Hello, Internet.

So we’re in the midst of another round of Destination Imagination . I’m doing improv again this year, but this time around it’s themed around explorers . The gist of the challenge is that we had to research a bunch of different explorers, ranging from fictional explorers to space explorers to just plain old traditional explorers, and a set of “cultural treasures” and then make an improv skit incorporating a random two explorers and one cultural treasure.

 

The explorers that I researched were Alice Liddle (from Alice in Wonderland), Jacques Cousteau, and Howard Carter. These were the notes I took on them:

 

Alice (from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass)
(treasure: the books)
– 7 years old
– Mid-Victorian era
– Alice Liddell
– May have been loosely based on the real Alice Liddell, the daughter of a friend of Lewis Carroll’s
– Older sister
– Pet cat (Dinah)
– Adventurous, kind, smart, questions authority
– High social standing
– Appears in: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, various cartoons, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, and two live action movies created by Tim Burton

Jacques Cousteau (Artifact: Aqua lung):
– French explorer
– Naval officer
– Researcher
– Co-developed the aqua lung
– Studied the sea + marine life
– Lived 1910-1997
– Started in naval aviation but was unable to continue after being hurt in a car accident
– Wrote books on his marine research
– Pioneered marine conservation

Howard Carter (Artifact: Tutankhamun):
– British archeologist
– Discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb
– Egyptologist
– Lived 1874-1939
– Born in Kensington
– After retiring from archeology, worked part time as an agent for museums

 

The other explorers that we had to learn about were Ann Bancroft, Leif Ericsson, Captain Kidd, Ruth Benedict, Katherine Johnson, John Audborn, Elon Musk, Blackbeard, and Captain Nemo. For each explorer that we researched, we chose a corresponding cultural treasure: not literal treasure, but an artifact that was/is important to the culture the explorer came from, and is somehow related to each explorer.

Along with integrating the explorers and treasure, we were also given a weird setting for our skit to take place in (our setting ended up being a department store perfume department, which we ended up narrowing down to a singular bottle of perfume), and we were given a setback to incorporate partway through the performance (in which the perfume bottle started filling up with mud. For some reason.).

 

When we weren’t researching, we prepared by trying to learn how to do improv. We had an improv lesson during one of our flex blocks, and we spent a lot of time working through improv games and scenarios, and then through versions of the requirements for the end skit.

 

After months of preparation, we attended the regional tournament, convienently located at our school. We performed our skit, featuring me and Sydney as unsuspecting department store patrons who got put in a perfume bottle, Kyle as Elon Musk, and Ethan as the ghost of Ruth Benedict.

 

 

Once our performance was finished, the judges decided on our raw scores, which would eventually lead to deciding how well we did against the other teams, and whether we could continue to provincials. Our raw scores were as follows:

As for how we stacked up against the other teams? Well…

We got first place! We actually came in first for both our team challenge and our instant challenge, meaning that we’ll definitely be advancing to provincials.

Before we do go to provincials, however, we have some more work to do, so we took the time to reflect on what we thought we did well, what we should work on, and what will get us the most points.

Now, I’ve got to go get started preparing for provincials.

 

Toodles.