By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer 

Completing a chore, solving problems, demonstrating knowledge of a famous person and being creative all while smiling within a six-minute span can be a challenge for most people. But for a group of fourth graders at St. John the Baptist Catholic School – it’s just another performance. Duster Bustbunnies: Members of the
Duster Dustbunnies Destination
Imagination team from St. John the
Baptist school finish an improv
perfomance. The team has qualified for
a global competition at the end of the
month.

The work of the Destination Imagination improvisation team, The Duster Dustbunnies, to perfect their quick-thinking skills paid off when they placed third at the state competition, qualifying them for the global competition from May 20 to 24 in Knoxville, Tenn.

“The most rewarding part of Destination Imagination, I think, is making history at St. Johns,” said fourth-grader Sydney Schulberg. “We’re the youngest improv team and the first to get invited to globals.”

The competition will bring in teams from around the world, including Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, North Korea, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey and the United States.

The array of countries competing is similar to the array of tasks the team had to master to achieve their success.

“This activity makes them really think out of the box and be creative,” said Advisor Christine Kelly.

As an improvisation team, the Dustbunnies had to put their imaginations to work in a rapid fashion. Each team is told what specific chore they have to accomplish, as well as the first of two obstacles they have to overcome just 30 minutes before they get on stage. Then one minute before they perform, they are told which famous person they have to display knowledge of during the performance. Three minutes into the six-minute performance, members are told their second obstacle.

The team said getting to the point where that isn’t too overwhelming took a lot of work.

“The issue is time,” said Mikayla Kelly, Christine Kelly’s daughter. “In practice with just the coaches we would get caught up in the characters and lose track of the improvisation and chore parts.”

Christine Kelly agreed, saying the idea is to make them perform on their feet.

The team practiced four times a week. Then, each team member would independently prepare biographies of famous people and become experts on a few different people.

The range of historical figures included Simón Bolívar, the first president of Colombia, to Olympic runner Jesse Owens, to Queen Elizabeth I of England, to Italian scientist Galileo Galilee, among others.

“We would each be an expert on people and have back up experts, too,” said Julia Fox.

Christine Kelly said the characters they chose really ran the gambit from classic to modern.

They also learned some technical aspects of the competition, including sound themes – which can include sound effects or noises a character makes.

In one performance the narrator, performed by Schulberg, announced herself as the narrator each time she spoke with a vocal chime, for example.

“That was the hardest part,” Mackenzie Norton said. “Understanding the sound themes.”

The Dustbunnies learned how to use costumes and props and have tactics in mind to present the way they perform assigned chores. Additionally, they learned how to work together as a team of rambunctious fourth graders.

“We had some problems in the beginning trying to figure out how to have team work,” said Matthew Schroer. “Basically, we had communication issues. So we solved it by coming up with a hand-raising technique.”

Each team member said they grew closer to their classmates and appreciated the opportunity.

“I really like getting to spend time with these people and getting to know them better,” Mikayla Kelly said.

The program at St. Johns has been active for 18 years. The school had a total of four teams this year. The longevity, Christine Kelly said, is due to the benefits it inherently possesses.

“This activity, more so than any other activity I’ve come in contact with, builds character skills,” she said. “They always have to come up with a problem and a solution … they develop life skills to use in any situation and need no matter what they do.”

Their next issue?

“Or next problem to solve,” said Advisor Terry Schulberg, Sydney’s mom, “is to figure out how we’re going to finance the trip.”

 Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.