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Photo by Lynley Gibson

Senior Threatresports Final

Maureen Gaffaney —

On the 23rd of September, the senior theatresports team went to the Court Theatre to compete for the title of the best school in the South Island. It was an opportunity that we almost missed out on but just managed to sneak into by being the Wildcard team. The St Thomas’ team had to compete against five other teams who had gathered from all around the South Island these teams were: Logan Park, Nelson Girls’ College, Hagley College, the scratch team and the winners from last year, Papanui.

Each team had to perform a completely improvised scene for three different rounds. The first round was the blind round, where teams would have to present their scene while playing  with a rule set entirely against their choosing. The second round is the choice round where people can choose their own game, and the final round is the challenge round, where a team challenges another with a challenge like “create a scene where the underdog comes out on top”.

In the blind round St Thomas’ had to perform a Word at a Time story. In this scene two people acting as one have to create a story by alternating words. Romek and Pawel Gall created the narrative of a man cleaning his persistently dirty car with his seemingly unending supply of sponges. In the choice, round the entire team played Gibberish Endowment, where one person has to guess features about themselves which are being endowed by their teammates but there’s a catch, they have to speak an entirely made up language. In the third and final round, we were challenged by the scratch team to perform a scene in which someone “sticks up for the little guy”. With this challenge and the ask for “underwater” from the audience we performed a heart-tugging scene in which a long-dead pirate ghost had to return to high school so he could finally graduate.

After all the teams had finished, we eagerly awaited the results. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take the cup this year, but we came a close tied second with the scratch team. It was Papanui, the winning team from last year, who claimed it for a second well deserved time. Although we were disappointed we could go the distance, we all came away from a great experience filled with happiness and laughter.

The team couldn’t have done this well without the help of Mrs Gaffaney who would spend her lunchtimes helping to coach us. Another big thanks to the Year 11's, Cormac Gallagher and Daniel Fogarty, who came along with us on this journey. The Year 13's are grateful knowing we are leaving St Thomas' theatresports in your capable hands.

Pawel Gall