Anyone who has been in a stage show - be it drama, comedy or musical - knows and dreads the beginning of tech week. What should be an exciting time as opening night approaches instead becomes a series of problems - large and small - that have to be overcome quickly and expediently. Those solutions often create other problems - but mostly compromises with an original vision.
My comments apply mainly to those productions which rehearse in one place and then, with only a few days until opening night, move into the theatre where the performances will happen.
Helmuth von Moltke wrote: "no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force." This has been paraphrased as " No plan survives contact with the enemy." With respect to theatre, it should be said, "no plan of blocking, lights and set design survives contact with the actual stage." It's not that directors and their creative teams don't try ahead of time. I've taped floors to indicate the performance area and where curtains and set pieces are supposed to go. I've rehearsed with some set pieces - when they were ready.
And, yet, when you actually move into the theatre, things have to be changed. Lighting elements won't set the way you thought they would set. The wings won't actually hold some of the set pieces or there isn't room to bring those pieces on and off the way you thought they would necessitating switching blocking. The grand curtain takes up more room, so the stage area is smaller. The band won't fit where you anticipated or they are too loud where they are placed. Sightlines from the auditorium are different. The set pieces got built... a little off. Or the set piece wasn't built. Or the set piece you were going to rent from one location suddenly is not available. Or set pieces were painted one color - but now in the theatre, they have to be painted a different color. Or the platform is too high - or too low - or too steep. Costume changes are taking longer than thought. Dressing rooms are too far away and there is no working monitor. Props have to be moved from stage right to stage left. The taped floor wasn't completely accurate. And all of this has to be corrected and done quickly as there is limited time.
It's stressful. People start to snap at each other. And everyone has to stop, breathe, and focus on solving a current problem and forget about assigning "blame" for the existence of the problem. The show becomes the thing to accomplish. Theatres probably need a "yelling" room - a padded room where people can go in, shut the door, hit the walls and scream in exasperation. Then, a person can come back out and resume getting the show in proper shape for an audience to see. One of the first shows I directed had some...major set piece issues. Indeed, I was so upset (as was my co-director) that I started to cry. I blamed myself for not knowing more - or not paying more attention to what other people were doing. But, the producer took me aside and in a friendly voice simply said "what can we do to fix this"? And we talked some solutions. The solutions were enacted. Disaster was avoided. And the audience never knew.
Because, somehow, 95% of the time, the problems are solved, and the audience has no idea what the show was supposed to look like. They just enjoy what they do get to see.
And after the show closes and the set is struck - and the closing night festivities have commenced - including sometimes consumption of alcoholic beverages - stories will be told, Laughter will be heard. And, later, the company will try to learn from what transpired to try and prevent another tech week hell. But, just as armies plan to fight the last battle - there will always be something new, different and unanticipated to send the creative team into fits of exasperation and desperation again.
And thus is theatre life.
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