A session of the Canadian Improv Games (GIG) took over the Southpointe Academy Theatre recently as four teams continued its preparation for the Lower Mainland finals in February.
The four teams included Southpointe, South Delta, Moscrop and McMath.
“It was a good evening. There was a varying degree of experience. The kids performed well,” said Southpointe senior drama instructor Greg Kean. “It was like a practice round so the teams don’t go to the competition essentially with no experience being up on stage in front of an audience. For this one they brought mentors or tutors from the Canadian Improv Games who then after the show gave each team some feedback on what they produced for the evening.”
The Lower Mainland tournament starts the first week in February.
Kean said 22 teams will be competing with two teams earning spots at the national finals in Ottawa in the spring.
“There will be five nights and score based on their own criteria and then take the top five for one final night and the top two from there will qualify for nationals,” he said. “Traditionally some of the bigger schools, like Carson Graham, R.E. Mountain, Burnaby Mountain, Kits are the powerhouse teams that have made it to nationals more than once. Since I have been at the school we have been competing in some capacity. This year we have a senior team and a junior team. We would be middle of the pack. If we end up in the top third than that will be a successful year for us.”
Once students return to the Tsawwassen academy after their Christmas break, Kean said they will continue to prepare for the Lower Mainland championships.
“We practice at lunch and after school during the week. Essentially we do improvisation that teaches improv skills and then we try and translate those skills into the specific games that are played in the CIG. They have five different specific games, so every team will play four out of the five games with specific structures and rules. So you have to learn how to be a good improviser first and once you do that you have to understand the nature of the games so you can maximize the points you can get.
“We also want to hope to learn from the practice round we had so we can up our game for the Lower Mainlands.”
