Dry run? 排练

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence, with “dry run” in particular: For those uncomfortable with public speaking, dry runs are key.

My comments:

Clearly, this is a piece of advice given to people who are about to make an important speech or about to become a public speaker altogether.

The advice is: If you’re uncomfortable to speak to an audience, you should practise doing it a few times before actually delivering a speech to an actual audience. It’s important.

Practise, that is, via dry runs.

And that means you should read your speech a loud a few times, pretending you’re speaking in front of an audience.

Or better still, you should perhaps gather all your family members and friends and pretend they’re the audience you’ll face on the big occasion.

That’s what dry runs means here, meaning drills, exercises, dress rehearsals and the like.

In other words, practise, practise, practise because everyone knows practice makes it perfect. Practising in real situations makes it even more so, I guess.

Dry run, by the way, is originally a fire-fighting term, describing drills and exercises fire fighters do in order to improve their speed and generally hone their skills.

Literally “dry run” means they run everything without actually carrying water – so that everybody gets to stay dry afterward, i.e. without getting wet, muddy and messy.

All right, here are media examples of “dry run”:

1. A dry run is an essential check before any event or activity so as to be fully prepared for all and any outcomes. A dry run is equal to a fire drill. The firemen do not do the drills to induce stress to themselves but rather do it to be prepared so as to reduce any stress that may arise on an actual fire job.

The kind of dry run is mainly limited by the kind of event you are organizing. The major dry runs to do are two.

Technical dry run

This test is usually done on the technical equipment you intend to use on the actual event. That may include lighting, sound and special effects.

This allows technical guys to test their equipment and do any necessary changes to their layout such as lighting angles.

Logistical dry run

This is usually where the team can practice doing the events they will do on the event day. This may include going through the menu, decorations, table and seat arrangement, mixing the cocktails and all other events.

Types of events that benefit from a dry run

All events benefit from a dry run but there are some that it is essential to do a dry run before the actual event. Below are some of the events that benefit from a dry run.

i. Music concerts;

The crowd attending a music concert expects the highest level of competence from the event planner and organizers. Any mistake is a disaster for the event planner as the crowd will give a negative review of the event.

ii. Theatre performance;

This is the sector that benefits and requires dry runs. In theatres the actors must rehearse their play, test their costume and do a whole rehearsal of the play before the event day.

iii. Live performance;

A live demonstration of an upcoming product for a company usually requires a dry run to ensure the demonstration is a success to widely promote their product. Nothing is more embarrassing as a live demonstration failing while your target audience is watching.

- Importance of Dry Runs, Contena.co, December 5, 2019.

2. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, an outspoken opponent of President Trump, accused the president on Monday of sending federal forces to riot-plagued cities as a “dry run for martial law.”

Durkan appeared on CNN’s “Outfront” Monday with host Erin Burnett. “You’ve previously said you didn’t want or need help from the president or the federal government in everything that’s happening,” said Burnett. “Does anything that’s happened this weekend make you reconsider that?”

“We don’t need the help that the president’s offering, and in fact I think the president actions directly escalated and were responsible for what happened this weekend,” Durkan charged. “Many people who were interviewed by media said they came to the protest because of what’s happening in Portland.”

“The protest itself was billed as something in solidarity with Portland,” she continued. “And so today I requested the Department of Homeland Security, since there were no actions directed against the federal properties here, to ask them to remove the standby team that they have because I believe it has escalated things here in Seattle. We’ve seen violence night after night in Portland. We don’t want that happening in Seattle.”

…

“He’s clearly targeted cities ran by Democratic mayors, he’s said so himself,” Durkan continued. “He’s using law enforcement as a political tool. I hate to see it, Erin, but I really believe that we are seeing the dry run for martial law. This is a president that’s using law enforcement and federal forces for political purposes and that should be chilling to every American.”

- Seattle Mayor: Trump Sending Feds Is ‘Dry Run For Martial Law’, DailyWire.com, July 28, 2020.

3. Two brothers arrested for an alleged attack on Jussie Smollett told Chicago police how the ex-“Empire” actor orchestrated the hoax, telling them via text message to meet him “on the low,” paying for supplies and holding a “dry run” in downtown Chicago, the lead investigator testified Tuesday.

Taking the stand as prosecutors began their case against Smollett, former Chicago police detective Michael Theis said he initially viewed the actor as a victim of a homophobic and racist attack and that police “absolutely” didn’t rush to judgment as Smollett’s defense attorney alleged during opening statements Monday.

Theis said roughly two dozen detectives clocked some 3,000 hours on what they thought was a “horrible hate crime” in January 2019. He said they were excited when they were able to track the movements of two suspected attackers using surveillance video and cellphone and rideshare records.

“The crime was a hate crime, a horrible hate crime,” Theis said, noting Smollett – who is Black and gay – reported that his attackers put a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him. He said the case had become national and international news and that “everybody from the mayor on down wanted to know what happened,” a reference to then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Smollett is charged with felony disorderly conduct for making what prosecutors say was a false police report about the alleged attack. The class 4 felony carries a prison sentence of up to three years, but experts have said if Smollett is convicted it’s likely he would be placed on probation and perhaps ordered to perform community service.

After police arrested Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo – brothers who also worked on the “Empire” set – as they returned to Chicago from Nigeria, the men said Smollett wanted to stage the attack because he was unhappy about how the TV studio handled hate mail the actor had received, Theis said. He said investigators checked out the brothers’ account, including that the actor picked them up days before the attack and drove them around the area of downtown where he lived and talked about what would happen, and corroborated their version of events using GPS, cellphone records and video evidence. Police found no instance where they concluded the men were lying, he added.

Jurors were shown surveillance video of the brothers buying supplies, including a red hat they told police Smollett wanted them to wear to resemble supporters of then-President Donald Trump, and a piece of clothesline later fashioned into the noose.

“At the end of the investigation, we determined that the alleged hate crime was actually a staged event,” Theis said, and the Osundairo brothers were released.

- Detective: Brothers said Jussie Smollet held ‘dry run’ before staging hoax, Associated Press, November 30, 2021.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣   编辑：丹妮）