Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

On the day of the talent show itself, we had our last practice for the bamboo percussion at 3pm, back in the boardroom. It was a little disconcerting to hear the acoustics of our notes in the enclosed space again, so my timing in particular was a little off missing my cues that I had almost memorized last Wednesday.

The singer of the first two stanzas of our first song also wasn’t there, so we had to rely on “5-6-7-8” before I played the first note of the first song.

We finished the practice an hour afterwards, and then there was the long wait for the program to start.

Not surprisingly, we started at about quarter to six instead of the 5pm listed in the invitations, although the stage and the seats were already set.

I was surprised there were two white plywood screens constructed for the projectors, instead of just using the large bases of the two pillars as we had first planned. I guess they found some downside to the set-up.

Other than that it was probably the technical side that really needed the extra work.

When I set up my video camera on its tripod near my cousin’s seat, Randy, the head of the Information Technology Center and, I guess, technical director for this production, suggested connecting it to the other projector (the first projector was for the computer.

My cousin joked that since it was now an official video, he should get a certificate of participation also.

It turned out that the best dancers among the students I had seen practicing all the past few days were also the emcees, along with two faculty members. They just ad-libbed most of the time though, and didn’t mention the titles of the songs the performers would be singing, or dancing to.

There was also no stage director, because the emcees themselves would page the next performers to come up on stage. Maybe I’ll volunteer for that next time, and suggest a general rehearsal, so that people would know the act before theirs, and be backstage on time.

Another hitch was the matter of bringing a microphone up to the top of the steps (where the piano was) every time someone would play there.

On video at least, the performers at the start had dark faces because they stood too close to the footlights. The EVP told me to run backstage and ask the emcees to correct that.

Our number wasn’t the last one, but the dancers in the unlit stage wearing black with the glow sticks around their limbs were at least visually well thought out.

The projector was only well used for the ending, when a sing-along of the alma mater song was played. It was three repeats though, instead of two that I thought, and I shouted too soon at the second set of “hail’s”.

Maila and Ronnie’s video performance also didn’t push through because editing hadn’t been completed. Well, next time, I guess.

That’s all I remember for now. As usual, I’ll just add what I remember belatedly to the next posts.