Life in theatre is not easy, by any means, no matter what your role in a production is. I mean it, whether you're a technician, a performer, in front of house, a part of the creative team, etc, working in theatre can be difficult in a way that audience members and non-theatre people don't always understand. But that's part of life--if you don't know the many facets that go into creating a work of art, you won't really recognize the intricacies of a lighting design, or necessarily understand how many runs it took to get a transition to look so smooth; you won't know what a cue is, or think about the hours that went into the publicity for a production, or the endless nights spent in rehearsal. And it's okay not to know or recognize, but it means the world to theatre-people when you do see it and celebrate it. But as I said, most often, working in theatre is a thank-less job. However, those of us who do it, love it for some odd reason that I'll try and explain here.
To make things clear, I am primarily a stage manager and a theatre technician. I can build a set, or hang a light plot, run your automation, help an actor with a 20 second quick change, or transform a set before your very eyes. I'm versatile--but what theatre technician isn't? We all have one thing we're very passionate about in the realms of tech, but most technicians have a lot of skills and they put them to use constantly. Mainly because we're working constantly. When I said endless nights of rehearsal, I wasn't joking. At least 4 hours a day will be spent in rehearsal if it's a college production; that number at least doubles when it's a full-time job.
There's also the added time during tech, which is basically a week of multiple 12-hour days, followed by dress rehearsals and then the opening of a show. Tech is the time when all of the technical aspects come together to make the performance--when all of the lighting, video, sound, automation, puppet, and run crew cues are brought together into someone's book and then practiced over and over until the sequence is perfect. It's an extremely long and arduous weekend, where everyone involved spends half of their time rushing to get it right and then the other half waiting for the next opportunity to rush. As my boss likes to say theatre is all about the "hurry up and wait." But again, we all love it somehow, and couldn't imagine a life doing anything besides; despite the long hours and complex rehearsals and meetings and endless piles of paperwork and spike-tape, so many people have chosen to make a career and life out of theatre.
Trying to discern the why is multi-faceted, but relatively simple, at least for me. First, I'm good at it. But second and more importantly, I found a family that could not be found elsewhere. There's something to be said about spending a month or more with the same group of people, working towards a common goal--I never come out of Tech not feeling a camaraderie of sorts with my co-workers. Over shared cuddle-sessions in the green room and bags of frozen grapes snuck between scenes, these people become a family and even months after the show is over, everyone still knows that they'll support each other no matter what. Because they understand what it's like to have over 1,000 video cues in one show, or have complex transitions that have been run over-and-over-and-over for seven hours straight, and or to constantly check their run sheet, folded to the point of ruin and covered in pencil markings indecipherable to anyone but themselves. It's a shared experience that brings people together, and that's what I love about it. Because amidst the hellish hours, there are endless jokes, cast parties, secret buddy gift exchanges, and traditions to bring everyone together. While we all have personal reasons for doing theatre, there's always a secondary explanation given: the people. I do theatre because of the people I meet and the connections I make. Like I said, my fellow technicians and theater-practioners are my family in a way, that despite all of my words so far, I really can't describe.
Another reason, though, is because it is magical. Knowing that you had a part in creating such a huge work of art is really empowering. Theatre can change lives just as much as it can entertain--it can make you think about social issues and question yourself and your identity. There's also something satisfying about pulling off these "magic tricks" of technical aspects that leave the audience gasping in wonder and questioning long after the show finished, especially when you know that it was you who designed that video, or who pulled the invisible string on a piece of paper, or you who created an aurora borealis across a starry backdrop on stage. Sometimes even more magical, the fact that you were on stage almost as much as a an actor but no one ever saw you, or you are the actor and you just spent hours bringing an audience into the story and making them believe in what they're seeing.
In my opinion, creating art is one of the most rewarding things a person can do in life, and that's part of why I love theatre, because it's such a specific kind of art that can do so many things. And beyond my love of theatre, I love the people who make it happen even more so. So here's to designers, the technicians, the front of house magicians, the actors, and everyone who gets there hours before a show and leaves hours after who have come together to make something magical. While not everyone will know what you've done, you created art and you've changed someone's life.
