Swinburne Grand Opening Rehearsal Session
One of the main reason for starting this blog is to let everyone know about the ‘latest happenings’ of Swinburne. If you have been in campus in the last 2-3 weeks, you have probably noticed that everyone is very busy with the preparation of the Swinburne’s Grand Opening! So we (the Swinburne’s Bloggers Community) have decided to cover the whole event for you in this blog starting from today.
Right now I am blogging semi-live (I’m using my diary instead of a laptop) from the Swinburne Auditorium to cover the Rehearsal of the Students that are performing on Block C (Open Air) after the opening ceremony. So here is how the current layout of performances is like: There are in total of twelve performances out of which 5 are Solo (signing), 3 Duets, and 4 dance performance.
Performance 1: Japanese Song
The first performance was a Japanese Song by Nabilah, Anastasia and group. Well basically for me there was no way for me to verify whether what they were singing was actually ‘Japanese’ or not…but the song was indeed very melodious and pleasant to hear. Both of the lead vocalists have beautiful voice and good sense of rhythm.
Suggested Improvements:
- Since there are three vocalists, I think they should be provided with Three Separate microphones.
- I think this performance would be perfect if played somewhere in the middle of the event. It’s not a good selection as the opening performance because it’s better to play something ‘popular’ to get the initial interest of the audience.
Performance 2: English Song by Abdullahi (Nigeria)
There was a delay of 10 mins before this performance actually started. The performer was nowhere to be found at first….. But later everyone realized that he was actually at the back stage. The performance was pretty good overall. Just there were some issues with the microphone….and the MCs were a bit lost.
Suggested Improvements:
- Stage Assistant/Runner should inform every performer about their performance beforehand. This will ensure a smooth flow of the program.
- MC s should coordinate with the runner/stage assistant so that they know who is performing after whom and whether they are absolutely ready.
- The PA System Assistant should know which music to play for which performance. The best way to ensure a smooth flow of performances is to burn all the ‘music’ to be played in one single CD!
Today they kept on changing CDs and laptops…after every single performance which was kind of annoying.
Performance 3: Traditional Dance
Next up was a traditional dance performed by Lennie Sim and her group. There was some initial hiccup with the music; however the dance went pretty well overall. However I think not all the dancers were aligned properly in terms of their dancing ability. For instance it’s a common practice to highlight the good dancers by putting them in the middle or In front, so that the audience sees them first rather than the ones who had less practice or are nervous.
Suggested Improvements:
- Align the dancers according to their skills. Present the best ones in the middle or in front.
Performance 4: Malay Song
After the dance performance, Faraliza sang a beautiful Malay song….titled …..err…I don’t know …I didn’t catch the title..But all I can say is it was a damn good performance. She has excellent control over her voice…and the crowd really enjoyed her performance…
Suggested Improvements:
- She wasn’t properly centered on the stage and was looking at only one side of the audience. Maybe it’s her style, however Its actually a good practice to face the audience face to face to get the maximum attention.
Performance 5: Dance sport Club
After farah’s performance, dance sport started with some serious rap dance…everything was going really well and then there was a sudden ‘PAUSE’….I’m not sure what happened but it seemed like the music simply ended there……Well hopefully we’ll be able to see the full performance on the main event day itself.
Performance 6: English Song
I didn’t really catch the title of the song, but the performer – Stacy (hopefully I got the name right) is supposedly Gab’s cousin. She has a beautiful voice and excellent showmanship! She later performed another song with Farah…
Performance 7: Malay Song
A duet by Farah and Stacy…….awesome performance….but there was an awkward pause in the middle (while the music plays for quite some time)…. Maybe instead of just standing there…they can move around a bit…
Performance 8: Flying Without Wings
This guy was simply brilliant, he sang this song without any music or instrument and it was just great. He was having hard time reading the lyrics though… Sadly…I didn’t catch his name properly…
Performance 9: The BB (or the Baby?)
A Free style rapper, did a rap about Swinburne..and his life @ kuching. Simply brilliant!
Performance 10-11-12
All these 3 performances were by our African students. The MC had no clue of their names and he kept on saying “Lets welcome our African friends from Africa”….which was kind of funny. I think it should be made mandatory for every performer to give their real name or stage name to the MC.
So overall it was all good. However there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Some of my personal suggestions are:
- Change the order of the performance in such a way that you can retain audience at all time from the start until the end of the event.
- Both the MCs were NOT prepared. Well it’s not their fault as one of them were not even been informed about this event until TODAY. But anyway, they should really prepare a script and follow it accordingly.
- All the necessary music/songs should be burned in 1 single disc for easy access.
- The performers should be informed beforehand about their performance by the runner…this will ensure that the performers aren’t surprised when their name is called on stage!
- There is always a problem with “Sound System” in Swinburne. There should be someone dedicated to look after it while the event is ongoing.
- The MCs should follow a Time line and proceed accordingly.
Anyway I am really looking forward to see the actual event. I hope you are too! Join us live @ Swinburne opening ceremony on 23rd Aug 2008. We will be doing some interviews of some of the senior management staffs, lecturers, visitors and students along with some detailed review of the new campus.
