Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) was the place to go, for whacky, spontaneous and side-splitting funny entertainment, on June 15 and 16. Students, many of whom are involved in the school’s drama program, participated in a competitive, performance-based event, at ECS’s annual improv games.
“We based it off of the Canadian Improv Games. There’s a national league that does them,” said Evanne Wilhem, a drama teacher at ECS. “They do acting situations and events that are all about improvising on stage, in circumstances they’re not prepared for. Basically they’re learning that in their drama classes, so they have to use those skills in a competitive setting.”
The games involved four teams of student actors: A&W Value Meal, Bread Rises Again, Pucks and Sausage Fest. Teams were given premises to spontaneously perform in front of an audience of other students and teachers. Premises that were improvised ranged from simple gags to elaborate, zany storylines like a medical staff wantonly administering laughing gas to people in an ER. Ultimately, Bread Rises Again won with their whacky, spontaneous approach to improv and ability to come up with the clearest ideas that made people laugh the loudest.
“The one word I want to use to describe it all is whimsical. Everyone in the school can sign up to be on a team, but the majority of kids who do compete are in Drama 10, Drama 20 or Drama 30,” said Wilhelm.
The improv games run near the end of the year, Wilhem noted, because by that time, students have been through their drama classes, and have been trained in improvisation rules and techniques.
“It’s a fun way of celebrating all of the things we’ve learned. It’s great for kids to be able to share that with an audience, because they don’t have a lot of opportunities to do that the way sports teams would,” said Wilhelm. “It’s neat for them, when they get audience reactions and approval for what they’re working on — especially when it’s something like a fine arts-related event.”
Each team was judged on a number of dimensions of their performances, by a panel of former drama teachers. One criteria for each performance included understanding of the situation being improvised, and the ability to make full use of the suggestion given to them.
“Once the situation is given to them, they’re judged on whether they remembered the things about the situation. They only get it once, and they only get 30 seconds to plan their performance,” said Wilhelm. “They also need to observe rules of the stage, using a big enough voice that everyone can hear them, avoid turning their backs to the audience and use gestures and movements that are large enough for an audience to understand what they’re doing.”
Creativity was another important dimension of each performance, with whatever ideas the students had being judged by that dimension, as well.
“The more ideas they can present, the higher the rankings are, in each event,” noted Wilhelm.
The retired teachers judging performances were familiar with not only the lessons of drama class, but with the games, themselves. The teachers judging the games on Wednesday and Thursday were the ones who started the games and organized them as an early event, over the course of the last 22 years, during their careers at ECS. They included Allison Holzer, Kathy Brown and Colin Keess.
“It’s something the school looks forward to every year. The audience fills up more on the second day, because word of mouth spreads from the first day,” said Wilhelm. “They’re coming out on their lunch hour, so you know there’s a definite interest there. It’s not their teachers that are bringing them. It’s a room full of people giving up their free time to come and watch.”
Wilhelm said that she hopes to keep the 22-year-and-counting tradition running, now that she has taken over the task of organizing the improv games,
She added, “It’s something the kids know about, because in some cases they’re at the point where their parents once competed in the games.”
