The Exhibition

 

      This year is my first exhibition with PLP along with many of the other veteran PLP students. The exhibition was intended to show three different aspects, each represented by a grade of what they have learned during their first term. HPC 11 (My grade) did Canada’s situation and role before and after World War I. It is supposed to be an immersive experience where scenes from the time would be represented in the most realistic way possible to give the audience a very clear understanding of what was going on at the time.

 

Group and Setup

      The groups were chosen by the teachers and divided into different groups that represented different eras of the time. My group consisted of Jackson, Brianna, Tom, and Gabrielle. Worked proceeded with a preliminary planning stage of what Pre War Canada would have been like. The project was planned to have 2 but later had 3 stages because we had too much area to cover. The very first part in Seycove’s cardio room was going to be the immigration office where people coming into the exhibit were supposed to go so they could immigrate. This would show Canada’s Open Door immigration policy. The second part was a rally stage where Laurier and Henri Bourassa were supposed to have an argument. They would explore the good and bad of the Laurier era. Robert Borden then appears on the stage and speaks about supporting Britain if there is a war in Europe. The audience is then moved into a sign up area where they would join the army. There is then an almost seamless transition into the Trenches group area where one of their group members welcomes them to the battlefield. We used cardboard boxes to divide off the rally stage and the recruitment office.  

This is where Robert Borden held a rally to rile up everyone to support or join the great war that would soon happen in Europe.

During Presentation

      Setup and preparation was a bit rushed due to time so everyone improvised their parts instead of really reading from the script. Brianna manned both the immigration office and the recruitment, Jackson and Gabi argued as Laurier and Bourassa, I was Robert Borden, and Tom was Clifford Sifton welcoming the audience in. The overall exhibition went smoothly with no problems that the audience could recognize. There was however a slight noise problem with another group as their group and our group presented at the same time which resulted in my speech being partially obscured by the sound. As time went by and breaks between groups let us rest and prepare for the next group to arrive, we thought of some ideas that could make our presentation more special. More improvisation ideas were added to the Laurier and Bourassa argument and ideas were also added to Robert Borden’s speech that would make it more effective.

People voting for the next prime minister of that time. This was part of the immersive experience.

Take Down

      Right before the take down, all the groups that presented got to walk through the exhibit and take a look at their classmate’s creations. The taking down of all the exhibitions was relatively easy as it was all basically props from different rooms that still had function and also the fact that most of it was made from cardboard. All was taken down and some props were taken home.

First picture shows a novel idea from the trenches group to build a mock tank for their group which represented trench life. Second picture shows the discrimination and sexism that existed in Canada during that time presented by another group.

My Reflection

      This is the very first time I have done such a thing in this format where the class created a proper immersive experience for the audience. I felt that the time we had in the gym to set up was way too short and that if we had more time, we could have created something very nice. Other than that, I felt the exhibition ran quite smoothly. The teamwork involved was tremendous and in the end, everyone from every group  vb pitched in to help each other to make this exhibition happen. This has definitely been a change from the normal ways of showing what the class has learned and was also a great way to promote our program. The things that needed to be known to do this project was led me to learn a lot of new things about Canada during that time period. Apparently the lineup to see it was very long, maybe Mr. Hughes and Ms. Willemse should charge an entrance fee next time……….