The auditorium is dark, save for the stage illuminated by a myriad of blues, purples, reds that envelop the world in a warm glow. You’re standing upstage left, an almost-blinding light spotting you from above. You watch shadows dance across the set, emotions writing themselves into the features of the rest of the characters. It’s like magic, almost, like you’re in a completely different universe, like you can just reach out and–
“Hold!” the director shouts, and the spell is broken.
Hell week, also known as technical “tech” week or production week, is a term familiar to the ears of almost any actor or techie– the week leading up to the show, encompassing costume runs, technical elements, being shushed backstage, and of course, the crying. Actors say they have it hard, but the bulk of the stress is felt by tech, the department that handles lights, sound, and all the technical elements that go into producing a show. People not involved in productions will tell you it seems more climactic by word than it actually is, claiming, “There’s too much drama in the drama department!” The appropriate response, then, is to throw your head back and laugh, because you haven’t experienced hell week until you’ve truly experienced it. That being said, here’s a rundown:
The first Sunday, you arrive to rehearsal at 11 a.m., and by 8 p.m. you’ve acquired just a taste of what the rest of the week may entail.
On Monday, you’re left wondering how tech hasn’t lost their minds yet.
By the third day, there’s crying for sure.
Tech week is often called hell week for a number of good reasons. It introduces an intensity in the rehearsal process that makes previous four-hour rehearsals seem like taking a very extended nap. High school hell week rehearsals can extend to at least six hours on school days and nine hours on the weekends. You experience the bulk of rehearsal hours, full costume runs, and the cue-to-cue– stopping and starting, over and over to make sure tech has everything ready for the show. The director will yell at you, tech will yell at you, and your scene partners will yell at you so much so that by the end, it seems like you’ve been caught in a whirlwind of absolute chaos. They call it Murphy’s Law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and it holds extremely true in the case of hell week, a fact one comes to terms with when they find tears streaming down their face in the middle of rehearsal.
Whitman Drama recently put on a production of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, which showed on February 28th, March 1st, and March 2nd. Actors and techies alike put much effort into the production, especially during tech and hell week, when hours were long and opening night was just a wink away.
“The greatest challenge was the stress of the fact that like, [the play] was coming up, and it was going to end,” said Isabel Ostheimer, who played the role of Miranda.
“Fitting in homework, too,” added Sam Geesing, who played Ferdinand, her lover. “It’s hard. You don’t get a lot of time.” They continued to list what they regarded as the most difficult parts of hell week, including the “no-sleep schedule that [Isabel] had”, and “the massive amount of preparation you had to do for every run,” according to Sam. The worst, they agreed, was the cue-to-cue, where actors would stand on stage for hours at a time often reciting lines over and over, to allow tech to familiarize themselves with their cues.
“The first day of the cue-to-cue, I didn’t leave the stage once,” responded Isabel.
Despite the challenges of hell week, though, there were parts that were pleasant.
“There’s something about hell week that lets you bond more with your cast mates, like we’re all sharing the same awful experience together,” claimed another cast member that asked to remain anonymous. Isabel agreed, citing cast meals as a source of joy for her during the intense week, as well as being able to become more familiar with new friends. “I spent a lot of time with you,” she said to Sam, “because we’re always onstage and offstage together, so I felt like I got to know you better during tech week.”
At the end of the week, it’s like the storm subsides, and you’re left dazed, with pieces of your heart in places you’d never think them to be. You’re in the eye of the storm for just a moment, until the winds pick up again and you’re tossed right back into the dates of the show. But for now, you breathe, thank tech for all the great work they’ve done in making the show work, and prepare yourself for a phenomenal opening night.
Article written by MoCo Student staff writer Lauren Tan of Walt Whitman High School