article on our outdoor production. 

FLIGHT 

OF THE 

FAIRY 

Zoe Jones, who played the Evil Fairy 

Queen, tells us all about our 2017 Dance 

Show rehearsals and performances. 

MATILDA 

One of the three young girls that played 

Matilda, Katya, tells us all about the 

process and performances at the 

Arts Depot Theatre in FInchley. 

WOYZECK 

SPRING AWAKENING 

ALICE IN WONDERLAND 

SUMMER FILM COURSE 

JUNGLE BOOK 

US/THEM 

www.bodens.co.uk 

AUTUMN 2017

BODENS PERFORMING ARTS 


INTO THE WOODS 

Allie Aylott 

MATILDA 

Katya Padfield 

US/THEM 

Elizabeth Hoare 

INTO THE WOODS 

Our graduating college students end an amazing 

year with an incredible outdoor production of 

Stephen Sondeheim's challenging musical 

MESSAGE FROM 

THE PRINCIPAL 

We hope you enjoy our Autumn Term 

issue of Bodens Magazine. Everything 

here is written by young people at Bodens 

Performing Arts, all about their experiences 

on and off the stage. This issue features 

productions of Into The Woods, Matilda, 

Jungle Book, Us/Them, Flight of the Fairy, 

Alice in Wonderland and our Summer 

Courses. We look back on an incredible 

term at Bodens, and forward to a term of 

creativity - Adam Boden 

AUTUMN 2017 

JUNGLE BOOK 

Foundation Students 

FLIGHT OF THE FAIRY 

Zoe Jones 

'REPLAY' FILM COURSE 

Julia Moniz 

WOYZECK 

Ethan Reid 

SPRING AWAKENING 

Zoe McGillicuddy 

ALICE IN WONDERLAND 

Jessica Bohan 


99 East Barnet Road 

Barnet, Her ts. EN4 8RF 

020 8447 0909 

07545 696 888 

info@bodens.co.uk 

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www.performingartscollege.co.uk 

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Bodens Performing Arts 

School has always been known 

for its innovative, creative, 

and professional-quality 

performances. This year’s endof-term 

college production was 

no different. At the beginning of 

2017, we found out our summer 

production, with the whole 

college as a company, would be 

Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Into The 

Woods’ – a 2 and a half hour 

musical with plot and music 

based on the original Grimms’ 

Brothers Fairytales – but with a 

twist. 

The casting process began with 

vocal lessons and explorations 

of themes and structures of 

the songs in the show – this 

included solos, duets, and the 

whole-company numbers. By 

going through these, students 

could begin considering 

songs for auditions, and the 

characters we were interested 

in potentially playing. As well 

as vocal exploration, we had 

regular dance lessons exploring 

choreography for the finale, 

and other large numbers. With 

particular emphasis placed on 

showing meaning and truth 

in the choreography – and 

characterisation. 

Auditions took place in March, 

which gave all the students 

a chance to not just show our 

talents to our tutors, but also 

to our peers. Many people 

performed solos, duets and 

small group numbers – each 

presenting their interpretations 

of their chosen song and the 

role they are playing. After this, 

students were gradually cast 

as characters in the show, and 

I was lucky enough to be cast 

as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, the 

character I had favoured and 

auditioned for. 

As soon as our leads and 

supporting characters were cast 

, students were able to fully dive 

into the rehearsal process and 

characterisation. Developing 

our skills vocally, physically and 

in an acting sense throughout 

the next few months leading 

up to show. I found diving in 

to such a brash, young and 

certainly blunt character a 

great challenge, getting the 

physicality and vocal tone 

up to standard; And for other 

students, everyone had their 

own challenges to overcome 

that came with their characters 

– leading up to an amazing 

finished product. 

WWW.BODENS.CO.UK



Not long into the beginnings 

of the rehearsal process, it 

was announced by Adam, our 

director/principal, that we 

would be performing ‘Into The 

Woods’...in the actual woods. 

From then on, as a company 

we all knew this wasn’t going 

to be any ordinary production, 

oh no, it was going to be bigger 

and better than we expected. 

Bodens had already put on a 

production of ‘Into The Woods’ 

back in 2009, performed in our 

own ‘Scaffold Theatre’; so it 

was interesting to see how the 

performances contrasted and 

were similar. 

Challenges that came with 

the choice of space, the large, 

open Hadley Wood, included 

weather worries, making sure 

the company uses the entire 

space so the audience can see 

everything clearly, and adapting 

such a large-scale production 

to such a large, open space. 

As the weather got warmer, 

we began walking (a rather 

long way) to Hadley Wood from 

Bodens, and getting used to the 

performance space. We began 

with a huge improvisation, 

where we explored the space 

for 20 minutes as our characters, 

and then switched, if you were 

playing one or more characters 

for another 20 minutes. This led 

to more blocking rehearsals, 

quickly getting our show 

journeys together, and dress 

rehearsals in the lead up to the 

coveted show-week. 

The amount of hard work 

that went into the show was 

absolutely incredible – from 

the production team – working 

on getting the sound, mics and 

lighting perfect for our space, 

which required particular skill 

given the demanding nature 

of our stage and setting. 

And it wasn’t just us college 

students that had the audience 

enthralled. Adam recruited 

a team of talented young 

performers to set off the show 

with a pre-show, including 

audience participation, and 

did a great job immersing 

the audience into the land of 

fairytales before the show had 

really began. A special mention 

goes out to Rodney Cottam, a 

teacher here at Bodens, who 

designed and handmade over 

40 costumes for our entire cast. 

And, the brilliant puppet of 

‘Milky White’ – Jack’s seemingly 

milk-less cow. The detail, 

meaning and beauty of the 

costumes truly reflected the 

characters of fairytale land 

and helped bring everything 

to life on stage. This didn’t go 

unnoticed, and many audience 

members commented on how 

unique and professional they 

looked. 

From Thursday the 6th to Sunday 

the 9th of July 2017, Bodens 

put on four spectacular shows 

of ‘Into The Woods’. Although 

the weather was predicted to 

be raining all throughout, we 

actually ended up having nearperfect 

summer weather! During 

Act 2, as things began to take 

a darker turn in the show, the 

sunset was perfectly timed to 

come down gradually, and we 

would end the show as darkness 

fell – and lights lit up the final 

confrontation with the giant, 

and the end of the last chapter 

of our story. Every night we were 

met with a grand applause from 

the crowd as we took our bows. 

As the nights of autumn draw 

in, the air turns crisp and the 

new term approaches – it can 

be easy to forget the long 

summer we’ve had – but our 

experiences, challenges and 

the overwhelming feeling of 

accomplishment within our 

talented college and company 

ending the year on ‘Into The 

Woods’ is still as memorable as 

ever – and will continue to be. 





Our younger weekend performing arts students rehearsed an abridged verison of the musical 

Matilda, before heading to the Arts Depot, London, for a day of amazing performances! Katya 

tells us all about her experiences playing one of the leading roles. 

In May, I, along with two of my 

friends, played Matilda in the Bodens 

reproduction of (you guessed it) 

Matilda at the Arts Depot in Finchley. 

We started work on the production 

in late February where we began 

by learning the songs and dances. 

We worked on them for just under a 

month. For that length of time no-one 

had any parts; all we knew was Group 

1 were the younger kids and Group 2 

were the older kids. Finally, we sort of 

auditioned for parts. 

We arrived at the Arts Depot a couple 

of hours before everyone’s shows. The 

pressure was on. To get the nerves out 

we mucked around in the changing 

rooms. In the end, all the shows went 

brilliantly. Playing Matilda was a dream 

come true. The fact it was in the Arts 

Depot, which is a really great theatre 

(no offence to the Scaffold Theatre), 

made it even better. It was the end, for 

now. 

To transfer it to the East Barnet Festival 

a few weeks later it took some more 

hard work. Most of the Musical Theatre 

students (and a couple more from the 

combined classes) came in and played 

Bounce, then we got down to business. 

Adam played the songs and we did 

the dances. Afterwards, we got use to 

the order of songs and perfected the 

transitions. The only problem was 

we hadn’t had a chance to practice 

it on the actual stage! It was different 

performing in a marquee as the sound 

travelled out into the park. On Saturday 

there were a couple of errors but 

Sunday was perfect. 

We all had a great time, out of this we 

got wonderful memories and I got a 

stuffed Matilda doll which I will keep 

forever in memory of this amazing 

experience. 

In Adam’s class we were given scripts 

and we chose a scene to act out. A 

couple of weeks later, we found out 

who we were. We pieced everything 

together. It was showtime… 





As the end of my first year at 

Bodens College approached 

and our final term was 

filled with new shows and 

experiences, we were told 

that our final performance was 

US/THEM 

going to be Us/Them. This play 

is a contemporary play written 

by Carly Wijs, exploring the 

terrorist attack on a school in 

Beslan during September 2004, 

taking hundreds of children 

hostage. The play doesn’t just 

inform the audience about 

this attack, but it explores the 

child’s individual experience 

and ways of dealing with this 

traumatic experience. 

Liz talks about the year one college students contemporary 

play about the 2004 terrorist siege in a Beslan School : an 

exploration of the entirely individual way children cope 

with traumatic situations 

After completing a four day 

run of Into The Woods, we 

had the task of producing 

this contemporary play in just 

over a week! We knew that we 

needed to work hard and make 

sure that our final show of the 

year ended on a high! 

We began by workshopping 

with the play, through research, 

improvisation and play. To get 

an understanding of the play 

and the significance of the style 

and portrayal of the Beslan 

attack we needed to research 

into the attack, finding social, 

political, cultural historical 

context of the play during 

Russia, 2004. This would give 

us a better understanding of 

the influences and culture 

for school children in Russia, 

so we could create believable 

and naturalistic characters. 

We were split into research 

groups and had to research 

into a specific aspect of 

historical context, allowing 

us to present this in any form 

and collaborating with one 

another to share our research, 

gaining collective knowledge 

that will help us when creating 

our character and portraying 

this traumatic experience in 

a naturalistic and respectful 

way. Once we had done 

this we began to explore 

the text through play and 

improvisation, which allowed 

us to understand how children 

would react and show their 

emotions in such traumatic 

situations. We were given the 

task of taking certain sections 

of the play in pairs or small 

groups which we had to go 

off to explore and block and 

then show how we decided 

to portray this through story 

telling. When doing this we 

needed to consider the age of 

the children in Russia and how 

at a young age you have an 

open mindset where you view 

things objectively, meaning 

when they explain situations or 

events it would be so simplistic 

and to the point. This meant 

that we needed to use the 

words in the text to convey the 

emotions and situation clearly 

to the audience. To do this we 

used the Brechtian technique 

of storytelling which we had 

learnt during our first term. 

Personally, my favourite section 

of play which we explored 

was when the children were 

explaining how the farmer with 

the tractor and the butcher had 

heard of the news on the attack 

and rushed to help. We used 

the idea of competition and 

playfulness between the two 

characters trying to prove that 

their characters of the farmer 

and butcher were better. When 

doing this we used various 

Brechtian techniques such 

as multi-role, storytelling, 

Gestus, stock characters as 

well as Brooks technique of 

poor theatre. By exploring the 

text with these practitioners 

we were able to heighten 

the idea of play, energy and 

competition because it was fun 

to do, which breaks away from 

the distressing situation that is 

happening. 

After exploring and unlocking 

the whole play we began to 

start our casting process, but 

to do this we also needed to 

split the dialogue into more 

parts for our cast. The original 





play has a boy and a girl who 

only perform, but we decided 

to take a different approach 

on the piece and have other 

characters tell their story 

as well. By doing this we are 

showing the audience how 

although all children were at 

this terrible attack, no same 

person views it the same 

and the way children explain 

their stories/situations are all 

very different. We looked at 

what must be said by the two 

lead characters, by finding 

similarities in the dialogue 

but also finding the dialogue 

that isn’t vital for the two leads 

to say. We split the text into 

Boy, Girl and numbers 1 to 6, 

meaning we had two casts of 8. 

We then cast the play knowing 

our roles, and allowing us to 

begin to learn lines and apply 

the Stanislavski technique of 

units & objectives, subtext, 

6 fundamental questions 

and questions and facts. By 

applying these techniques we 

could get a real understanding 

of our characters in a 

naturalistic style, which made 

the performance and delivery 

of lines more believable and 

with a purpose, using reactions. 

The date of the performance 

grew nearer and nearer, 

therefore we began to block 

the play and incorporate 

some blocking which was 

discovered through our initial 

exploration of scenes. During 

rehearsals we needed to work 

as an ensemble to ensure the 

play would be outstanding 

just like every other Bodens 

performance. I felt that every 

single cast member worked 

extremely hard to ensure the 

performance would be ready 

and as the last few rehearsals 

approached we were focused 

and determined to ensure our 

end of year performance ended 

with a bang! Personally, I felt 

the best part of rehearsals was 

when we could see it all piece 

together with costumes, lights, 

props and set design. 

Us/Them has a very obscure 

and simple set design of a 

plain black walls which would 

then be filled with chalk and 

the various characters drew out 

their account of the terrorist 

attack and the outline of the 

buildings. Every child has a 

different perspective on the 

attack, which allowed us to 

develop our characters showing 

the varying personalities; for 

example certain characters 

were very mathematical 

therefore had the dialogue with 

all the long numbers, where as 

other characters were more 

focused on the bombs and 

how dangerous the situation 

was. By having the ability to 

draw and write on the walls in 

chalk, I found that it brought 

out relationships between 

character e.g.; through 

having children rub out other 

characters drawings and text 

because in ‘their’ account of 

the attack it wasn’t correct, 

or they didn’t like the way 

they drew a specific building 

etc. The play had wires which 

were constantly threaded and 

hung up during the show, to 

represent the gymnasium with 

bombs attached to the wires 

which would blow the school 

up. The wires continued to be 

hung and the performance 

space got more cramped and 

intricate when moving around 

and running between wires. 

When rehearsing with the wires 

for the first time it was very 

difficult to not touch them, 

meaning we needed to pay more 

attention to the consequences 

within the play of touching the 

wire (blowing everyone up). 

Finally, to convey the bullets 

being shot, there were various 

holes within the back wall 

and light was shone through, 

creating rays of light on the 

stage and adding to the detail 

and astonishing performance. 

Us/Them has been one of my 

favourite shows I have done 

within my first year of Bodens 

College, because I enjoyed 

how the play explored such 

a disturbing topic but in 

a comedic and energising 

manner to portray the age of 

the children. Whether I was 

being a tractor or playing 

Masha or fainting, I found 

playing a child very fun 

and finding the quirks and 

relationships helped develop 

and layer my character. 





I liked singing and 

dancing to the Jungle 

Book - Chloe 

Our Youngest Foundation Performing Arts 

Students remember what it was like to take 

part in our production of a Disney’s Classic 

Using some of our college performers in the leading roles, left the littlest performers free to 

play snakes, elephants, trees, rocks and monkeys; using physical theatre, acting, singing and 

varying styles of dance to lift the Jungle Book story off the page and in to our playing space. 

I liked when we first walked 

into the theatre when 

the song came on it 

made me excited. I 

really liked singing 

‘Trust in Me’ 

because we held 

the snake ribbon - 

Elyssia 

I liked practising the 

song I Wanna Be Like 

You, and learning the 

dance moves - Elena 

I loved the practicing Jungle 

Book. It was fun and 

exciting leading up to the 

show. I was really shy but 

was happy at the same 

time. I loved being with 

the friends I made. My 

favourite was singing the 

song Bare Necessities - Mya 

I really enjoyed doing the Jungle Book. It 

was fun being with the older children and 

I liked waiting at the side to come on 

because it’s exciting - but my favourite 

part was the dancing! - Elspeth 




During May and June, all our part- 

made the show begin to come 

performance, and told the story 

time dance classes flipped their 

alive. However, my personal 

through her dancing. Jasmine 

exam plans and decided that it was 

favourite, in terms of costumes, 

is someone who really feels 

time for another dance show. This 

was those for the evil fairies, 

the music when she dances, 

time we would delve into the world 

especially the street dancers, 

and it was just captivating to 

of ‘flight of the fairies,’ a story of 

who looked extremely cool in 

see such a young performer 

the fight between good and evil, 

their red dungarees, giving the 

give her all to a performance, 

saved by one small girl with a heart 

show an edgy twist. 

evident she will continue to 

of gold. The weeks leading up to 

grow into a beautiful dancer. 

the show were spent improvising, 

devising and creating dances that 

The shows finally came and 

each made a building block, slowly 

went by in a hurry, each 

coming together as the story we 

performance offering a fresh 

would tell to our audience. I don’t 

think I have ever seen any of my 

classmates work harder towards a 

dance show, each bringing a burning 

passion to provide their friends 

and exciting feel to it due 

to the dedication of all the 

dancers. ‘Flight of the Fairies’ 

was such a wonderful way 

to showcase our work and 

Bodens 

Dance 

and families with a dazzling and 

evidencing what we learn at 

mystifying performance. 

Bodens within our classes, I 

for one cannot wait until next 

ALL OUR DANCE CLASSES 

A couple of days before the first show, 

I had the privilege of playing the 

term to return to dance. 

ARE FOR FUN, FITNESS 

the excitement began to build up at 

evil queen in this production, 

AND DEVELOPMENT, WITH 

the arrival of costumes. It was lovely 

which I loved because I haven’t 

STUDNETS 

WORKING 

to see everyone having fun in every 

had much chance to play 

TOWARDS PERFROMANCES 

shade of pink, blue and purple, that 

an evil character, so it was a 

OR EXAMINATIONS. 

nice change. I also had the 

FLIGHT OF THE FAIRY 

pleasure of dancing alongside 

one of my best friends Lucy 

who played the good queen, 

PRE SCHOOL BALLET 

TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS & 

SATURDAYS 

Zoe talks about our 2017 dance show featuring performers 

beautifully executing her 

movements with her perfect 

TAP & MODERN 

pointe. It was so much fun to 

MONDAY EVENING 

play Lucy’s enemy; a change 

for both of us, in terms of our 

BALLET 

dynamics as performers, but 

THURSDAY EVENING 

I think the fact that we have 

a great connection brought a 

STREET DANCE 

special quality to the show. 

TUESDAY EVENINGS 

However, I cannot forget to 

mention Jasmine, our leading 

lady in all shows. Even though 

Jasmine is one of the younger 

dancers we have at Bodens, she 

had such a maturity about her 

Try a free 

trial class 





‘Replay’ is a film directed by 

REPLAY 

Julia took part in our 2017 

Summer Film Production Course 

The 2017 film course was a 

fantastic experience and in 

a single week we were able 

to create a new script for our 

own feature film. On the first 

day, after getting to know 

everyone at the film course, 

we were split into two groups 

depending on our age. With 

these groups, we immediately 

began working on a written 

scene with each other and 

were able to perform this 

on camera. With exceptional 

teaching, we learned about 

different filming shots and 

were given tips to use when 

filming later in the week. 


Next we began devising short stories to 

help spark ideas for what plot line our 

film could potentially have. Having the 

freedom of choosing any props and any 

idea we wanted, meant that no one’s 

idea was too wacky to be explored as 

a group. For example, the older group 

created a world where all the adults 

had disappeared, leaving only children 

behind. These children would then go on 

an adventure to bring the adults back. 

This gave rise to the idea of having a 

group of kids as our leads in the film, on 

some sort of adventure together (similar 

to the ‘Goonies ‘ or children in Stranger 

Things). Stories such as these are typically 

found in 80s movies, such as E.T, and so 

our ideas were then inspired by these 

films. One group devised a piece where 

children were playing a board game which 

then affected their lives in some sort of 

magical way. The idea was 

implemented in our film and 

‘Replay’ was suddenly created. 

We wanted to create the 

lovable archetypes of an 80s 

film so that all our characters 

connected with our audience 

of some level. For example, 

we had our main character 

and his friends, the cute little 

brother, the older sister who 

ends up helping, the nerd, the 

love interest, the all -knowing 

outcast and of course, the 

bullies. We also developed 

the idea of having a group of 

evil scouts as the villains, very 

comical drama club members, 

and the laid back detention 

slackers to help save the day. 

This meant that there was a 

great opportunity for all the 

cast members to display their 

incredible talent. 

Adam Boden and filmed by 

Ethan Reid. It follows a group 

of five children who are the 

typical outcasts at school 

but are very close friends. 

They discover a book and 

game which magical powers 

cause their disastrous day of 

facing individual challenges 

to continuously repeat itself, 

forcing the group to come 

together and overcome their 

difficulties in order to save 

the day. 

The evil scouts ventured 

to the park to film scenes 

where they would ‘attack’ the 

helpless nerd with their arrows 

and swimming noodles. The 

younger cast members were 

brilliant at creating funny 

scenes which brought lots of 

humour to our film. We also 

used a garage to be the set 

for the ‘five’ to begin and end 

their journey with the board 

game. At Bodens, there is a 

very friendly, open atmosphere 

which meant that there was a 

great opportunity to make 

new friends, no matter if 

they were regular students 

or very talented members of 

our community. Finally, what 

makes this experience even 

more worthwhile is that our 

feature film is shown at the 

Phoenix cinema a couple of 

months later. Together with 

our families, we are able to 

see all the hard work we have 

put into making the film. I 

would recommend the Bodens 

Performing Arts Film Course 

for anyone who wants more 

insight into screen acting 

and the process which goes 

into creating a film. It is a 

great opportunity to make 

new friends and I enjoyed the 

experience immensely. 


WOYZECK 

A contemporary re-imagining of Buchner’s Classic play examing the 

fragments of jealousy and a man’s descent into madness and murder. 

We found out after the weekend the parts we had been allocated 

Fully Funded 

Summer Course 

For three weeks 

of the summer, 

a company of 

young people 

aged 16-19 

years undertook 

performances 

of two full scale 

productions 

as part of a 

fully funded 

qualification 

in Creative and 

Performing Arts. 

Ethan recalls 

the casting 

process for our 

contemporary 

re-imagining of 

Woyzeck. 


Woyzeck was a fantastic 

example of the equal 

opportunity offered to every 

cast member, regardless of 

their previous experience. The 

cast was incredibly varied, 

from some having seven years 

Bodens experience and for 

others this was their first time 

here. Regardless, all of us were 

nervous for the auditions. 

We had spent the first week 

working on the text and 

picking apart the piece until 

we understood the themes and 

messages laced into the text by 

the writer. We were then given 

a day to pick a piece of the play 

as our audition material and 

went away to work alone or in 

groups in preparation for the 

casting. A great example of the 

equal opportunity offered to 

every student is David. David 

was completely new to Bodens 

when he joined the summer 

course and performed one of 

Woyzeck’s monologues as his 

audition. David had showed he 

had great potential throughout 

the previous week and his 

audition capped off his bid 

for the lead by showing the 

impressive depth of his skill. 

I decided to audition as 

the Captain as I felt I could 

contribute best to the 

production in this role; it 

played into my strengths 

greatly and I knew it would 

pair up well with David as 

Woyzeck. 

in the production. David had gotten the lead Woyzeck and 

myself the Captain. 

The Ethos of ‘Hard work is always rewarded’ is prevalent and at 

the very core of Bodens as an institute, wether you are a first 

timer or a long standing student. It can show itself across the 

span of a production or a life time here and ensures a strong 

sense of justice for every student’s commitment and input to 

their time here at Bodens Performing Arts. 

Our 2018 

Summer Course 

Next year’s 

course will 

run from Mon 

30th - Sun 

19th August, 

and will be 

fully funded 

for any young 

people aged 

16 - 18 years. 

Participants 

will form a 

company, 

producing 

another 

contemporary 

production 

of a classic 

play, and 

performing the 

full musical ‘In 

The Heights’. 


An angsty rock musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater: an adaptation 

of the seminal play about the trials and tribulations of growing up. 

Fully Funded 

Summer Course 

On our exciting 

August summer 

course for 

16-19 years, 

we explored, 

rehearsed and 

produced the 

challenging rock 

musical ‘Spring 

Awakening’ 

based on 

Wedekind’s 

original play. 

Here participant 

Zoe talks about 

the experience 

of being a part 

of the company 

for this intensive 

three weeks. 


Before I started the summer 

course, I was wondering 

whether it would be worth 

‘giving up’ 3 weeks of my 

summer holiday. Now, looking 

back at this whole experience 

it was completely worth it. 

This course wasn’t just about 

learning techniques to make 

my performances better, for 

me what made it were the 

people on the course with me. 

I genuinely liked every single 

person, and our performance 

of Spring Awakening was all 

the better for it. 

What I loved was the mix 

of college, part-timers and 

newcomers and how quickly 

we mixed. For some people, 

the beginning of this course 

was more challenging than for 

others, but it was lovely seeing 

everyone’s confidence grow 

and how we all supported each 

other throughout the process: 

we were all in this together. 

During the course we also 

saw three free shows: Yerma, 

Girl from the North Country 

and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 

All were interesting to watch 

and we learnt from them as 

performers. 

The musical we performed was ‘Spring Awakening’, which is a 

rock musical set in the 1890’s about teenage angst. So what 

better way could a rock musical be done than with handheld 

microphones? On one of the mornings we workshopped using 

the microphones in songs, where we would go up when one of 

us felt like singing a bit and replace the person before. It was 

great seeing how into it everyone was getting, from standing 

on chairs to sliding on our knees. 

Both of our shows had great energy, especially Spring Awakening, 

as it was our last performance as a company following a very 

intense 3 weeks. It was good that there was challenging material 

in both pieces, so all of us could come out of the course saying 

that we had been stretched as performers and had improved 

immensely. All of us ended on a good note… apart from Ethan, 

whose last note was questionable. In any case we all had an 

amazing time and can’t wait to do In the Heights next year! 

All of us ended on a good note… apart from Ethan, whose last 

note was questionable. In any case we all had an amazing time 

and can’t wait to do In the Heights next year! 

Our 2018 

Summer Course 

Anyone aged 

16-18 years 

on the 31st 

August 2018 

can apply 

to take part 

on this fully 

funded course. 

You can visit 

our college 

website for 

full details or 

to complete 

an application 

form. We are 

looking for 

capable and 

committed 

students with 

a passion for 

the performing 

arts. 




While we didn’t necessarily find out 

what parts we would be playing that 

day, or the next, we learnt songs, 

investigated scenes and practised 

dances. 

A particularly engaging part of the 

course was our workshop with Alan 

Pearson, who is currently playing ‘The 

Mad Hatter’ in a London production! 

I’m really glad I decided to 

go on the Bodens Alice in 

Wonderland course; I wasn’t 

sure whether to beforehand 

as I didn’t know anyone who 

was doing it. But the whole 

experience was really fun and 

the atmosphere was always 

very friendly. We were kept 

very busy and there was always 

something going on! 

Of course we explored the Mad Hatter’s 

Tea Party, experimenting with adding 

opposing elements of danger and 

‘soporific-ness’. 

We were also introduced to 

puppeteering with Adam and saw 

how to move and control the puppets, 

which was very interesting. 

Our final course of the summer 

was a musical theatre production 

of Disney’s famous tale set on the 

other side of the looking glass. 

Forty students aged 7-14 had just 

five days to pull together a full 

theatrical performance for family 

and friends in The Scaffold Theatre. 

Having played Alice, Jess talks 

We spent an enjoyable first 

morning learning the songs 

and exploring the characters. 

We were split in to an older 

group and a younger group 

so that everyone was working, 

and making friends with, 

people of similar age and 

ability. Everyone had a choice 

of whether to audition or 

not, but especially the older 

children were encouraged to. 

YO U 

CAN SEE 

MANY MORE 

PHOTOS FROM 

ALL OUR SHOWS 

BODENS.CO.UK 

/GALLERY 

The highlight of the week had to be the 

actual shows, as they were so exciting 

to perform in, in front of an audience 

of our families and friends. It was a 

fantastic week that was jam-packed 

about her Summer experience. 



COMING SOON! 

IPHIGENIA 

OUR SECOND 

YEAR COLLEGE 

STUDENTS RECREATE 

THIS CLASSICAL EURIPIDES 

PLAY, FOR A MODERN 

AUDIENCE AS PARTOF 

THEIR TRAINING 

THERE ARE ALWAYS PLENTY OF 

SHOWS IN PRODUCTION AT BODENS 

PERFORMING ARTS. HERE IS A LOOK 

AT WHAT IS UP NEXT THIS YEAR! 

A 

GRAND 

DON’T COME 

FOR FREE 

A PHYSICAL THEATRE 

PIECE BY OUR SECOND 

YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS, 

INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC 

OF THE STREETS. 

HAMELIN 

A BRAND NEW 

PLAY WITH ORIGINAL 

MUSIC COMES TO LIFE 

IN MARCH 2018. THIS IS 

INTERACTIVE, IMMERISVE 

EXPERIENCE IS PERFORMED 

BY OUR WEEKEND 

STUDENTS. 

BRAINSTORM 

OUR YOUNG 

REPERTORY COMPANY 

ARE A FEARLESS 

GROUP OF TEENAGERS 

INVESTIGATING THE 

WORKINGS OF THE 

TWEENAGE BRAIN 

TO O 

FAST 

OUR SENIOR 

PERFORMING ARTS 

STUDENTS ONE ACT 

PLAY ABOUT THE VOCAL 

GROUP SENSATION 

NATION AND THEIR 

UNSTOPPABLE 

FIND 

ME 

A BRAND NEW 

COLLEGE YEAR GROUP 

PERFORM THEIR VERY FIRST 

PIECE, A CONTMEPORARY 

PLAY INVESTIGATING 

THE DEPTHS OF 

PERSONALITY.

for 16-19 years

BODENS AUTUMN 2017 MAGAZINE

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