Long Term Problem Summary-Seeing Is Believing

Introduction

It is common to fear the unknown. This fear can often lead to avoidance or the inability to act. However, brave explorers,

scientists, and everyday people have proved that conquering the fear of the unknown can lead to great achievements. What

if we never sent a man to the moon because we were afraid of what we’d fi nd? ...or across an ocean? ...or even at the other

end of a telephone call? Our world would be a much smaller place. In this problem, OotM teams have the opportunity to

show what can happen when we let curiosity overcome fear of the unknown.

The Problem
The problem is to create and present an original performance about a community that feels threatened by something

in a location its members have never visited. They will then use a team-created method to select one or more Travelers

to visit and explore the location. While at the location, a Traveler will send a message home to convince the community

that there is nothing to fear. The performance will also include a narrator character, two rhymes, and a moving set piece.

The creative emphases of this problem are on the performance, the community, how the Traveler is selected, the

rhymes, and how the set piece is designed to move.

The Spirit of the Problem is for the team to create and present an original performance about a community that

feels threatened by something in a location its citizens have never visited. The community uses a team-created method

to select Travelers to visit and explore the location, where one of the Travelers sends a message home that there is

nothing to fear. The performance will also include a narrator character, two rhymes, and a set piece that moves.

Limitations

The time limit for this problem is 8 minutes.

a community.

may be portrayed as anything and in any way.

must be a group of inhabitants living in the same location, whether real or imagined.

something that is believed to exist in a different location that causes the community to feel threatened.

The location:

must be portrayed as being a different place than where the community resides.

can be any place and set in any time period. It does not have to be a location that currently exists.

one or more Traveler characters that visit the location.

may be portrayed as anything and in any way.

will be chosen by the inhabitants to visit and explore the location.

will be shown in the performance leaving the community and traveling to the location.

will send a message back to the community while at the location.

a message sent by a Traveler back to the community.

a. can be depicted as being sent/received in any way.

b. must be seen and/or heard by the judges and audience.

c. will convince the community members that there is no reason to feel threatened.

a narrator character.

a. may be portrayed as anything and in any way. It can be integrated as a character in the performance if the team wishes.

b. will explain to the judges and audience the reason the community feels threatened.

two rhymes.

a. must be delivered at different times during the performance. One rhyme must be about the Traveler’s visit to the location.

b. must be different from one another.

c. may be delivered in any way, that is, spoken, sung, written, etc. as long as they are observable to the judges and audience.

a moving set piece.

a. must be one item that is part of the stage set.

b. must move without any direct human power.

c. must be visible to the judges and audience as it moves.

d. may move as many times or for as long as the team wishes.

the signal the team will use to indicate it has finished its performance.

Program Guide