Elizabeth Glenn is the Regional Producer for the Newfoundland region and has been involved with the Canadian Improv Games since her student days. After six years of competing in junior high and high school, she transitioned straight into volunteering and has now been part of CIG for over a decade. She is a huge fan of The Games! Outside of her work with CIG, Elizabeth is an intermediate and secondary school teacher in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

How do you balance your personal life with your volunteer/coach/trainer commitments, and what motivates you to keep showing up?

I find that’s a very interesting thing for me, because every single aspect of my life is connected to education somehow. Whether it’s through my job as a teacher, working at the environmental education center, or with CIG, every single aspect is connected to education in some way. I have this love for teaching, and really that’s what keeps me coming back to the Canadian Improv Games. But there’s something so special about the CIG programming in the way that I really, really believe in: how it has a space for everyone. It really lets our students be who they are, completely authentically. And I just love improv education! It’s so different. It takes the skills you’re learning maybe inside a classroom and allows people to adapt it in any way that they want. So it’s the students. That is 100% what keeps bringing me back: just getting to see people in their zone. It’s so different from a lot of other extracurricular activities, and it’s really heartwarming to see a student who maybe hasn’t found an area that fits them, and they haven’t really found their thing, and they come into improv, they come to a Regional Tournament, they get to meet other teams and then they get on stage and then they realize this is my thing. This is what I like to do. This is what brings me joy. That’s what brings me joy: to see people find their place, and of course, I’m going to come back. Of course, I’m going to volunteer, because I keep getting to help make incredible experiences like that happen. 

What does ‘showing up’ mean to you in the context of your role with the CIG?

As a Regional Producer, it’s really easy to get lost during a tournament. There’s so many things that are happening. There’s so many moving parts that you have to be aware of. And it’s so easy to just get zoned in on things. That’s why I think it’s so important to make sure I’m taking time to actually enjoy what’s happening on stage, and getting to watch scenes. It’s so much fun after the night of play to talk to students about the scenes that they did and be able to say, “You’d made this really fun choice,” or “This is my favorite line that you had.” So I really, really value actually getting to watch the improv that’s happening.

There’s something we borrowed from the Nova Scotia region this year, which is the practice of Line Of The Night. We have a couple of volunteers who are dedicated to watching the scenes and writing down interesting quotes — maybe it’s a thing that made us laugh, maybe it was a really creative choice — and we give our Line of the Night awards to every team at the end of the show. It really embodies our idea of “loving competition”: one team takes away a trophy, but every single team is going to take away beautiful memories from the things they did, and this is a way we’d like to highlight that. Last regionals, I was giving away these awards and announcing them, very professionally. And then I got to one of our junior high teams — Junior high is my favorite thing to watch ever because it is that beautiful intersection of creativity and fearlessness. They’re not afraid to be weird. They’re the silliest people on stage. And I love that. So as I was giving this Junior team their award, the line was something like, “I’d prefer a fork,” — something just really goofy that would only be hilarious in the context of an improv show — and I had the certificate in my hand, and in front of the entire audience, all of our students, all of our teachers, all of our coaches, all of the volunteers, and I burst out into laughter. I quite literally couldn’t keep myself together. I was crying and belly shaking while the kids had to wait in anticipation. It was the most genuine reaction I think I’ve ever had at an improv event. So I really love that practice that we started. Because it really just helps me stay focused on what these games are all about: students having fun and making really cool choices. 

You’re an alum of the Regional Program, but also of our National Festival and our summer programs! What do you love best about those programs?

I love the feeling you have when you go to Nationals or ImprovCamp, when you’re meeting people from all over the country who are mostly strangers, but we all have that thing that connects us. It just makes it so much easier. You know these people instantly. The first time I went to Nationals, it was like, oh my gosh. Newfoundland is a smaller place — you probably already know people from the other teams — but at Nationals, these are all strangers, but it doesn’t feel like they’re strangers. All I could think was: wow, there’s people like me all over the country. They get it. They do the exact same thing that we do. It’s the same with the summer camps. It’s so easy to make friends in CIG programming because you have that thing in common. I think it really fosters a welcoming environment. It’s a place where people are encouraged, just through our improv training, to say yes and accept things. It’s all in the Oath –  to cooperate with one another, to commit ourselves to the moment, and have fun!

I think that the CIG really helps people take those skills from improv and apply them to real life. And it just makes getting along with people so easy and so fun. It kind of removes that veil of awkwardness or timidness, or fears of, am I going to fit in? Are people going to like me? It just takes those away and you can go straight to getting to know people. So I think having that programming at a regional level makes big events at a national level so much easier and very fun. 

If you had one message for potential donors considering supporting the CIG, what would it be?

I would say that to donors of the Canadian Improv Games that are, you know, obviously any donation you make is worthwhile. But with the Canadian Improv Games, I really, really believe that our programming truly means something to students. It means something well they’re a student in The Games, but it also means something to them after they graduate, and when they’re an adult, and when they’re going off on any adventure life takes them! The lessons that you learn while you’re a student in the CIG are something that are going to stay with you for the rest of your life and impact you in a positive way. So if you’re looking for a way to positively impact teenagers and youth and give them something that’s going to genuinely change them, I would say consider donating to the Canadian Improv Games. Because we’re doing that!

This fall, we’re calling on our incredible community to help us reach our goal of gaining 100 monthly donors through the Show Up for Canadian Improv Games campaign. As a registered charity, the CIG relies on your support to keep enriching the lives of youth through improvisational theatre. Your donation, no matter the size, will directly contribute to sustaining this life-changing program. Are you ready to show up for the next generation of improvisers? Click here to become a CIG monthly donor today and help us keep The Games alive!