~Destination Imagination 2015-16~
Ethan and I have had an incredible time participating in DI. This was my 7th year of DI, and Leo's 6th. We've both benefited so much from this program, especially this past year!
Before I get started, here are the links to our previous DI posts by year: 2008-9 and 2009-10 and 2011-12 and 2012-13 and 2013-14 and 2014-15.
This year our challenge was to:
- Present a mystery story set on Earth in a team-chosen time period before 1990.
- Discover, live on stage, which of the three suspect characters is responsible for the mystery.
- Include a TechniClue that helps solve the mystery.
- Present in the style of traverse staging.
- Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.
We decided to write a medieval parody based on the Legend of the Sword and the Stone. We had so much fun learning to speak in the medieval dialect and researching the time period in order to incorporate it into our presentation.
First we had to design and build our backdrop. We decided we wanted to make it a medieval book. We cut stones out of 100 square feet of styrofoam which was donated to us by a furniture store.
Our 'styrofoam blizzard'
We nailed canvas onto a wooden frame Ethan made out of 2x4s and painted it black. Then we hot glued on the styrofoam stones and sealed them with modge podge.
Every good medieval backdrop has a suit of armor, so Ethan offered to make one out of cardboard.
Cardboard Armor
Jon made chainmail out of soda pop tabs for us. This took about 6-7 hours to complete, as he had to bend each of the tabs individually and then slit them and attach them to each other!
Next came working on our techniclue. Ethan is our 'technical' team member, so he built us a mechanical wooden table. It operated via levers, pulleys, and weights. We nailed a tablecloth into the levers on the side of the table so that when you pulled the tablecloth it released the weights, activated the pulleys and caused the crystal ball to 'magically' rise out of the middle of the table.
Our first team choice element was our scenery; our second was our music! Jon learned the mandolin so that he could play it during our skit. He came up with some music and Noah wrote the lyrics. Ethan played the tin whistle for our introduction music. Jon and Noah also came up with a rap sequence.
Meet the Cast...
Jon aka Rob, our narrator who is always ready to lighten up the story with some music
Ethan aka Geoffrey, our King Arthur figure, who pulls the legendary butter knife out of the bread
Asia Grace aka Beatrice, our 'Visagothic' princess. She'd be the first to tell you, "Belike, I don't do the whole excitement thing."
Siobhan aka Paige the Page
Noah aka Edward, replaced by Geoffrey as king
Lily aka Megan (not Morgan!) le Faye
We placed first at our regional tournament and went on to compete at States. We then won 1st place out of 40 teams in NH and qualified to compete in DI Global Finals 2016. Thanks to many incredibly generous friends, family, and businesses, we were able to participate in this amazing event.
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