What is Tech Week?
Tech week is the time between when we get into space and when the show opens. Put-in can be Sat and Sun or just Sun, and opening can be Thurs or Fri, so the overall schedule of tech week varies slightly depending on how much is accomplished during put-in and when opening is.
A not-atypical schedule for tech week is:
Sat: Papertech, Beginning of Put In
Sun: Put In, Q2Q
Mon: Tech Rehearsal
Tue: First Dress
Wed: Second Dress
Thu: Opening
Q2Q and all subsequent rehearsals can be shifted a day later in the case of a Friday opening, allowing more to be accomplished before Q2Q.
A Relatively Comprehensive List of Things to Do During Tech Week
The purpose of this page is to get a relatively comprehensive list of things to do during Tech Week. The goal is not to list all and every aspect of the production during the last two weeks, but to get a list of things to things that often fall into the cracks.
Audience Plans
- Seating Plans: Someone, usually the TD, has to formulate a plan for the audience plans. There are various arcane regulations about the layout of the aisles. I cannot find the setup at the moment, but the best I can do from memory is:** Aisles must be 36” wide if there is audience on one side, and 48” wide for both sides
- There can be no more than 7 chairs between any one chair and the aisle(that's 8 seats if there is a aisle on one side, and 15 if both sides)
- Any chairs that are more than 16 inches off the ground need audience rialings
- There must be an unobstructed path from the chairs to the doors, with no stage area in the way.
- There must be 36 inches of unobstructed space in front of the first row of audience. Masonite counts as open space.
- There should be 32” from chair back to chair back.
- Chairs are approximately 17” across.
- Platforms: There are two types of audience platforms in general use: Germans and Butterflies. Germans are 1m by 2m, and can hold about 2 rows of 2 each people each. Butterflies are 6 feet by 8 feet, and can hold 2 rows of 5 chairs each.** Butterflies can only be set at one height
- Germans can be set at a variety of heights. Some of them are at preset intervals, and some of them require the use of additional pins.
- Platforms can be obtained from CAC. Make sure that butterfly steps and German hardware are around
- Pretty much all audience platforms(any chairs not on the ground) should have toe rails. This can be pretty much anything - 1×2 or dexion is best, thicker pieces of wood will also work. Audience rails can either be borrowed from MTG(they're in the scene shop in Walker basement) or built. The difficult part is to make sure that the railing are stable and must be reinforced below the seating platform to avoid wobbling.
- Make sure that all platforms that vary in height by more than 10” have a step present, and that it is firmly attached.
Booth
When setting up audience, or in preparation for Q2Q, you need to find a place for Booth. Consult with SM, LD, and Sound Designer for where would be best. SM is probably the most important. Dedicate at least 2 high german platforms for use as booth, and make sure that it has a toe rail and steps.
All cables running around the stage floor should be taped down with nice Gaff tape. If it is running across an enterance or an aisle, then it should be taped down completely along the length. Any hanging tables should be glow taped
Headsets
Headsets are located in the dimmer closet, in one or two milk crates. The system consists of one control box, a collection of headsets, and a set of cables (Official type unknown). Headsets should be located at booth and wherever runcrew will be be (typically either in the dressing room or the kitchen).
Front of House
Make sure that you have an extra plastic table, with a table skirt, available for front of house. In order to run box office, you will need:
- A cash box, with change. You can get $1 bills from Bank of America in the Student Center, and will typically need $200 - $300 dollars in change, assuming we still charge $6 for tickets.
- Programs. Printing takes a long time, so don't do it right before the show.
- Reservations transferred from the internet into a physical piece of paper. Consolidated into one list is useful, and alphabatized would be especilaly sexy
- Tickets. These are printed at copy tech. It's probably bestif you get them printed when you get the posters printed. Talk to June MIlligan. Also see if they'll cut them for you-it's quite the pain if you have to cut them yourself. Templates can be found in the Ensemble Locker. Good luck getting them to work.
Lobby 10 Booth
Contrary to the name, this does not always happen in Lobby 10. Make sure that you reserve a space, the earlier the better. This can be done through Virtual EMS. Everyone involved in the show is typically required to sign up for some number of hours. Do your best to get everyone to sign up. Starting at 9am can be tricky for some, so it's usually helpful to send out a reminder each day, just so veryone's aware of what happens. There should also be an Officer of the Day. Make sure that they're doing they're job as well. Needed at booth are:
- The Publicity Board, so people know what group is being advertised
- Show Posters, so they know what show is goint up.
- Postcards, so they remember what show is going up.
- Reservations Binder, so they can reserve tickets for the show
- Tickets and Cash Box, so they can buy tickets for the show
- Shot Glasses Toothpick Holders, so they remember us fondly.
To make life easier, all this should be stored in one spot in the office during prod week. That way we don't have to get CAC to let us into West Lounge every morning.
Backstage
This encompasses a huge range of things. It's intent is basically to list the things that make the parts of Sala that aren't the stage or the audience look nice.
Neatness
- The first and most obvious point. Clean up. Yes it's Tech Week and you're hosed, but try to compact all the tools and random junk around into some corner that's out of the way and out of the audience's view. Make sure there is nothing in the audience and nothing near the doors. This last is also relevant for fire code.
- In places where actors enter and aren't blocked by the blacks, place an Othello screen there. Typical places are the entrance from westlounge and in front of spacedock.
- CAC has a bunch of green screens that are useful for blocking views where being black is not crucial.
Blacking out Sala
- Having appropriate lighitng backstage is a big help. This includes a lamp at booth(there should be a clip lamp with a blue gel over it in the office) and light for actors backstage. On some occasions we've had a dedicated stage light for the backstage area that's just on dim for the duration of the show. Alternatively you can use the lights under spacedock. They're controlled by the lightswitch on the column north of space dock(jst the normal switch, not the panel. That controls the house lights). If half of the spacedock lights are blacked out(paper or black foil taped over the light works great) and half are gelled blue (gel the light not the waffle) that is incredibly useful.
- Hanging blacks is described in all-about-blacks But make sure that they are clipped together with binder clips to keep them unified, and make sure that they cover all the relvant parts.
- The curtains on the border of Sala should be closed, both for looks and for blocking out the light It might also be worth binder clipping them together as they have a tendancy to flop open.
- The windows on either side of both sets of Sala doors need to be blacked out. There are many methods to do this
* Plywood. The cross pieces in the windows can be removed by pulling straight up and pieces of plywood inserted. MTG has two black pieces that fit under spacedock that we could theoretically borrow.** Black shower curtains. These can be purchased from Shaws for $2 each, and can easily be taped up.- Black Paper taped all around. You can buy rolls of it from Artists and Craftsman. You'll need at least 3 rools to cover the 4 windows, and 4 would be easier.
- The windows in West Lounge should be blacked out. This is more for the decency of actors. The shades don't actually block people looking. The best solution found so far would be to use the black shower curtains.
Helping Actors
A couple random points here, on things that need to be done.
- One of the doors on the north side of Sala squeaks. Figures out which one it is and label it with a great big 'N', or 'NO' or 'NARN'
- Make sure that there is a path through the kitchen for actors to walk through
- Anything sharp and generally in the dark should be covered
- Avoid glow tape, but use it when necessary