So we're starting tech, technically this Saturday. Tech is always the most interesting time of a show, I feel, because here is where your ideas about a show and the reality of your space really meet for the first time. Having been in a few and seeing some big and small (done some backstage work at La Jolla Playhouse, Lamb's Players Theatre and San Diego Rep), it's always "interesting" to see how the show evolves at this point. Oh, yes, that idea about having that over there won't work because we can't move that light over because this thingy is blocking the light from the ceiling, yes, that thingy is the sprinkler system, and no we can't move it.
You need to have your sense of humor when going into tech.
As an actor, I know that I need to have my patience. I'm here for the designers so they can do their thing, their art, their vital contribution to the piece. Here is where the magic happens, the set emerges, the lights come up and tada, it all comes together.
Or not....
But regardless, we open on February 14th. That's the beautiful thing about theatre, one of the ONLY industries that has a deadline and meets it EVERY TIME. That curtain will rise, and there will be a show.
So whether the ideas about the thingies work or not, the light hangs this way or that way, or that curtain that was supposed to look like...well...whatever, it's happening.
And we're all a part of it.
