On December 14th, our class transformed the gym into 5 different time periods, and it actually went….well?
I still can’t believe we managed to pull this off. None of us even really started THINKING about it until 10 days before the date. I 100% expected us to bomb hard, but somehow, every single group pulled it together (then again, usually at least most of us pull it together). Although, that doesn’t mean it went perfectly. At least twice I forgot one of my lines and just shouted “NO!” in its place. That’s okay though, it worked.
The groups were split like this:
- Pre-WWI Canada
- The Trenches (1916)
- Conscription Crisis (1917)
- Post-WWI Canada (1920’s)
- The Depression (1930’s)
I was part of the 1920’s group, along with Chloe, Maria, Luciano, and Michael S. At first, we figured that there was a clear path cut out for us. The 20’s were great! There was no war, and people listened to jazz, and started watching movies, and uhh… flappers? Are flappers softcore strippers?
We knew nothing about the 1920’s. We didn’t actually get taught about the 20’s and 30’s like we were the war and pre-war time stuff. We’re actually finally going over the 20’s and 30’s now (Woohoo for having a headstart!). So pretty much, the first thing we had to do was spend a few days arguing over what the most important parts of the 1920’s were. We eventually settled on (white) women earning the right to vote, racism (just like, in general), workers rights/unions, and the economy beginning to suck. This way, we were able to lay out our path and write our script pretty easily.
We would start in a voting station (ironically enough we were already in a modern voting station: a public school gym) for the 1921 election, and a white woman (Chloe) would be there and talk to people about women voting and the stance of the country. People would vote. Then an aboriginal soldier (Maria) would try and vote and a powerful white dude (Michael) would throw her out. She would bring people out to the “street” where I would rally everyone together and they would join my worker’s strike. Michael would show up again and break up the strike. Finally, a busker with a sax (Luciano) would talk to the people about how bad things are getting. That leads us right into the depression.
Although, by the time we had the script done, we had like 2 days left to pull it all together.
Luckily we seemed to be the group that needed the least actual props. We were able to get the school voting stations and box that we use for our school-wide fake elections we have whenever there’s a real election. We put up a divider, some signs about the parties, a potted plant, BAM we’re done.
It was all good until we realized our outside wasn’t going to really look like outside at all. We actually ended up dumping dirt on the floor to fix this problem in the end, but before the day of the exhibition, we created a backdrop that had houses and trees and a sky and stuff to show that we were in fact, outside. The houses even had cute little signs out front supporting the candidates for the election!! Just like nowadays!! Except back then neither of the candidates was a moldy orange!
Sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about our downstairs neighbours right now.
When we were working on it in the hall, people walking by kept on asking if it was for Santa’s Breakfast, which I don’t get. Unless the elves were really supportive of William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Anyways, the day of we basically just had to put everything together and then memorize our scripts (luckily not too hard). I think we managed to pull it off pretty well.
Except the gym was freezing cold and I lost my voice from shouting all night. I got super sick the day after. I. Am. Still. Sick. 24 DAYS LATER!!!!!
So, on a personal level, this exhibition was not a success.
Here’s some photo’s from my part of the exhibition, and below you can watch our 4-minute presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueWKBtdHXR0&feature=youtu.be
