By Amy Eisen, News Correspondent
Banditos Misteriosos, a Boston-based organization dedicated to creating fun, family-friendly programs and events, hosted the third annual Choose Your Own Adventure on Sept. 29.
The event is based on the popular children’s books created by Edward Packard in 1976, which let the reader make up where the story goes, but now it’s life-sized.
Teams of eight grouped together for about three hours and ran around Jamaica Plain, searching for the actors who would give them their next step. Some actors had challenges for the players, such as putting together a cardboard television, while others merely chatted with them.
The premise of the adventure was, at least to start, that the teams were fourth-graders going on a field trip to a petting zoo. This plotline could have changed immediately, or lasted a bit longer, depending on the choices of the players.
The teams that continued to the mock petting zoo were driven by a drunken bus driver, an actor wearing a bus driver outfit slurring his words and swerving his walking path with the team behind him.
At the petting zoo, the teams were greeted by a seemingly catatonic human-sheep named Muffy who, after being sprayed with “DNA altering fluid,” turned into a police officer.
“Don’t mess with DNA altering fluid,” the police officer warned, and then sent the team to the police station to receive super powers.
The storyline continued with several twists and turns, changing into a completely different story than at the beginning.
One ending involved lifting a key through a cardboard soda machine with a magnet to release a bike lock on a contraption that held an information sphere that proved the town police chief was corrupt thus saving the city from destruction, a long way from the bus ride originally boarded at the start.
The range of ages at the event was vast, from little children to grown adults, with a handful of Northeastern students in attendance. There was even a dog that played. Close to 300 people participated, making this the largest Banditos event since its creation in 2007. Registration had to close earlier than expected due to high demand.
This year, the Banditos received a $1,000 grant from the Awesome Foundation to prepare for the event. The Boston-based nonprofit “looking to forward the interest of awesome in the universe” according to the website, gives a series of $1,000 monthly grants to organizations across the world with no strings attached, meaning the foundation has no say in what is done with the money.
In this case, the grant allowed the Banditos to provide more props, more costumes, more actors and more storylines.
As one of the story actors, Michael Denney, said, “There were four different endings, but many little storylines throughout.”
There were roughly 30 actors who volunteered and eight additional support staff members. The preparation time that goes into this event is lengthy, especially for the technical prep.
The actors waited on corners, in parks and in other parts of the city, which attracted a lot of attention from locals and people passing by.
During the event, several pedestrians stopped the players, many of whom were wearing plastic capes, and asked what was going on. One woman even stopped her car in the middle of the street and shouted through the window.
“I would come back again in the future,” middler communications major Chelsea Addy said. “Some of it was really creative, some disappointing, but overall really interesting. My favorite part was the end, because it had the best puzzle, and I liked it. I wanted to do it because I loved the books, and it was a good opportunity to get out and see Boston.”
