Starting high school can be challenging enough for some youth, but if your school has an improv team or drama program, you’re encouraged to give it a try.
Vanessa Laplante is a grade 12 student at Bernice MacNaughton High School, and she is a member of the LowLadies.
They recently competed at the Canadian National Improv Games in Ottawa.
She says going into high school was the scariest thing ever, “For the first year, I sat alone. I didn’t talk to anyone, but with Improv and drama, I can now go out and talk to whoever I want. I’m not scared to make a fool out of myself. It’s amazing, to be able to have this new found confidence that I never thought I would ever have.”
Laplante says when she found the Improv team it helped bring her out of her shell, “Going to your first competition and everyone is screaming when you walk in, you feel like this is the weirdest group of people you’ll ever be in a room with. Next thing you know I am singing in a crowd of people. I don’t sing! But, no one says, hey, you’re weird. It’s the way to be. Everyone is weird.”
Jayden Taylor is also is grade 12, but she knows the skills she has learned, she will take them with her,”Social anxiety is something everything has. When you know to go in front of a group of 50 people and make something up, conversations are so much easier to have with people. You make stuff up as you go, and I think that’s a really underrated skill to have.”
Bernice MacNaughton High didn’t take home the prize from this year’s Canadian Nationals, but they’ll be working hard to qualify again next year.
