Dear people who do theatre,
I’ve noticed lately some misuse of certain words
and phrases for technical rehearsals. So, here’s a public service announcement.
It’s going to be long, but if you do theatre (especially community theatre),
you should at least skim through this, and share it with your friends. You may
be using these phrases incorrectly.
A “tech rehearsal” is a rehearsal WITH THE ACTORS in which the focus is the
technical elements of the production: lighting, sound, sets, props, costumes.
This is generally the rehearsal where these elements are added for the first
time, though there may be some props or costume pieces, etc., that have been
used already in rehearsals. Typically, cast and crew work through the entire
show, often stopping, going back and re-doing some light cue or sound cue or
scene change or quick costume change. You may go back and do a particular cue
several times until it works.
This
can be a long, taxing rehearsal. In the professional (equity) productions I’ve
done, tech is a “10 out of 12” day, meaning it’s a 12-hour rehearsal in which
the cast gets a 2-hour lunch or dinner break. In community theatre it’s often
more like a rehearsal on Sunday from sometime mid-afternoon “until we finish.”
I’ve done shows where the tech rehearsal was broken up into two days, either
purposely scheduled that way, or decided in the moment because it was getting
late and we were nowhere close to being done with tech.
Some
people (and theatres) seem to want to skip this kind of tech rehearsal, and
instead they end up stretching it out over the entire tech week, adding a few
more tech elements every night – even to the point of adding a few last minutes
things on opening night. Perhaps calling that entire week before the show opens
“tech week” contributes to this misunderstanding. It shouldn’t be that you add
the tech elements throughout this entire week, but rather that this is the week
in which you work with all the tech elements. You should plan to have all the
tech elements in place not by opening night but by the tech rehearsal, which
then gives a production several rehearsals between tech and opening for the
actors and the crew to work with and get used to all the tech elements. It also
provides a buffer of several days to discover if something isn’t working and
needs to be changed.
If you’re doing a musical, do not call the band for a
tech rehearsal. It is a waste of their time and your money. (You are paying
them, right? Please, tell me you’re paying them.)
You may run through all of a show during a tech
rehearsal, OR it may be a “cue-to-cue.” This means you work one technical cue –
lighting, scene change, etc. – repeating as needed, then you skip ahead to the
next technical cue. So you skip over bits of scenes in which there is no
technical cue. This is still a tech rehearsal, so THE ACTORS ARE THERE ON
STAGE.
A
tech rehearsal without the actors is called a “dry tech.” This is a rehearsal
with the stage manager, the tech crew, likely the designers and director (but
not necessarily). In a dry tech, you may run or work or fix many of the
technical elements of the show.
I
don’t know if there’s a specific term for when the director and lighting &/or
sound designer(s) sit in the theatre talking about and building various cues
without other tech crew and such. I’d probably call it something like “setting
the light cues,” though it may fall under the category of dry tech. And, of
course, there will be times when the lighting designer and some other tech crew
or other folks are in the theatre physically adjusting the lights, adding gels
or gobos or whatever. I don’t know what that’s called. Perhaps that’s also
within this dry tech category.
A meeting in which the director, light and sound and
costume designers, and perhaps others, discuss the technical elements, possibly
even talking through scene changes, lighting cues, etc., is called a “paper
tech.” No one is actually moving things around or setting light cues and such –
you may not even be in the theatre – but probably people are writing things
down.
A paper tech is a bit like a production meeting,
but it’s specifically about the tech elements for a production. You’re talking
through scene changes and costume changes, lighting and sound, etc. A producer
(or artistic director or board member?) may not necessarily be there, as you
would expect in a production meeting. You won’t be discussing ticket sales, nor
PR, nor casting – none of that stuff.
There. Those are different types of tech rehearsals.
Please start using these phrases correctly. If I’ve missed or gotten
something completely wrong, do let me know. I'll update this.
Okay. Rant over.
(For now.)
