Behind every show there’s a lot of rehearsal. Eventually those rehearsals lead to the two worst words any actor can hear: Tech Week, which is also known as hell week. Tech week is the week before the opening of any show, where every day you’re doing at least one full run of the show with lights, sounds, costumes, and everything the show will entail. Everything goes wrong during tech week, between actors not knowing their cues, the pit not knowing a song well, lighting cues at the wrong time, you name it, it goes wrong. But if things don’t go wrong during tech week, is it even a good show? If you want to know what REALLY goes on during those endless rehearsals, you’re in the right place

1. Everyone is sick

Everyone seems to get sick during tech week. The leads have strep; some dancers have the flu, etc. Eventually the whole cast gets sick because you’re constantly around each other. But you can’t miss rehearsal during tech week so backstage you will find enough medicine to cure an army.

2. Two words. Throat Coat.

Throat coat is basically the biggest blessing for anyone in a musical. When you’re singing nonstop for hours each day, your throat will get sore and scratchy. You can’t avoid it. So every actor will have their own cup of throat coat, a type of drink meant for helping your vocal cords. Also there’s lots of steam because if you aren’t drinking throat coat, you're using a personal voice steamer.

3. No sleep. At all.

Tech week rehearsals often go from early in the morning to late at night. So nobody is getting any sleep. When you walk backstage you’ll see actors sleeping in the weirdest places for something as small as a five minute nap.

4. Everyone hates each other

The cast is together of endless hours every day with no sleep and no break from each other. Even though the cast is like a family, during tech week we want to kill every single person, especially if you mess up something because your mess up means everyone else stays longer.

5. Becoming strippers

There’s so many quick changes that backstage sometimes looks like a strip show. Everyone gets really close really quick as a result.

6. Notes

Every actor's favorite moment is when the directors get everyone in a room to tell you every little thing you’re doing wrong. (Please sense my sarcasm.) Although notes are beyond helpful and we would be nowhere without them, they get so long and sometimes so repetitive that we want to smash our heads against a wall.

7. Mental breakdowns

Every person in the cast will have a breakdown during tech week because the amount of pressure is crazy. Seeing people backstage crying isn't even abnormal.

Although tech week is hell on earth, our proudest moment is seeing the audience on opening night. So next time you see a show, or have a friend in a show, take a moment to think about all of the work we've done!