Time in the trenches was not comfortable living, nor w
as it easy, enjoyable or remotely happy. But in these rat riddled rotten trenches history was made. Canada took WWI by storm, a new power in a new war, Canadian soldiers fighting for something bigger than t
hem selves, national identity. Canadians became themselves during World War 1 and its an important part of our young country’s beginnings.
For PLP’s 2016 Winter Exhibition the grade 11 cohort (HPC) was assigned the task of making an immersive walking journey of Canada’s Emerging identity around world war 1. We were then split into 5 groups, all representing a critical event or time relating to Canada’s emerging identity. I was placed into the trench group, a group faced with representing the gruelling trench situation that moulded brave Canadian men into Canadians. We then split our trench group into more subsections.
Our group’s preparations started many weeks before the exhibition. We were brainstorming and planning from the beginning. We came up with a consensus on what our project would look like and from there we proceeded. Everyone chose there roles in the production, Mike the Mechanic, Michael the Guide, Jayden and Marley the Soldiers and I played a Doctor. Marley than kickstarted everything by using her powers and acquiring a absurd amount of 
cardboard boxes, 
Mike also brought in the skeleton of his tank (his super cool go kart). The next classes were spent building and painting. Mike and I built a tank around his go kart and painted it army green, Marley, Michael and Jayden painted the boxes she brought in trench black. After finishing the tank I also moved onto box duty. The days became short and the exhibition was almost upon us, Marley and I worked late to finish the boxes one night so we could prepare for what was next.
The Actual Exhibition. At Go time were ready, our scripts barley memorized and freezing to death because of our operational tank, but ready. Our main goal was to relay the message of how time in the trench helped Canadians bring home a sense of national identity. The way we did this was through out script, our script emphasized this message and supported it. These quotes are exanples. From Michaels section: “Thousands of Canadian soldier have lost their lives out here. Our resilience is key, it reminds us that we are a nation and that our military is powerfulTo reflect and conclude. …We have what Britain and the rest of the allies don’t.” A quote from Jayden’s script: “we spend most of the free time here (in the trenches) smoking a pack, playing cards, talking, and marking up these walls. We write poems, letters, our initials, and most importantly our Canadian identity.” A strong message from Marley’s script: “before we came here, nobody thought Canada would do anything. We sure proved them wrong, and we have grown a strong identity for ourselves. No longer are we Alberta, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, but now we are Canada.”
This exhibition was by far my most favourite exhibition I have done while being in PLP, it was fun but also strong and well crafted. The setting was great, the ambience that was created on our side gym wall felt very r
eal. With dimmed light and a cold and brutal feeling I feel that our messages were relayed in an immersive and intriguing manor. The groups that prefaced us and tailed uswere very good, adding to the immersion and high qual
ity standard, Stanfields speech and the rowdy french men especially. If I could do this exhibition again it would be 99% the same, the only single thing I would change would would be to have taped the medical cross to my white doctors costume before the people started walking through and not have forgotten till a few groups had done through.