A Day in the Life of a Theater Techie

Banaynays1295, are you sure you're not a carpenter? Your job sounds ROUGH.—Sparkitors

For most people, going to the theater means getting dressed up and watching a play for two hours. Theater-goers may even comment “Cool! I wonder how they did that? Maybe they used smashed bananas to hold everything together.” For me, theater is way more than just watching a play; I have the amazing privilege of actually building the sets, playing with the lighting design, working the sound cables, and occasionally cleaning out the prop house (because my Tech Director told me to). I get to make the magic happen—and you can watch it all unfold here, on an average day of tech work.

3:30 PM: School just got out and I head to the theater to find out what our workload is for the day. I hope we’re doing something other than taking measurements.

3:35 PM: Where is everyone? Do I always have to be the first one to arrive? The schedule says 3:30, people!

3:37 PM: Oh, okay, they’re here. Panic attack over...

3:38 PM: Boss is here! We all mumble our hellos to him and he yells something obscene/hilarious at us. We're used to it.

3:40 PM: I'm on Run-Crew, which means I do anything and everything that has to be done. Today, I’m with the builders.

3:45 PM: Woohoo! I get to use metal, and potentially weld something! Uh-oh. I suck at welding. And we’re building metal benches that have to hold nine people. Can I go work with the painters instead?

3:50 PM: I complain to the assistant Tech Director that I don’t want to weld because I’ve only done it a few times, and people's lives hang in the the balance. He tells me I can only learn by doing and says something about teaching a man to fish.

3:51 PM: Ahaha, fishing. “I don’t want to fish” is going to be our new inside joke, I can feel it!

3:55 PM: I just heard someone in the other room use the inside joke. It's gonna spread like wildfire.

3:57 PM: I have to cut down some metal rods for the benches. I can do that!

4:01 PM: I'm a beast at this. I’m feeling pretty awesome right about now.

4:10 PM: I finish cutting the metal and hand it over to the kid who is going to be welding. Thank goodness he's better at it than I am.

4:13 PM: I wander onstage to see what we’re doing.

4:17 PM: Some people are taking a break. There might be food involved. I think I’ll join them.

4:25 PM: Break is over and it’s back to the grind. I drill holes in large pieces of wood that are going on top of the metal frame we made for the benches.

4:28 PM: This is my kind of a job.

4:35 PM: The drilling is done and I get to paint the benches blue.

4:40 PM: Crap, I only have one side of one bench done and it’s time to go in 20 minutes. Not good!

4:41 PM: My friend comes over to help me—what a life saver.

5:00 PM: Two benches out of four are done and it’s time to head home. I say goodbye and head out to the parking lot to find my ride.

An average day backstage is anything but average; I get to do so many things that most kids only dream of doing. There's always something to look forward to when you're a theater techie. My day consists of 35% hard work, 10% learning how to do something for the first time and doing it perfectly, 5% inside jokes, 20% measurements, and 30% having an amazing time. It all adds up to 100% best time of your life!

Calling all techies! Any other magic-makers out there?

Related post: Cast of Characters: Theater Teachers