Windsor teen wins provincial award for play she wrote in two days

A Windsor teen is living every procrastinator's dream.

Chidera Ikewibe, a Grade 11 student at Assumption College Catholic High School, is the winner of a Young Authors Award from the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association with a play she started and finished in one weekend.

"My parents were flabbergasted completely," Ikewibe said.

The play, named "The Rise and Fall of the Fractionalized Nation," is based on the late 1960s to early '70s civil war in Nigeria, where her parents are originally from. It's also known as the Biafran War.

Even though they could have helped her with some research, Ikewibe's parents never knew about the contest until after she won the award.

She saidthe war was not something mentioned frequently in the house while growing up.

"My parents didn't really feel comfortable talking about it all that much, especially because I was so young."

Ikewibe said her play was originally a dramatical production about policebut she scrapped that idea completely when she felt it wasn't any good. As for he new version which won the award, she started that with only a couple days left before the deadline.

While doing the research necessary for the play on which she took a lot of artistic license learning about "the devastation of a country" that was so close to her was "just crazy."

"I was so taken aback," she said.

Hear more fromChideraIkewibeon the CBC'sWindsor Morning:

The school may use her play

The work she's done to complete the play has given her a more in-depth look into Nigeria a place she calls "the diamond of Africa."

The history teacher at her school has also asked her to lengthen the play to 30 pages in collaboration with a student, and the final product may be used as a school play next year.

Even though it's not entirely historically accurate, she said her mother understood her reasons behind not sticking straight to the facts.

"She said that it didn't feel like I was writing about war, I was writing about people. She loved it."