A Promenade Performance at Woodland Discovery Centre
Before the Easter break, our Senior Youth Theatre group created and shared an original promenade performance, We are Here, While Time Passes, at the Woodland Discovery Centre.
Developed collaboratively over the term, the piece invited audiences to move around the Woodland Discovery Centre site, following a series of moments, encounters, and images shaped through the group’s devising process. Rather than a traditional stage-based performance, the work unfolded across the Centre, both indoors and outdoors, with each space becoming an active part of the storytelling.
Throughout rehearsals, the group explored themes of time and the human experience. Using improvisation, movement, discussion, and experimentation, they created material that responded both to these ideas and to the environment around them. The performance combined spoken text, physical theatre, movement, and audience interaction to create an immersive experience that shifted as audiences travelled through the different spaces.
The work included moments such as Instructions for Life, where audiences encountered both public and private instructions for living, Things that Really are Not Important, which playfully poked fun at the objects, habits, and ideas we become consumed by, and the finale The Timeline of All Time, exploring performers’ pasts, presents, and imagined futures. Audience members were also invited at times to participate directly in the performance, becoming part of the shared experience and the world of the piece itself.
The result was a promenade performance that felt thoughtful, playful, and atmospheric. It highlighted the group’s ability to work collaboratively, trust creative instincts, and shape a shared experience together.
As with all our Youth Theatre work, the process was just as important as the final sharing. The group approached the project with openness, adaptability, and a willingness to take creative risks, resulting in a piece that felt distinctive and collaborative.
We are proud of what they created and grateful to everyone who came to experience the work.
