Last weekend, five Year 7 students participated in The Court Theatre's Junior Theatresports Competition. Article written by Ollie Weir, Alana Thompson, Erica Richards, Senara Senanayake and Ava Heath Williams.

On Saturday 6th, November, the team of Ollie, Alana, Senara, Erica and Ava HW participated in The Court Theatre's Junior Theatresports Competition. We represented Merrin and competed against three other schools: Burnside High School, Christchurch South Karamata Intermediate, and Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.

For weeks we practiced on Tuesday afternoons, readying ourselves. We learnt about 15 games in all, but played only three at the competition.

The way the competition works is, there are three rounds: The Blind Round, The Choice Round, and The Challenge Round.

Blind Round

Each team went up and chose a number between 1-6. Each number corresponded with a different theatresports game. We then got a short explanation of the game. Our team chose number 6 and we got ‘Word At a Time’. We received an offer from the audience of 'homework'. An offer is when you ask the crowd for either a relationship between characters, a location, a job, an animate/inanimate object etc. Two players went up, (Ava and Ollie) and said one word at a time to make a story. We made a story about not wanting to do our homework so we tried to eat the homework, *plot twist* the homework then tried to eat us so we locked it in the closet. We scored 6.5 out of 10.

Choice Round

In this round the teams got to choose a game and act it out using an offer from the crowd. We chose the game ‘Meanwhile’. To play this game, the team is split in two, generally with four players, two per scene. There are two scenes acted out that are set at the same time, but are played one after each other. The MC (host of the competition) shouts when to switch between the scenes. Our scene was based around a husband and wife, and a doctor and patient. This was played by Ava and Alana (the son Roddy and doctor/nurse), and Erica and Senara (Man and Wife). Roddy was gravely ill and paralysed from the waist down. He wants to see the world, so he escapes from his bed, the doctor in pursuit, on a whim to travel before he dies. 

Meanwhile, his mother and father decided to visit him in hospital for the important reason of asking what flowers he wanted on his coffin. They realise he has disappeared, and try to contact him on various devices, only to find they had no idea how to use them. Eventually they found their son sprawled on the floor, crawling away from a panicked doctor. The doctor warned them to not mention that he is going to die, though the parents did not listen and pressured him to pick the flowers they use in his funeral. They end up dragging Roddy off the stage. We scored 7.5.

Challenge Round

In the challenge round, we were given the challenge of ‘theme park’, and chose the game 'pop-up storybook'. In 'pop-up storybook', 4 players form static scenes and the narrator explains what’s going on. We did a story about a teacher called Veronica who was staking out a theme park so she could see if it would be a good field trip. Veronica asked another parent about it, but the other parent ended up having a nervous breakdown while her child tried to sell his boogers.

Whilst we didn't win, we came a really close second just 0.5 points behind the winning team - Burnside High School. We are really proud of coming so close to winning.

The Performers Opinions

Senara: "I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere was not at all tense or competitive, you could tell that everyone was here to have a good time and show off what they had. My favourite round was the Choice Round, because I really enjoyed the scene we played. All the hosts/judges were funny and gave helpful tips/feedback at the end. I had fun with my friends and I hope I can do this next year!"

Ollie: "I really liked participating in the competition, despite the fact we didn’t win. I really liked doing the challenge round because the other teams' scenes were funny, and I think my group works well in a scene together. I felt nervous in my seat but it wasn’t scared when I was up on the stage. I hope that I can do it next year!"

Ava: "It was awesome! It didn’t feel like a competition because everyone was just enjoying themselves, and it was useful to see what other teams did. I also learned a lot from the judges’ feedback at the end. An excellent opportunity."

Alana: "I loved it so much! It was an extremely exciting experience, I’m tremendously grateful I was able to compete in the competition. The judges were super supportive. Whilst we performed I felt as if I was going to explode, however once I had finished the first game it felt natural and I wasn’t worried anymore. I really enjoyed this opportunity and I hope I will be able to compete again next year."

Written by the theatresports team: Ollie, Ava, Senara, Alana and Erica.