What about a "tech week"??

Question

hello! who knows anything about the "tech week"?? i think to understand (correct me if i am wrong) that it's a break week for actors who are preparing a show so they have a break between a rehearsal and another one... is it right? who knows more about it?

Answer 1

Tech week is the opposite of a break! It's the last week before you open, in which all of the ancillary elements of a show -- lighting, set, costumes, makeup, pyrotechnics, animals, or whatever -- are added to what the actors, director, and choreographer have been spending the last few weeks on.

It is frequently a hellish experience. Actors are necessary to the process -- you can't light an actor who isn't standing there --but they have to take a back seat to the technical elements. It doesn't matter that the technical elements would be worthless without the play the actors are performing.We have to stand around while instruments are focused, we repeat the ends of scenes innumerable times to get the lighting cues right, etc. etc., etc. And nothing goes right the first time!

Of course, it is also the time when actors get used to incorporating all of these elements into their performance. But it is a week that is frustratingly focused on craft, not on art. While the two must always go together, tech week emphasizes the craft side of it, and usually leaves all concerned very exhausted.

Answer 2

Tech Week, as the other answerers have noted, is often very unpleasant for the actors. It's often known as "heck week" (though without the Yahoo-Answers-Safe euphemism).

Minor adjustments of technical things often take a very long time. A light may have to be moved, which means getting a ladder, moving the light, and getting the ladder off stage before continuing. Or the color may be wrong, which might mean re-gelling the light (or many lights), or changing an actor's makeup, or other solutions, and the director might have to stop everything to talk with the technical director and the makeup artist and other people.

You often end up going over the same scene repeatedly to make sure that a sound cue happens at the right time, or that an actor finishes a dance in exactly the right spot for a light to hit her. You may discover that all of your careful blocking is upset by a set piece which wasn't there in rehearsals.

So it most surely is NOT a break for the actors. Tech weeks are famous for having rehearsals run late into the night because of unexpected problems.

Mind you, this is what happens at a big theater, with a lot of tech and professional performances. Smaller theaters often have less tech to deal with, though if the technicians and actors act unprofessionally it will be just as unpleasant (or even more!)

Answer 3

Tech week generally goes hand in hand with hell week. What this means is that the actors and the tech crew get together and fix up sound cues and light cues. This is called the tech rehearsal. Stage directions are noted down and the tech crew tries to portray the actors as best as possible. Rehearsals go on for hours on end typically 3 to 4 maybe even 5 hours. The whole show goes on. We also have dress rehearsals with makeup and all the effects. Backstage people handle scene changes and the entire production is timed.

Answer 4

Tech week generally involves the actors as well as the technical staff in my experience. It's a process by which light cues are set and scenery moves are worked out. All of the technical details are worked through in tech week and in every show I've been in, the actors were required to be there. In the portion setting sound cues the actor is usually required to sing or speak at full stage voice, but for the most part, the technicians are interested in where the actor is and when.

Some things are repeated until the cues are set to everyone's satisfaction and that can be tedious, but if you spend the time developing your relationships with the other characters, you'll be doing yourself a favor and time will go by a bit more quickly.

Answer 5

A tech week is not a break for the actors, but actually the time when technical aspects of the show are incorporated to the acting. (think Lights, props, set, costumes, ect).
It can be a VERY long process, depending on the show and what technical aspects there are to work out.
While it is true that tech week is more focused on tech than acting- it is also true that the actors need to be there!

Answer 6

Tech Week is the week before a performance in which the cast and crew come together and have the final dress rehersals. These rehersals are usually very long, usually 3 or more hours.

Answer 7

All of the answers are pretty much accurate, although Cranach needs to be reminded that without the tech the actors would be standing naked, on a bare stage, in the dark.

Answer 8

i am up for that :) you name the date..

Answer 9

Tech week is where lighting crew and stage managers get used to what they have to do and work out the kinks. You still hafta reherse usually.

Answer 10

Beckah has the correct, consice answer.

Steven Wolf