Carine Wilson wins high school improv championship

By Fred Sherwin The Orléans Star

A team of students from Cairine Wilson Secondary School have managed to improvise their way to the National Capital high school improv championship and a fifth place finish at the Canadian Improv Games held in Ottawa earlier this month.

Led by drama teacher Jennifer Abma, and Grade 12 seniors Kamila Serra King, Max Frederick and Alec Saper, the Cairine Wilson team beat out more than a dozen other teams to win the city championship.

The secret to the team’s success, which includes two Grade 9s, three Grade 10s, a Grade 11 and three Grade 12s, was their preparation, which included practicing twice a week since the beginning of the school year.

Each tournament is made up of four events. In the Life event each team must present an improvised scene “honestly and sincerely.” Events in a life scene must be dealt with truthfully based on a suggestion from a member of the audience. In Cairine Wilson’s case they had to base their improv on the scenario on the teen secret, “your parents don’t know about your relationship”.

Cairine Wilson chose to base their sketch on the scenario that the teen got a tattoo and didn’t want their parents to find out.

In the Character event, each team had to perform an improvised sketch based on a character trait. The character trait the Cairine Wilson team as given was “poetic”.

The third event is the Theme event. At the city championships Cairine Wilson was given the themes “change” and “control”.

The fourth event is the Style event in which the Cairine Wilson had to perform their improv in the silent film genre which required the percussion talents of Evan Simcoe. A member of the audience was asked to name a location and they chose a jewelry store.

The common thread in all four events is that the subject is completely chosen at random by a member of the audience.

After the subject is chosen each team is allowed a 15-second “huddle”, during which they can briefly discuss the upcoming scene. They then have a maximum of four minutes to present their improv. Each scene is then scored by a panel of judges.

After winning the National Capital title, the Cairine Wilson team took part in the Canadian Improv Games which were held at the National Arts Centre from April 7-8. They placed fifth out of 18 teams competing from across the country.

Although Kamila will be graduating this spring, she plans to volunteer as a coach next year to help the team defend their title.

“I have to come back and help out the Grade 9s. They’re like my little babies,” says Kamila who has been the defacto mother on the team.

Although this is first time Cairine Wilson has won the National Capital championship in a long time, they do have a rich history in the genre going back to the late 1990s when the brother and sister duo of Al and Desiree Connors led the Cairine Wilson team to backto-back titles in 1996 and 1997.

Al Connors went on to become an actor and co-artistic director of the Company of Fools as well as the national director of the Canadian Improv Games.