Theatre can be, and almost always is, a wonderfully rewarding experience. This is not to say that actors, crew members, and designers never make me want to rip out my hair, because they do. But, for the most part, the advantages and rewards of theatre outweigh the shortcomings.
I am currently an Assistant Stage Manager for Eastern Kentucky University’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is fantastic and inventive. We started working on the show at the beginning of October, and our final performance will be Nov. 22. In the past, I have been an actor, a director, a designer, and a Stage Manager, but the roles are quite different when you get into college. Stage managing is a passion of mine, and it fills a void in me that can only be fed with a creative outlet.
What I have just said above is how I feel today. If you asked me what I thought about the theatre last week, I would have given you a completely different answer and here’s why: in theatre, tech week is often called hell week, for a varied amount of good reasons.
Tech week introduces some of the longest, most grueling days of the entire rehearsal process. These days, you will run the show, work scenes, and then go through director’s notes, a process which takes at least six hours. You will encounter a cue to cue, where you will spend an entire day not running the show, but going from the beginning to the end stopping and starting, stopping and starting, in order to make sure that your sound, light, and projection cues are finished and in their proper places. You will experience at least one ten out of twelve, possibly multiple. This is exactly what you would think; a rehearsal day where you work ten hours out of twelve.
Tech will also present some of the highest tension of all, as actors are doing dress rehearsals, getting make up done, adjusting to cues, and trying to make sure that they have all their props and costume pieces. When they don’t, this is the biggest crisis of their lives and they shove their stress right on over to your shoulders. Not only do I have to micromanage literally everyone, but I also have to make sure that there aren’t any actual catastrophes. Show week allows for some release, as you have an audience and after you put your work out there, it is done. There are no notes, there is nothing to work on, and there are pains taken to make sure energy is at its highest levels.
During tech, my soul is trapped in a never ending pit of despair and low-key hatred for literally everything. I get agitated easily, I don’t want to speak to anyone, and worse even is that my professors still expect me to attend classes and prioritize them over shows, which would be nearly impossible even if I did have time to do any homework.
At the end of the day, it is just theatre. But for those artists who are invested in it, the struggle is ever present to ensure that we make it the best we can. People who operate outside the realm of theatre don’t understand why we’re so frustrated, which increases frustration. Show week will always be a saving grace, where we encounter the bittersweet feeling that is saying goodbye to a show we spent months on, but at least we can look back and realize that we gave our all when it counted, even if we hated everything for a week.
