Hello everyone! Wow its been a while since I’ve written a blog post, but here I am back again! Remember Regionals, well forget it because Provincials have commenced! I am here to take you through the journey we have to take to get to Provincials. It definitely was a crazy journey that I am very excited to take next year and the year after. Without further ado… lets get started!

After Regionals had ended, we all were so relieved we completely forgot about Provincials. Our team was especially happy because we won first place, which we are still very proud of. We had about a week of just settling in and getting back into regular schedule, when Ms. Willemse announced that we had only 2-3 weeks to prepare for Provincials. At first everyone was shocked because we obviously forgot about it. Then we all realized the work we had to do in order to be prepared for this competition. Most of us were quite relaxed at the start but as the weeks flew by and we inched closer to the day of Provincials, you can imagine how panicked we all got. People were coming to school early in the morning to finish backdrops and painting and scripts, and the day before was even more hectic than any of the other days. Last minute preparations were being done and it wasn’t just the grade 8s that were preparing, there were grade 9s and 10s rushing around the room trying to get their projects done in time. But that was an overview of the whole group. Now I am going to focus on just our little team of 5. 

Our team, 1-800-IMPROV-FOR-KIDS, consisted of 5 people: Me, Grace, Felix, Emily, and Thomas. Now the other teams were absolutely amazing but our team was definitely the dream team to me. At the start we were a bit rusty with each other but as time went on we gelled together and became one whole team that worked together. Regionals had finished and our team had come in first so we were still pretty astonished at what we had accomplished. Every time I even thought about it I would smile and think about how our hard work payed off. 1-800 didn’t have any structures or backdrops or anything physical to build or make. We were the improv team so all we had to do to prepare was act, act, and act (and sign some documents here and there). At times it got quite boring, playing the same acting games over and over. Sometimes we would just sit on our iPads for the whole class and literally do nothing because we had finished everything we could think of. Thats when Mr. Hughes brought a plot twist into our lives. He introduced to us something called a ‘burn-down chart’. As we created the charts, we realized how much work we had to do, how much time we had wasted, and how little time we have to finish all this in. So we took precautions, we met everyday at lunch and worked on one subject at each lunch. Our subjects were: Figureheads, Genres, Flip, and Nonverbal. Each day we would start with one of these subjects and finish with a fun acting game. As provincials neared, we came in at 8 am everyday and did this and at lunch. The night before we updated our sign and went to sleep, thinking about what will be waiting for us tomorrow. 

I woke at 6:30am, had a shower, ate breakfast, you know the normals. At 7:30, my mother and I picked up Ciara (who is in the medical team) and we carpooled to Collingwood Secondary School where Provincials was being held. We arrived just before 8 and I saw my improv sign directing the opposite way of the medical one. Ciara and I departed and I went to the theatre, where our team challenge would be held. Once I walked into the theatre my stomach had butterflies, I looked around at the stage area and the number of seats and I was about to bolt out of there and try to forget until the challenge time. I willed myself to stop being such a wimp and just sit down when I saw my team mates, Felix and Thomas, sitting at the very top seats. I ran to join them and the rest of our team walked in short minutes after. Only after 5 minutes we got escorted out so they could set up the challenge and we waited in the lobby for the parade to start. The parade happened and the 9am challenges commenced. 1-800 was at 10:40am but we have to be there at 10:20. We watched some other teams but when it was our turn pretty much all of PLP 8 and most of PLP 9 walked in and filled the theatre. Now things were getting real. We were minutes away from presenting and I was literally sweating because if we passed this, we would qualify for globals which is an opportunity of a lifetime. We were all thinking the same thing, what if we don’t do well, what if something happens? When a lady opened the door and said “we are ready for you now”. 

To be continued….