How to Run a Flawless Tech Week

Every director knows tech week can be a triumph or a tragedy. When tech goes right, a production leaps off the stage and is ready for an audience. When tech goes wrong… well, let’s just say that it’s time to stock up on aspirin and antacids. So how do you make sure your tech week is happy, healthy, and headache-free? Most of it happens BEFORE tech week!

Plan

First and foremost, make sure you have a plan in place well before tech week starts. You should have the foundations of your technical elements in mind as part of the normal process of choosing a show. In fact, the technical elements of a production should always be a fundamental consideration in your play selection process. The concepts and designs for any show you choose should align with the skills of your workforce, the limits of your budget, and the capabilities of your space. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, technically speaking, by choosing a script that is beyond your capabilities to produce. Once you’ve decided on a show, keep your designs and technical expectations within the reasonable limits of what you can successfully execute, and you will remove a great deal of stress and doubt before you ever have your first rehearsal.

Prepare

Once you’ve decided on a show, start preparing for the technical elements as soon as possible. Whether that means purchasing additional building materials or haunting thrift stores for the perfect props, start preparing for tech as soon as you can. That includes asking your students to be on the lookout for important technical elements as well. As a teacher, there are not enough hours in the day, and once tech week hits you will not have time to drive around town looking for that ONE specialty item that will make or break your show. Strive to be prepared for tech week BEFORE it begins so you can spend your time integrating and refining your technical elements, not desperately searching for them at 10 o’clock on a school night.

Teach

Every show is new, and learning how to tech a show doesn’t happen by accident. From figuring out how to properly shift scenery to learning when to call light cues, your students will need to learn the technical elements of a show, and it’s your job to teach them. If you have students who have experience as running crew or board operators, you can quickly get them up to speed and give them the responsibility to solve problems as they arise. Teach them what needs to be done and delegate to them the training of their fellow students. However, if you are a newer teacher, or if you have a cast and crew of inexperienced students, plan on spending more time teaching your students both how the equipment works AND how they will operate it for that particular show.

Trust

The last element of running a flawless tech week is recognizing that there is NO SUCH THING as a flawless tech week! Most directors are control freaks at heart, and it can be very difficult to see all your hard work and planning go down the tubes as you watch both experienced and inexperienced techies struggle through the learning process. However, keep in mind that tech week is a learning process, and that process is just as important, if not more important, than the final product that the audience sees. Sure, tech week can be messy: Issues will arise, mistakes will be made, cues will be missed. But in the end, trust that your students will rise to the occasion and perform beyond your wildest expectations. Trust that your students will band together, work as a team, and bring the best show possible to the stage. And most importantly, trust that what they learn in the process will be beneficial to them long after the final curtain drops. That is something everyone can be proud of!

Additional Reading:
Tips and Tricks for a Less Stressed Tech Week
The Last Few Weeks Before Showtime