October 1 and 3, 2010

Debajehmujigjig was invited to participate in an outside wilderness conference for the Manitoulin Health Unit, in which they needed actors to develop a variety of medical emergency scenarios for groups of health care professionals out in the wilderness.
 

The scenarios included third and second degree burns, a broken leg after falling off a cliff, gunshot wounds, severe dehydration and anaphylaxis shock. WilderMed also requested an Improvisation Show the Friday before the date of the conference.  The students of the NAAAP program worked with Bruce Naokwegijig all week learning new games and exercises to play for the Improv Show.  Bruce even started to get into character work for the wilderness conference to prepare them for the Sunday part of the conference. 
 

The students performed their first Improv Show on Friday to a crowd of about thirty people. The morning of October third came early as all students woke up at 6:00 am so that the team could arrive on set for make-up for 7:00 am.  After two hours of special effects make-up for the burn victim, gunshot victims and the person with the broken leg, the students were ready to begin their scenarios. 
 

There were five teams of about six to seven people who consisted of surgeons, nurses, paramedics, fire fighters, psychologists, med students, etc.  The group participants assessing each scenario came from many areas in which they call home; such as Manitoulin Island, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto and even as far away as Sri Lanka.  Before the teams left camp they were each given a compass, a map and the coordinates of each location for all the scenes.  Each team had a time limit of fifteen minutes to access each medical scenario.  
 

The whole exercise lasted for four and a half hours and was a great learning experience for the people participating in WilderMed and also for the students of the NAAAP program. The reality based nature of the scene work gave it an eerie quality and was very different then acting on stage or in a film. 
 

(Written by Teddy Syrette, NAAAP Student)