A team from Lisgar Collegiate competed unsuccessfully in the 2011 Canadian Improv Games held at the National Arts Centre last week.
Students from All Saints Catholic High School wowed a full house at the National Arts Centre earlier this month – and edged out competitors from Lisgar, Glebe and other area high schools – to win the Ottawa regional tournament of the Canadian Improv Games. The gold medal propels All Saints to the national improv tournament in April, scheduled to take place at the NAC’s main stage theatre.
Every Easter, hundreds of students from across Canada pour into the capital to compete, take workshops, and meet other like-minded improvisers at the Canadian Improv Games.
Joined by students from Canterbury High School and St. Joseph High School, All Saints will represent Ottawa on the national stage, facing off against the best young theatrical minds in the country.
In its 34th year, the Canadian Improv Games is a theatre competition between two teams of eight, each team having four minutes to create a scene armed with nothing more than a suggested subject from the audience.
Cari Leslie is a referee with the games. The 22-year-old actress was integral to the founding of Glebe Collegiate Institute’s improv team, and says the CIG was the best thing to happen to her in high school.
“Not everyone is good at sports, or into that competitive vibe,” she says. “But with improv you still have that tournament and you still have that intensity, but with something fun and creative and awesome.”
Teams from Glebe and Lisgar Collegiate Institute played in the finals. The teams didn’t advance to the national tournament, butwere enthusiastic about their experience.
Gabi O’Hara, a Grade 11 student at Glebe, says she loved playing in the regional competition, even though her team came in fifth place.
“All the people are so nice, and you get to make friends,” she says.
Her comments were echoed by students from Lisgar. First-time player Adrian Kiva says, “Working with these people has been one of the most fun things I’ve ever done."
Grade 12 student Greg Martin of All Saints – which placed third in the country last year – says the team aspect of improv is the most rewarding.
“It’s not very often where you find yourself with a group of people where you can literally read their minds,” he says.
“It’s so fulfilling to have a group of people who you can share everything with, and because of that you can achieve things like this”, referring to the gold medal around his neck.
Al Connors, regional director of the Ottawa improv games, says there is no other high school event with such a national scope. Xavier Forget, associate producer of community programming at the NAC, agrees.
Forget says he’s “quite pleased” with the relationship the improv games has with the National Arts Centre. He says the 750-seat theatre regularly sells-out, giving the events an “arena-like feeling.”
Connors says he meets hundreds of young people every year, and witnesses their evolution.
“It could be that short little shy kid from four years ago is now this beanpole, tall, charismatic improv wonder,” says Connor. “I often get parents coming up to me and saying, 'I don’t know what this student would do without the improv games, their personality has grown so much.'”
The national tournament takes place at the NAC April 19 to 23.