It’s tech week for the show I’m stage managing and yesterday was not pretty. Mic check took about 45 minutes because of SO many mic issues and we got started on our run about an hour late and then the crew broke a set piece and the run was just not good at all. Tech week at its finest 
what is your worst tech week experience?
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just last week i was moved from COSTUMES to SPOTLIGHT the DAY BEFORE THE SHOW. i had to learn how to use it, learn all the cues, and learn how to be on the headset bc i had never been on one before. i only made like 5 mistakes over the 2 shows so im very happy with the outcome.
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Wowww that is insane! Lwk the headset is super fun though and that’s pretty amazing!
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Eeeee we’re on tech week for the show I’m in too!!! Everyone gets a little crazy around this time 
I just got a horrible cold, so I’m trying to recover for our next show (this Thursday 
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Oh noooo! I hope you get better in time for your show!! What show is it?
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The matchmaker! (Non-musical version of hello dolly from Disney 
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I woke up today with what I think is an ear infection, and tonight is the show… So prayers for sure!
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Ofc I’ll be praying! Break a leg!
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Oh no!! Not an ear infection!! I had so many when I was younger. Get better soon! Gl with the show too
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Thank you!!
We have one show left tomorrow night, last night wasn’t my best run but it definitely could have been worse 
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Tysm!! I couldn’t hear very well onstage, but thanks to good ol I ibuprofen it wasn’t painful
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My very first tech week experience with a college olay. It was the biggest play I was in put on by the college and it had community members in it. I was one of the community members.
This college does amazing shows so I was super nervous for being in my first play with them, it was a musical and this was the 2nd biggest stage I had sung on but never singing and dancing at the same time so that was nerve wracking, I was in every single dance scene, I was in every scene minus 3, I was one of the people actually wearing a mic, a had a nasty sinus infection I was getting over and had vertigo really bad, and developed double patellar tendonitis from all the dancing in the 6 inches of sand the brought in to cover the stage that we rehearsed in for the past 3 weeks. My knees were already getting bad since I was a runner too.
Apparently it was finals week for the college and this play was part the students finals. All the students were having study groups for other classes and some were dual enrolled with a sister college not far from here. It was 2021 so just getting out of some of the virus restrictions.
We found out that there was another outbreak on campus, half the leads got scared and didn’t show up for the first day of tech week. The understudies stepped in but the director hadn’t run through with those particular understudies where to go for a couple scenes and those understudies where holding important props for certain scenes so then we needed understudies for the understudies. We had to find masks for everyone too per restrictions. The mics ended up struggling to pick up our voices people were hyperventilating while singing and dancing.
The 2nd day the mics kept falling off in the sand or not working, and we had to keep people from stepping on them and make sure sand didn’t get in parts. The lights weren’t turning on and the light board wasn’t working properly then just stopped working altogether.
The rest of the leads didn’t show up, I ended up in lead and trying to remember the other dance steps and scene and costume changes. By day 4 some leads came back. Mine came back day 5. My youngest daughter wasn’t even an understudy and ended up being an understudy for the youngest lead day 5 and learned all her steps and songs (she knew them for the most part ) learned how to deal with the mic pack for costume changes and having the mic in her hair.
The light board was fixed on day 5 with a new cord and lighting cues were fixed that day. So stressful.
I feel so bad for all the sound and lighting people, all the props and backstage managers trying to keep track of who is supposed to be where and have what and be under which light when, especially when it kept changing due to sickness and finals schedules.
I ended up having to play lead 3 of the 7 performances because my person ended up with the virus. She thought she was just tired from finals and came back during tech week, but turned out she was sick.
My family thankfully didn’t end up sick, but a lot of cast members from the college got sick. I am guessing stress from finals, study groups, ramen diet.
I agreed to audition only because my daughters wanted to be in the play (they were also in as community members) and I said I didn’t want to be a lead character. They asked if I would understudy because understudies rarely have to perform as lead and with my experience I could mentor the lead. I was glad to be a mentor. The virus made life a bit more prickly.
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I will be praying for swift healing and an amazing performance. I hope you have a great time as well. I love the theater. It is so fun. The friendships, acting, everything you learn, just the entire experience is fantastic. I hope it is wonderful for you.
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Oh thank you so much!!
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I really hope the rest of the week goes well and the show nights are fantastic. No one understands how much the sound and lighting engineers do but you are integral to the show. Have fun and enjoy the show!
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Oh my word that sounds awful! Coming from someone who has done lights and sound before, the people who ran the boards must have been so stressed out I feel so bad for them!
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Thank you so much!
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That’s good, I hope your next show goes better! Our first show went pretty well but the second show was super rough, hopefully today will be better!
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They were so stressed. My family sent them dinner for their family a couple nights and they had fresh hot coffee and tea behind the board (not at the board such a no no of course) as soon as they arrived each day just as they liked it. My husband used to run sound and lighting and as soon as the difficulties started I knew they were in for a week. I told my husband and he said let’s do this for them. I found out their favorite drinks and talked to their spouses and made it happen. Since dinner was sent home, their spouses brought dinner to them for tech week and they didn’t have to worry about grabbing fast food and got to see their person for a bit.
The tech people are so undervalued by the people on stage and the people in the audience when things go right and belittled when things go wrong. They have so much stress. Being on stage is super stressful because of all the eyes, but backstage and tech keep the wheels moving smoothly so the stage can do what we do without issue.
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I know there are bad stories of tech weeks, but I personally like bad tech weeks. Bad tech weeks are good. It gets all the kinks out then. You want the bad to happen during practice and tech week, so the shows run how they are supposed to.
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