Compiled Reports from Productions.pdf

7/30/2019 Compiled Reports from Productions.pdf

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Annual General Meeting Report

56th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall


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Annual Report from Chinese Drama 2012/2013

General Comments

For Chinese Drama, AY 12/13 was filled with breakthroughs, challenges and excitement.

Before the academic year starts, the Steering Committee revised our vision and mission to make

sure that we have a clear goal at the very beginning. Based on the new vision and mission, 2 new

initiatives came into place: Weekly Drama Screening (7 sessions) andActing Workshop (8 sessions).

We also introduced the idea of having members taking up double position in Chinese Drama to make

better use of our manpower and talents.

The Weekly Drama Screening is an event that opens to the whole hall. Our purpose is to provide an

opportunity for the whole KE community, especially Chinese Drama members, to watch and discuss

some of the most famous theatre productions in the Chinese theatre arts. It not only serves as a

bonding time for our members and other hall residents, but also helps them to better appreciate

theatre arts.

The most exciting thing one can do in Chinese Drama is to be an actor/actress. However, very few

people can have the chance to perform on UCC stage for our final production. To bring the

wonderful acting experience to more members, we initiated the Acting Workshop that all interested

members can participate in. On the one hand, more members can gain the experience of acting. On

the other hand, our Director had more chances to observe potential actors/actresses and train them

before making the final cast selection. It worked very well this year and we had wonderful actors and

actresses for our final performance.

The recruitment process was very exciting. We had over a hundred residents signing up as well as a

few external talents. After the recruitment, we had a one-day orientation to encourage team

bonding as well as introducing our community and culture to the new members. From ice-breaker tostation games and short play presentation, our members not only got to know each other, but also

had a first taste of what drama is like. After the orientation, we divided all new members into 2 ICN

groups and had 4 volunteered ICs. Each lead by 2 ICs, our new members produced 2 short plays for

ICN under the supervision and help of our senior members. This helped us to identify leadership

quality in new members and allowed the new members to try out production positions like sound,

lighting before they where streamed into different production departments.

For our biggest event, the annual production in February in UCC, we chose to try a completely new

type of drama ---- comedy. After script discussion and several sessions of stage design, our Director

and Designer came up with a very creative stage design (100% original) in which we need to build 2

layers of platforms in order to differentiate the social classes presented in the play. In addition, the

production difficulty of the play was never seen in the history of KEVII Chinese Drama. Due to the

requirements from the script, we had to handle special effects like pizza falling down from the

ceiling or actor pretends to hang himself. We did a lot of experiments on the special effects, and the

final outcome was amazing and won numerous praises from our audiences. Our actors/actresses

trained very hard starting from the first semester, and we had 6 rehearsals before entering UCC. All

the hard work paid off when we finally delivered a great show for our audiences!

We also had several breakthroughs for our public relations. First, we reached out to NUS Chinese

Drama for the first time in history and 3 of our core members participated in their forum theatre

conducted by professional theatre practitioner Li Xie. That experience gave our creative team a lot of

inspiration and new knowledge. We are also very proud that our final production was featured in

Lian He Zao Bao as well as NUS ArtZone, which brought our presence to a larger audience. Inaddition, thanks to Hall Master and our Public Relations members, the VIP list this year was highly


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influential: including Mr. Nick Shen, a celebrated Singapore actor; Ms. Zhou Jianpin from the Chinese

Embassy; Ms. Lim Hai Yen, an ex-Keviian and professional theatre practitioner; and Dr. Zhou Zhao

Cheng, Lian He Zao Bao Chief Editor. We received very high comments from our VIPs after the show

and we were very excited about that.

Major Events for the Year

Major Events Date(s)

Weekly Drama Screening Week 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 (Sat/Sun), Sem 1

Orientation 9th

Sep

Acting Workshop Part I Week 6, 7, 8, 9 (Sat/Sun), Sem 1

ICN 1st

Nov

Acting Workshop Part II Week 10, 11, 12, 13 (Sat/Sun), Sem 1

Members' Photo Shoot 27th

Oct

Rehearsals 18th

, 19th

, 26th

, 30th

Jan; 2nd

, 7th

, 13th

Feb

Campus Publicity

(poster pasting, banner hanging)Week 3, Semester 2

Final Production 18th

, 19th

Feb (Bump In);

20th

, 21st

Feb (Performance Dates)

Problems Encountered

Though we spent a lot of effort in our productions, we did not do a fantastic job on following up on

our online publicity. As a result, some of our potential audience forgot about the event and did not

show up. Consequently, we did not achieve full house for our first night of performance. We learnt a

lesson on the importance of continuous publicity from the hard way. We hope that our successors

will do a better job in publicizing our event so that more people can have the opportunity of

enjoying our show.

We also encountered a major problem on set building during the production process. As it was the

first time we build large-scale platforms by ourselves, there are some imperfections in our quality

control of the sets. During bump in, those imperfections were brought up by the safety officer from

UCC, and we had to do some rework to make sure our sets were up to safety standards. This

severely interrupted our bump in schedule and raised some degree of panic in our production team.

Recommendations for the Future

As we worked towards our mission ofdeepeningmembers understanding of theatrical arts andcultivating their long-term passion through practice, new initiatives like Weekly Screening and Acting

Workshop were brought up to provide our members with more exposure and hands on experience

to theatrical arts. However, we sometimes feel that our ability falls short of our wishes, as we did

not have any professional training on performance arts. Hence we would like to suggest that in the

future, we could collaborate with Hall Play and organize Master Classes conducted by professional


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theatre practitioners. We believe that such activity will bring our acting skills to a new level as well as

give our members a more enriching experience in exploring the theatre arts.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to our Hall Master, the SCRC, 56

th

JCRC, HallOffice staff for their generous support throughout the academic year. We would also like to sincerely

thank other hall CCAs for their cooperation and help, especially KE Vision for supporting our photo

shoot for booklet and poster design. And last but not least, a big thank you to all our devoted

members. Without anyone of you, the achievements of Chinese Drama would not have been

possible. Thank you!

Prepared by,

Ms. Liu Yang

Chinese Drama Vice Head 12/13


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Annual Report from Hall Play 2012/2013

On the 11th and 12thof January 2013, King Edward VII Halls very own Hall Play performed Peter

Gordons Murdered to Death. With a team of talented cast and dedicated members who toiled

throughout the semester, it was an extremely rewarding sight to see the seats at the NUS University

Cultural Centre filled to the brim on both performance nights. But apart from putting up a fantastic

play which received raving reviews from audiences across all ages, Hall Play 12/13 focused on

continuing our long tradition of giving back to the society. Working hand-in-hand with Filos

Community Services, Hall Play members went down to communities in Whampoa and Bedok South

on the 14th

of December 2012 and distributed blessing bags to the needy residents in the

neighbourhood. But Hall Plays forte, ultimately, is in putting up plays. As such, we reserved 10 seats

for some of the children and youths-at-risk whom Filos Community Services reach out to for them to

have a night of laughter and fun and hopefully leave a positive impression on them as well.

Hall Play 12/13 boasted a strength of 98 members across 11 departments1 with many members

involved in multiple departments. Table 1 below summarizes some of the key features of the play

we staged.

Cast Size 10 (5 Male and 5 Female students)

Approximate Runtime 2 hours, divided into 3 Acts

Copyright Agent Josef Weinberger Limited

License cost $200 (in total over 2 performances)

Table 1: Murdered to Death, play details

Murdered to Death is Peter Gordons ingenious parody of Agatha Christie's renowned crime genre.

What starts out as a luxurious house party soon turns into a night of horror as a sweet old lady is

murdered in cold blood. This comedy proved to be light-hearted and yet filled with suspense,

keeping the audience glued to the edge of their seats (if they havent already fallen off from all the

laughter).

As Hall Master Prof. Ho always reiterates at our Hall Play suppers, Hall Play is a great place for

KEVIIans to discover a part of ourselves we never knew existed. The following section will give a brief

overview of what the various departments accomplished as well as some of the problems faced

together with recommended solutions.

Steering Committee

Hall Play 12/13 started out rather shaky as we incurred a huge debt2 the previous year and our

Steering Committee still had many roles to be filled. Determined to bring Hall Play to greater heights,

the Steering Committee (SC) decided to first focus on building strong ties within members in the CCA.

For that to happen, the SC knew that we had to be the change we wanted to see. Instead of only

meeting up for work-related matters, the SC met up on a casual basis for outings that allowed for

the committee to bond and function more effectively as a team. With a clear vision and concrete

1Our 11 departments comprised the Steering committee, Cast, Costumes, Charity-Social-Logistics-

Welfare (CSLW), Set Building, Set Dcor, Tech, Marketing, Publicity, Ticketing and Stage2 This was particularly due to the high licensing cost of the script


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goals set from our very first SC meeting, we managed to piece the different aspects required to

stage a play together.

Cast

Hall Play 12/13s cast comprised 10 brilliant and extremely hardworking young budding actors andactresses and was led by the very talented director, Augustine. The biggest difference seen from

previous years is that there was no divide between the cast and the rest of the Hall Play team. This is

attributed to a plethora of factors of which may be summarized as follows:

1)Influence of seniors within the castSeniors such as the Director, Augustine, and the Publicity head, Annie, actively encouraged

the cast to not cluster together during rehearsals and to help out with the work of other

departments if possible. This fostered much more interaction between members across

different departments and friendships were forged during the process.

2)Greater integration between Hall Play membersOn top of greater inter-department bonding, a 10-man cast also ensured a sizeable pool of potential

ticket buyers, as it is much easier for a cast member to persuade a friend or family members to come

down and watch the play. But our cast members all exceeded the minimum quota of 20 ticket sales,

with our lead actor reserving up to 50 tickets for his friends and family and ticket orders coming in

even one week before the performance.

However, a bigger cast naturally means more work coordinating rehearsals for everyone as well as

more work for the director to brush on each actor and actresss acting skills. As much as this was not

a paramount problem for Hall Play 12/13, we acknowledge the constraints and strive towards agreater balance between cast size and administrative workload.

Costumes

The costume team, led by Man Ting, was relentless in finding suitable costumes for the to match the

setting of the play and to better bring out the personality of each character. Working closely with

the director and assistant director, the costume team brainstormed, selected and refined the

costume choices for each member of the cast. The team also actively engaged other KEVIIans who

were not in Hall Play to help out with make-up for the cast on the actual day as the team did not

have enough man power.

CSLW

CSLW this year, headed by Aloysius, comprised a small, yet highly efficient team. The 2 Hall Play

suppers were planned impeccably well with sufficient food to feed the entire Hall Play team and

food delivery during rehearsals and the actual performances were always on time and tasty.

On top of that, the team met up regularly with their counterparts from Filos Community Services to

better understand their needs and to discuss the areas in which a group of 100 undergraduates

could offer their services to help the community. Much work was put into the organization of the

Hall Play 12/13 CIP on 14

th

December 2012 to ensure that we would render help in the most efficientand best possible way.


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Set Building, Set Dcor, Stage

Intrinsically linked, Set Building, Set Dcor and Stage came together at the start of the work year and

agreed on a common time line. The heads of Set Building, Set Dcor and Stage, Meng Hwee, Fang

Ting and Xiao Yu respectively, worked very closely together and helped each other out extensively.

We have them to thank for the beautiful and structurally sound sets and interior decorations for theplay.

This year, Set Building avoided the mistake of waiting for wood sponsorship and made it top of their

priority to buy good quality wood and start work on building the panels as early as possible. This

gave Set Dcor more time to work on painting and decorating these panels, thus giving them more

space and time for other creative decorative ideas such as a flame in the fireplace made out of crepe

paper and a mini fan as well as a stags head sculpted out of cardboard. Stage could then come in

and mark out specific spots for the actors and actresses to stand in the spotlight and finalize their

stage arrangements better. Despite our early performance dates compared to previous years, Set

Building, Set Dcor and Stage managed to provide a beautiful set without which the play would not

be complete.

Tech Lights and Sounds

The Tech team, led by Maximillian and Hall Play Tech Advisor Tharsan, was extremely effective in

liaising with the UCC technicians, making the final touch-ups during bump in smooth and fast,

allowing enough time for the cast to have a final full dress rehearsal the evening before the actual

performance. Using different filters and varying degrees of warmth of the stage and spotlights, the

Tech team brought out the true intensity of the scene.

Marketing

Hall Play 12/13 also saw greater change as we collaborated our marketing efforts with XQRJ and

Chinese Drama, marketing ourselves as KEVIIs combined productions team under the leadership of

our Productions Secretary, Xiao Yu. Hall Plays Marketing head, Jeremy liaised closely with his

counterparts from XQRJ and Chinese Drama and sourced for sponsorship for wood, paint and

everything else under the sun.

There is much room for improvement when it comes to marketing and sourcing for sponsorship as

companies are less willing to sponsor one particular CCA as they are unsure of the amount of reach

we can generate. Hence, it would be wise to continue discussions for collaborations with the other

production in KEVII as well as the Halls very own marketing committee.

Publicity and Ticketing

Last but not least, the two most crucial departments when it comes to ensuring a full house turn out

on both performance nights, Publicity and Ticketing. Hall Play 12/13s Publicity team, under the

leadership of Annie, brought Hall Play Publicity to new and greater heights with a greater emphasis

placed on advertising on new media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Instead of sticking

to conventional ways of advertising by using posters and banners, the Publicity team took it one step

further and created KE Assassins a brand-new game created from scratch to be played within thehall during dinner time where participants have to guard their lives while stealing the lives of other


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participants to collect a bounty. This game was to be played 2 months prior to the release of ticket

sales and was targeted at increasing ticket sales from KEVIIans. Unfortunately, as the performance

dates were in January, there was little time to iron out all the details and to implement the game.

Future Publicity departments should aim to brainstorm for bold and innovative ideas and seek to

implement them as early as possible to achieve the greatest impact. Boosting ticket sales from our

own halls residents have always been a tough hurdle to overcome perhaps due to the multitude of

productions and performances various CCAs from hall put up hence spreading the demand for

performances more thinly. Instead of relying on JCRC incentives to encourage KEVIIans to purchase

tickets, productions should look to increasing the hype and appeal around their individual shows

thereby appealing to more hall residents.

Ticketing this year, led by Melissa, was faced with a problem productions seldom encounter more

demand than supply. The ticketing team had to actively go around and collect unsold tickets from

members who could not hit their quota of 10 tickets each in order to pass it to other members who

needed more. While it is a good thing for some members to sell many tickets, the fact that some

members are unable to sell 10 tickets to their friends and family is rather reflective of the sense of

belonging and ownership they have about the performance. Future Hall Play Steering Committees

should continue looking into instilling a greater sense of belonging and ownership by encouraging

greater bonding within the CCA and validating the efforts of individual members to the final big

picture cumulating in the actual performance. A good Key Performance Indicator would actually be

having no members returning unsold tickets and that is an aim we are gradually working towards.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our Hall Master, the SCRC, KEVIIs non-residential fellows, Filos Community

Services, the 56th JCRC, Office Staff, Hall Play members and all KEVIIans and members of the

audience for their support and contribution to Hall Play.

Prepared by,

Mr. Isaac Chay

Hall Play Producer 12/13


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Annual Report from Xin Qing Rong Ji (XQRJ) 2012/2013

General Comments

Xin Qing Rong Ji (XQRJ) AY12/13, namely the 15th XQRJ Regional Chinese Song Writing Competition

Organising Committee, has achieved a notable success and exerted a more significant impact on the

region. Being the largest scale production in King Edward VII Hall with strong influence in Singapore

and Malaysia, XQRJ continued to amaze the audience with a gorgeous Grand Final held in University

Cultural Centre Hall on 17th February, 2013.

Financial Status

Thanks to our diligent and efficient Marketing Team, 15th XQRJ has managed to secure $10,980 cash

sponsorship from external parties. This includes $4,000 from Chinese Language & Culture Fund,

$3,000 from Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS), $1,000 from Promote

Mandarin Council, $1,000 from Lee Foundation and $1,980 from other companies. Adding the

income from ticket sales, donation from Hall Master and support from Hall, XQRJ has achieved an

income of over $23,000. With this strong input from Marketing Team and great expenditure cut

from other activities, XQRJ managed to have surplus in the financial statement despite its deficits in

the past two years.

New Initiatives and Achievements

XQRJ collaborated with Bright Vision Hospital, the largest community hospital in Singapore,in organising the annual charity event, Music without Boundary on 9th January, 2013. During

this event, the top 10 finalists of XQRJ put on a professional performance and spent a great

afternoon with more than 30 patients in the hospital. The manager from the hospital gave us

favourable feedbacks and would like to have a long-term collaboration with XQRJ.

The grand scale and professionalism of XQRJ has attracted the attention of NUS Office ofCorporate Relations. With their help and details provided, a news article was published on

Lianhe Zaobao to report the Music without Boundary event and Grand Final on 27th March.

With more than 4 years partnership with Cristofori and Audio-Technica, 15th XQRJ hasextended collaboration with them. A new concept of Live House Concert was brought up by

Cristofori, our Official Musical Instrument sponsor. The first Road Show Live House Concert

was held on 12th January and attracted over 100 passers-by in Funan DigitaLife Mall. Audio-

Technica has also increased their sponsorship to $1,692 of prizes and free rental of

professional microphones in Grand Final.

The 5th collaboration with YES 933 FM, the most popular radio station in Singapore, startedwith a brand new series of interviews. An exclusive session was arranged for the finalists to

talk about their music dreams and promote XQRJ itself.

With the mission of reducing workload of juniors, 15

th

XQRJ reformed the structure andincreased the seniors staying back to 5 leading the committee of 32 people divided into 4

departments (Programme, Design, Marketing and Production)

Together with the 15th Anniversary of XQRJ, a grand reunion was organised during the GrandFinal of the competition. The reunion was highly praised by the seniors of XQRJ and it even

attracted those from the 3rd and 5th batch.

Key Statistics

The total weekly reach of our Official Facebook Page peaked at 21,102. It means 3 out of 10youths in Singapore has seen the posts from XQRJ. The number of Likes on our increased

46% from 1250 to 1827 during the Grand Final publicity phase.

15th

XQRJ received 112 original entries from 73 participants in Singapore and Malaysia. Thesongs are of better quality as compared to last year.


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541 of 787 Grand Final tickets were sold with a 2% growth from last year.Major Event List

Challenges Faced and Recommendations

Misconception and Low Awareness from HallXQRJ has represented and branded KEVII Hall in both Singapore and Malaysia to a great

extent and serves as a breeding ground for future student leaders. However, due to the

nature of the event, involvement in the internal Hall activities is low. As such, many hall

residents misinterpret it as a competition for external participants and have a low awareness

of the events going on. A suggestion will be to involve and increase awareness of this

competition in hall by organising more publicity events in hall, and also to collaborate with

more relevant CCAs.

Lack of Sustainable Ways of Selling TicketsThe problem has slowly emerged that XQRJ does not have a sustainable way of selling Grand

Final tickets. The recommendation would be to seek advice from Hall Master as early as

possible. In terms of event publicity, XQRJ needs to adapt to the current trend and be more

innovative.

Lack of a Sustainable Financial IncomeAlthough XQRJ has a surplus this year, special attentions should be paid to the part of

income classifying as non-recurring income. Members of the following batches should

continue to work hard in sourcing for cash sponsors and have a wider collaboration with

existing sponsors.

Acknowledgements

On behalf of 15th XQRJ Organising Committee, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Hall

Master, the SCRC, General Office Staff and 56th JCRC for their practical guidance, considerable

encouragement and useful critiques of XQRJ. We would also like to thank all the KEVIIans for their

continuous support for XQRJ. Finally, I would like to thank all the 15th XQRJ members for making this

batch one of the most successful XQRJ Competitions.

Prepared by,

Mr Jin Yuhang

Chairperson of 15th XQRJ Organising Committee

Events Date (Aug 2012 Feb 2013)

Mass Poster Pasting and Competition Officially Starts 12

th

OctoberPublicity Booth at KE Bazaar 22

nd 24

thOctober

Publicity Booth at Ark Music Cafe 27t

October

XQ Solution (major bonding session) 19th

December

15th

XQRJ Preliminary Round 28th

December

Members Photo Shoot (major bonding session) 30th

December

Overseas Trip (major bonding session) 2n

January 4t

January

Recording and Photo Shoot for Top 10 Finalists 7th

9th

January

Music Workshop for Top Finalists by Ocean Butterflies Music 7th

January

Music without Boundary Charity Event at Bright Vision Hospital 9th

January

Live House Concert at Cristofori, Funan DigitaLife Mall 12t

January

Grand Final at University Cultural Centre Hall, NUS 17th

February

Documents

Compiled Reports from Productions.pdf