In the past, the statement “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” has been heard before entering the gym auditorium, but this month’s Star Wars Rally on Friday, March 7, displayed grand improvements to the show’s execution.
“I’m gonna honestly say that the past rallies have been a bit of a loop-de-loop, just the same thing over again,” Jason Le (12) said. “Sure, they had different themes, but it was just all the same thing as in promoting the sports teams [and] the atmosphere for all the previous rallies just felt like a routine. Though, this [rally] was a big step up from previous rallies.”
Major complaints students shared about previous rallies was that at times it was too drawn out, unengaging, lacked purpose, and had poor audio quality, which had affected the show’s ability to be focused on by students.
“We don’t have a lot of rallies every year, [yet] usually to me it just feels like we’re kind of pushing everyone in a room and it’s kinda hard to get everyone to concentrate [with] that many people,” Anusha Sivadalla (12) said.
This rally would improve on these issues. Before students entered, the lights were shut. As they were seated, United Student Body (USB) members tossed glow sticks to audience members. In addition to the glow sticks, which made the bleachers shine like a galaxy, bright moving headlights transformed the show to be more concert-like.
The rally began by drawing the curtains and revealing the projection of a parody opening of Star Wars —with its signature “Duh-dun-da-duhnnn” trumpet anthem— introducing the skit segment hosted by USB member Jeremiah Park (12), who was in charge of the skit’s script, and AP English Literature teacher, Ms. Wei Yeh. The duo played as rebel fighters travelling the galaxy.
The event’s programming consisted of a recurring order of skit segments and Ayala’s sport teams and other student bodies, Ayala’s Dance Productions (ADP) performances, and game activities.
While this order seems consistent with prior rallies, what distinguishes March’s rally from previous ones is structure. Typically, the structure of rallies had focused heavily more on the speaking portions, and reading long lists of athletes’ names and dialogue had led students’ attention to diminish in the stands. This rally addressed this issue by shortening speaking portions and allocating more time towards the dancing and game portions.
And while the skit segments were cut shorter, there were still intriguing moments. One moment incorporated the use of a projector which displayed a vivid hologram of the new USB Advisor Mr. Reams who also advised Park and Yeh on their journey across space. Most notable of moments was when Principal Mrs. Diana Yarboi marched to the stage center donning Darth Vader’s armor, wielding an ominous red light saber.
“We were able to collaborate a lot with choir and theater and use some of their technology and it let me build more engaging and interactive elements into the script that we haven’t had before,” Park said.
When it came to rally games, to incorporate a stronger engagement with the audience, not only did they get VIP members on stage as they usually do, but they also had VIP members run up to the bleachers to quickly retrieve audience members for a game where VIP members had to find people who fit a specific description given. Not only were audience members retrieved from their seats, they participated in a game of Simon Says. This was the first time that audience members outside of the VIP seats were able to participate in a game activity.
The final game involved audience members finding puzzle pieces to put together to reveal the awaited theme of this year’s prom. Quickly, contestants scrambled across the gym to find the pieces. “Night of a Thousand Lights” was announced.
The results of these changes speak for themselves: there was a notable decrease in the amount of students who were distracted on their phones in comparison to previous rallies—students seemed to be genuinely entertained by the quality lights, glamour and action this rally brought.
“When there’s no teacher around, people will just go on their phones because they don’t know what else to do,” Sivadalla said. “But [this rally had] definitely less phone usage. You can tell by how much light is shining on peoples’ faces.”
Though this rally had been much more successful than prior ones, some students still believe that much more could be improved on.
“There were some cinematic moments regarding the dances and the general atmosphere with the blackout and all, but overall I feel like there could be a bit more coordination on all fronts such as teachers and students regarding their own scripts where things generally didn’t feel that rehearsed,” Alvin Tsai (12) said. “Some parts of [decoration] were still just the same level as the last rally showing that they weren’t really trying to reinvent themselves.”
With the next rally being the last of this year, will USB be able to give us a grand finale topping this rally?
