Tech/Preview #1
A great stage manager once said to me, “I’ve never met a director who liked tech.” In some ways, I agree. I can’t speak for Steve, but I have a love/hate relationship with tech. I love that I get to see all of the elements come together — we begin to introduce scenery, lighting, sound and costumes that help flesh out the world of the play. Actors receive props and costume pieces that help add specificity to the business they do on stage; designers get to see what their work looks like in the space and begin to tweak and adjust their designs as they see fit. But, as a director, I’m inherently a bit of a control freak, and tech is the time that we start to hand the show over to a stage manager, so I kind of hate that (no offense, Michelle!). More time is spent working on transitions and run-throughs, and it becomes harder to spend time working acting notes. I also have many more voices to listen to than I did in the rehearsal room, and some times problems that were easily solved in rehearsal take hours to solve in tech (for reasons that are still a bit unclear to me — maybe just because there are more moving parts?).
That being said, this tech went remarkably smoothly, dripping ceilings and all. We have our resident design team reunited for the first time this season, and their work styles truly complement each other. Because our designers and staff have a history of working together, they share a common vocabulary, and it becomes easier to solve problems on the fly. They’re an incredibly pleasant group of people who are supportive of each other’s process. (Just ask our lighting designer, whose light board mysteriously stopped working at the end of Sunday’s rehearsal; Becca had a small army to help her carry out the board, load it in to her truck and, finally, accompany her to the bar.) Our design team has contributed a lot of elements to the production in the last week, and tonight we introduced the final missing element — an audience.
By the end of tech, everyone in the room has seen the play at least five times. We know what happens at the end, we know many of the lines by heart and we’re so familiar with the text that the funny moments don’t make us laugh any more. We’re basically terrible audience members. Some times we’re too busy looking at the details on the set to watch the acting. (Is the color of that wall too dark? Does the fridge need more stuff in it? Does that spot on the floor still squeak?) We’ve reached a point where we’re almost too close to the play and are wondering — Is the story interesting? Is it clear? (I can’t tell any more… can you?)
Tonight’s audience told us that the answer to those questions is a resounding, “Yes!” We told our story to a completely fresh set of eyes and ears and they listened the whole time. We did find that some sections can afford to go a bit faster; others can take more time. Some of the funny bits landed and others didn’t; we’ll continue to finesse the timing of those moments over the course of the weekend. We’ll learn more from each new house and begin to answer the age old question, “Where does the laugh go?” But overall, tonight’s audience was engaged in the story we’re telling, and that’s really exciting to hear!
By the end of Sunday’s matinee, we’ll have run the show seven times in a row. The repetition is also an important part of the process — the actors and crew who run the show need to establish their routines, as they’ll have to do five shows a week through the beginning of November. It takes a surprising amount of stamina to perform this 90 minute play, as you’ll see soon!
See you at the theater,
Lavina
(Dramaturg/Assistant Director)