“Charlie the Chocolate Factory” takes a twist at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, as Chef Oopsie Doopsie (an oompa loompa) overthrows Willy Wonka and decides to use the factory for a dinner party instead.

But things soon go awry for Chef Oopsie Doopsie as his guests begin reacting poorly to his concoctions (including hair toffee), and at the last moment Chef Oopsie Doopsie decides to pursue his true passion instead: becoming an opera singer.

Joy Chen ’27 , Claire Yang ’27, Viola Que ’27, and Julia Li ’27 and Luna Xu ’28 competed and performed this skit from May 21–24 at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Michigan. Odyssey of the Mind is an international competition encouraging students to use creativity in a theatrical performance that responds to one of five prompts, while incorporating STEM or literarature-related topics. This year, the PHS team chose the prompt “Classics...Cooking with Books,” where they were challenged to create a skit based on “an original chef character inspired by classic literature.”

In addition to creating the skit, the team also had to create props and costumes out of materials totalling no more than $140, which led the team to use recycled materials — using cardboard and construction paper to make large green wigs for the Oompa Loompas and a mechanical lazy susan to present the dishes.

The largest part of the judge’s final score are the creative aspects of the skit, which encouraged the team to think in a different way than usual. Que noted that some of the most engaging presentations came from younger competitors in the elementary and middle school divisions.

“[In] Odyssey of the Mind, you think in a different way — like [someone] at a younger age. I think as you get older, in high school, [you’re] afraid to be judged,” said Que. “[But] when you do Odyssey of the Mind, anything goes. If you want to do something, you can do it, and nobody’s going to judge you, even if it sounds silly.”

The team began each session with a brain dump, coming up with ideas, trying out different possibilities, and dividing up the work according to the strengths of each member. Marcus Strum ’27, a member of a different team in the PHS Odyssey of the Mind club, noted the strong work ethic of the team that qualified for Worlds.

“Before the competition, there’s typically several working sessions at people’s houses and script writing sessions over FaceTime. The team that went to worlds this year worked all day going into a sleepover,” said Strum.

Throughout the year, the team fundraised for their event and journey to Worlds through GoFundMe and chocolate bar sales, as the trip was not supported financially by the school.

“It was unfortunate that for all the hard work we [put in that] we [weren’t] able to get funded by the school on our trip, even though we were also going to be representing Princeton High School at [an] international competition ... with thousands of people,” said Que.

Although Que admits that the team was initially unfamiliar with Odyssey of the Mind, their experience at Worlds, where they ultimately placed 25th out of 38 teams in their category, has energized and motivated the team to perform even better next year.

“It’s made me excited for next year, because I [realized that] if I put my mind to [something], I can make whatever I want, and it can be a fun experience. If you want to make something really cool, like, mechanical gadget, or a robot ... [I realized] you can do it,” said Que.