Tech Quotes

My two favorite tech quotes. Tech used to be my favorite time, when I was a stage manager. Now, as an actor, I can’t imagine what’s taking them so long.

Dan Sullivan was directing a production of Romeo and Juliet at Seattle Repertory Theatre. This was a long time ago and smack dab in the early days of electronic hoo-haw making it’s way on stage. One of the scenic elements were these large white sheer fabric panels of various widths. They were hung on bars above the stage which traveled on tracks. The idea was that they track onstage to a fixed point, a micro switch would then trip and they would stop. The same was true for rotation. So, in theory these puppies could float onstage while turning, perhaps pass each other, and land at preset positions which would create ‘rooms’ or whatever.

Well, we were deep into techs and these things were acting up like crazy. The set designer kept explaining, “ Well, you see, the micro switch didn’t trip that time. We think we know why…” and again, “The micro switch that tripped was set in a previous cue and we’re working out how to trip and un-tripped micro switch, should that happen again…”. Finally, after yet another failed attempt at a ‘magic’ scene shift, Dan stands up in the middle of the house and loud enough for everyone to hear says, “Will someone tell me, without using the word micro-switch, what the hell is supposed to happen here!”

Flash forward a decade. Des McAnuff was directing the first production of “The Who’s Tommy” in La Jolla before it made it’s way to Broadway. Yours truly was in the ensemble. The first five minutes of the show is a crazy amount of staging while the ‘overture’ plays. The prologue consisted of images of the war effort at home, soldiers in a jump plane actually leaping through a trap in the stage as if from the air craft, parachuting soldiers being lowered from the flies, an injury, a hospital room, a birth, and on and on. It took two eight-hour days to tech the first five minutes of the musical. At some point during the second day we found ourselves repeating this 30 second sequence over and over again. Nerves were fraying. Des recognized this and offered this up after stopping yet once again, “All right everybody, just one more time and then we’ll go back.” It sounded good, until you thought about it.