Tech Week! What is it?
Scrooge! Debuts on December 2
November 30, 2022
Tech week has started at RMHS in preparation for the fall musical, Scrooge!.
Tech week is the period before the first show where all the tech crews and the cast come together to put together all the individual work they have done so the show can be rehearsed with all the moving parts. Tech week started November 14 and will run through the start of the show on December 2. “It doesn’t have to be a week, like this year we have two tech weeks where we focus on all of the technical elements. Up to this time, although all of our crews have been working, it’s been kind of separate,” English teacher Ms. Murphy, technical director alongside Mrs. Cunha, explained.
There are many different crews that help with many different parts of the show. “We have the core construction crew, which works on building the sets that you see,” said Ms. Murphy. “We have our electrics crew who does all of the lighting you see, sets it up, cleans our instruments, gets everything patched and ready to go. We’ve got our sound crew which consists of creating the sound effects for the show sometimes from scratch, helping with microphones, and making sure that everyone can be heard. We’ve got the lighting crew which will do spotlights and the operation and design of the lights during the show. We have our deck crew which runs all of the scene changes and things of that nature. We’ve got our costume, hair and makeup crews which operate backstage to make sure that everything you see is absolutely beautiful.” Ms. Murphy stated. She summarizes the amount of work the crew does by saying, “If you can see it or hear it, it’s done by a crew member.”
A crucial job to ensure the crew does what they need to is the stage manager. Senior Emelia Burns is the stage manager for Scrooge!. “I chose this job because it was given to me in my junior year by Mrs. Cunha, and I’ve done it twice since then, and I love it so much, and I love having a deeper connection to the club,” said Burns. Although the job is very busy and stressful, it is vital to the show running properly. “If the stage manager wasn’t a role, we wouldn’t have a show, which is a lot of pressure, but it’s really nice to know that a lot of people are relying on me,” she said. Burns’s main job as stage manager is to call the cues for the show, which signals either actors or crew members to do something. “At the beginning of the season, I just watch the show, get familiar with it, make sure the cast knows where to be at what time, but now it’s getting to the point where we have to write the cues, and I have to get familiar with calling them,” she explained.
On Saturday November 19 and Sunday November 20, the “cue to cue” portion of tech week took place. “Cue to cue is when we go through each of the cues – lights, sound, deck – to make sure that they work for the show and fix what doesn’t work, and then we run the show as many times as we can with all the different elements,” states Ms. Murphy. All the different parts on stage and backstage come together during tech week to create the production of Scrooge! that will take place on December 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th, and 11th.
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