Tech

Tech is short for technical rehearsals. By the way, learned something new today. Velcro is short for Velour Crochet, nice huh?

We ‘teched’ 9 to 5 yesterday and today for a ninety minute intermission-less piece. Technical rehearsals are the series of rehearsals where the technical elements are integrated with what has been happening in a rehearsal hall for weeks. The set is up, the lights are hung, the ‘real’ props are present, along with sound, costumes and special effects.

My wife asked me today what in the sam hell we had to tech with this production of Greedy. Here’s a partial list: Moving scenery, scene shifts with furniture and rolling units moving this way and that, multiple drips from various spots in the ceiling, constantly dripping into pails; an actor shot-gunning a beer; an actor taking blood from another actor; a breast pump attached to an actor which produces a trickle of milk; an actor throwing three punches to the face of another actor, producing a bloody lip, an actor wrapping another actors head with saran wrap and leaving it in place for more than 70 seconds. Plus the usual lights, sound, quick costume changes etc.

As an actor, tech rehearsals can be horribly tedious. Stopping while the lighting designer writes a cue, that type of thing. For my money the opera world does much better with this part of building a production. Granted, there is much less “interfacing” with the technical elements and the diva, (stride to center stage and sing) but the technical folks spend hours by themselves with stand-ins building cues, working out scene changes and everything else they can think of before they call in Domingo or Battle or Hampson. “Miss Von Stade, would you mind standing in your light while we work on this cue?” Would never happen. Not in a million years.

As a stage manager, which I once was, techs are loads of fun. Finally, after weeks of rehearsals, where you are watching actors fumbling around, indulging themselves in ‘process’ and asking for fresher coffee, you get to strap on the headsets and start calling the shots. As soon as the designers give you all the information about where to place the various cues, it’s your show, baby. Ok, Kathleen Battle is still center stage singing like an angel but you are the one that brought the curtain up, and made the wall move, and turned on the special so she would shine. You were part of it.

I have so many favorite tech stories. Did you know it took two eight hour days to tech the first five minutes of THE WHO’S TOMMY? One very well known director, after watching these dancing curtains flail and stall time after time finally stood up and yelled, “Alright, will someone tell me, without using the word micro-switch, what the hell is supposed to happen here!” Another famous director, after running a transition over and over again, called out to the cast and crew, “Everybody, let’s do this one more time and then we’ll go back”

Sometimes I miss my headset.