Overview
The Technical Director, TD for short, is responsible for the construction of the set, organizing builds, keeping track of hours, Put-In, Strike, and the safety of everyone involved with the show.
Before Tech Week
Acquiring material
The TD is responsible for procuring all the raw material for sets. A trip to Home Depot usually takes care of most needs. A list of materials should be compiled as soon as possible during the production process so it can be updated quickly and easily- you don't want to spend an extra hour of travel time because you forgot to buy the dowel pins when you had a U-Haul.
Any materials that need to be shipped to campus should be ordered with at least a week's grace period between their expected arrival and Put-In. 2+ week shipping times are normal, especially for heavy items.
Masonite can usually be borrowed from E33 or MTG (mtg-board@mit.edu). Audience railings live in the Walker Sets Shop and formally belong to MTG. While speakers aren't technically the TD's responsibility, we usually use MTG's and you might as well ask when you talk to them about masonite and audience railings.
Gaffe tape and flame retardant can be purchased from Backstage hardware. Flame retardant is ~$25 per gallon of paint. Make sure you have enough of both gaffe tape and flame retardant before Put-In
Builds
The TD should begin scheduling builds as soon as possible. This varies from show to show, but builds should start at the latest the weekend after final set design is due. All actors are required to complete some number of Pre-Put-In hours, the number of which vary from show to show. These hours are completed by working at set builds, at costume builds, or in any other way the TD sees fit.
Builds need not be dedicated to the completion of a given set piece. It is often advantageous to measure and cut lumber at builds, especially as put-in approaches. Keep in mind that anything constructed at builds must live in the office until Tech Week and must fit in the freight elevator.
Meeting with CAC
The TD is responsible for meeting with CAC to get final approval for the set design a week or two before Tech Week. Our current contact at CAC is Chris Nayler (nayler@mit.edu). The producer should also attend this meeting, and it can be helpful for the set designer to be present. The meeting typically consists of a short summary of the set from the set design and a quick run-through of the technical design of any particularly challenging or unique set elements. This is also when we request tables, Germans (the large audience risers), and butterflies (larger but shorter risers).
Tech Week
Put-In
Put-In is the first day that the Ensemble is in space and is the single most important day for sets. Lights are hung, masonite is placed, big things are built, etc, etc. Generally Put-In officially runs from 7 am to 8 pm, though in reality it can go much later. Each member of the cast is required to attend Put-In for a a number of hours which varies from show to show. The TD should schedule actors ahead of time and attempt to distribute manpower throughout the day. The TD Additionally, the TD should talk to lights, costumes, and props to see if/how much manpower they anticipate requiring during Put-In.
Monument, the scaffolding in La Sala, should be constructed the night before Put-In if possible. This will save lights an hour or two of time in the morning, which helps everyone in the long run.
Put-In is the TD's baby and everyone at Put-In is the TD's bitch. The TD must be present in space for the entirety of Put-In. A list of jobs-which-need-doing should be bouncing around in his/her head, as actors will need direction. Delegating is a good thing; life will run much more smoothly if a competent person is placed in charge of a given project so the TD doesn't need to worry about every detail. Less competent actors can be shoved at these more competent people and told to ask them how they can help, freeing up the TD to put out fires or deal with other actors. Some tasks should be done by the TD, however, especially any job that would take more time to explain than complete. The TD is not above the fray and shouldn't be afraid to get their hands dirty.
The Rest of Tech Week
Tech Week is the week that will make or break a TD. Generally after Put-In the set still needs to be painted, blacks need to be hung, windows need to be blacked out, audience needs to be put up, and a hundred other things need to be done. The TD should have a plan for making sure the set is done in a reasonable time frame while keeping in mind that actors act on it every night so paint must be dry and the stage must be clear and that CAC kicks us out os La Sala at 2 AM. If extra hands are needed, the TD shouldn't be afraid of mailing out asking for help. Blacks generally take at least 3-4 people to hang. The audience (both Germans and chairs) is best put up right before or after a rehearsal because every actor can be drafted.
Setting up the Audience
Either the TD or the set designer has to formulate a plan for the audience plans. There are various arcane regulations about the layout of the aisles. Chairs are approximately 17" across. There are two types of audience platforms in general use: Germans and butterflies. Germans are 1m by 2m, and can hold about 2 rows of 2 each people each. Butterflies are 6 feet by 8 feet, and can hold 2 rows of 5 chairs each. Butterflies can only be set at one height; Germans can be set at a variety of heights. Some heights are at preset intervals, and some of them require the use of additional pins. Platforms can be obtained from CAC. Make sure that butterfly steps and German hardware are around when they're delivered to La Sala. Pretty much all audience platforms (any chairs not on the ground or on butterflies) should have toe rails. This can be pretty much anything - 1×2 or dexion is best, thicker pieces of wood will also work. Audience rails can either be borrowed from MTG (they're in the scene shop in Walker basement) or built. The difficult part is to make sure that the railing are stable and must be reinforced below the seating platform to avoid wobbling. Additionally, toe rails need to be added to the audience platforms so that chairs don't slide off the back- any scrap wood is fine for this. Make sure that all platforms that vary in height by more than 10" have a step present, and that it is firmly attached. Generally this is only an issue with the butterflies.
Booth
When setting up audience, you need to find a place for Booth. Consult with the SM, LD, and Sound Designer to choose a location. The SM is the most important. Dedicate at least 2 german platforms for use as booth, and make sure that it has a toe rail and steps.
An incomplete list of audience requirements:
Aisles must be 36" wide if there is audience on one side, and 48" wide for both sides
There can be no more than 7 chairs between any one chair and the aisle(that's 8 seats if there is a aisle on one side, and 15 if both sides)
Any chairs that are more than 16 inches off the ground need audience rialings
There must be an unobstructed path from the chairs to the doors, with no stage area (masonite) in the way.
There must be 36 inches of unobstructed space in front of the first row of audience. Masonite counts as open space.
There should be 32" from chair back to chair back.
Setting up Headset
Headsets are located in the dimmer closet, in one or two milk crates. The system consists of one control box, a collection of headsets, and a set of cables (Official type unknown). Headsets should be located at booth and wherever run crew will be be (typically either in the dressing room or the kitchen).
Strike
Strike runs after the show's last performance. Strike is the time when everything is taken down, moved out of La Sala, and somehow stuffed into the Ensemble Office. The TD runs Strike. Everyone involved with the show is expected to be present for the duration. It helps to have a competent person in the Ensemble Office as things begin to be moved up so that storage is slightly less of a nightmare. Sala should be left in the condition it was found- nothing should be on the floor, all Germans and butterflies should be folded, all chairs put away, etc. If any paint is found on Sala floor, it must be cleaned off.
Post-Strike
After Strike the TD must see that all materials borrowed under the purview of sets are returned.
Misc. Useful Information
The basement door near the set shop in Walker is alarmed. The alarm will go off if the door is propped open. Ask CAC to deactivate the alarm at times you wish to move material in and out of Walker.
Pro Gaffe brand gaffe tape CANNOT be used on the floor of La Sala. It takes the finish off of the wood.
All cables running around the stage floor should be taped down with nice Gaff tape. If it is running across an entrance or an aisle, then it should be taped down completely along the length. Any hanging cables should be glow taped.
Blacks
Blacks are stored in the blue bin in the room with Monument (which is the Piano Room - the door on the eastern side of Sala de Puerto Rico that is most to the north).
Hanging Blacks
Blacks are generally hung by standing on Monument. They can be carried up or brought on from Spacedock. The fuzzy side goes towards the stage. Hang the blacks so they're easy to take down- bows and other strong knots that come out with one tug are good. Double knots are strongly discouraged. Remember basic tension: the ties should extend on both sides of where you want the black to extend. If possible, holes in the black - especially those toward the top, as they will be under more tension - should be mended before the black is hung. This can be done with binder clips, or, for smaller holes, gaff tape. Blacks should be hung to about 1.5"-2" off the floor. Not so that the tops aligned - for some reason, not all blacks are the same height. This will make them low enough so that no one sees under them, but high enough so they don't get dust and debris from the floor. The thin black is not opaque enough to be used alone for blackout during matinees. It is, however, good for making Spacedock appear black. To hang blacks over the edge of Spacedock, cinderblocks may be placed on the blacks - but only on the bad/back/fuzzy side. Lights may be hung on the same pipe as a black. Lights get very hot and should not be in contact with blacks when on.
Taking down blacks
Blacks should be taken down from Monument. There are two methods: either pull the black up to monument as you go, or drop it as you go. Either is fine, but when dropping or stacking, try to keep the bad side touching the floor/surface. Do not drop anything without calling out first. Blacks should be folded and returned to the blue bin and the piano closet. When folding, keep the good side off the floor. Folding the large black is much easier with a small army of people.
====== What to do during tech week ======
tag>tech-week The purpose of this page is to get a relatively comprehensive list of things to do during Tech Week. The goal is not to list all and every aspect of the production during the last two weeks, but to get a list of things to things that often fall into the cracks.
===== Audience Plans =====
* Seating Plans: Someone, usually the TD, has to formulate a plan for the audience plans. There are various arcane regulations about the layout of the aisles. I cannot find the setup at the moment, but the best I can do from memory is:
* Aisles must be 36" wide if there is audience on one side, and 48" wide for both sides
* There can be no more than 7 chairs between any one chair and the aisle(that's 8 seats if there is a aisle on one side, and 15 if both sides)
* Any chairs that are more than 16 inches off the ground need audience rialings
* There must be an unobstructed path from the chairs to the doors, with no stage area in the way.
* There must be 36 inches of unobstructed space in front of the first row of audience. Masonite counts as open space.
* There should be 32" from chair back to chair back.
* Chairs are approximately 17" across.
* Platforms: There are two types of audience platforms in general use: Germans and Butterflies. Germans are 1m by 2m, and can hold about 2 rows of 2 each people each. Butterflies are 6 feet by 8 feet, and can hold 2 rows of 5 chairs each.
* Butterflies can only be set at one height
* Germans can be set at a variety of heights. Some of them are at preset intervals, and some of them require the use of additional pins.
* Platforms can be obtained from CAC. Make sure that butterfly steps and German hardware are around
* Pretty much all audience platforms(any chairs not on the ground) should have toe rails. This can be pretty much anything - 1×2 or dexion is best, thicker pieces of wood will also work. Audience rails can either be borrowed from MTG(they're in the scene shop in Walker basement) or built. The difficult part is to make sure that the railing are stable and must be reinforced below the seating platform to avoid wobbling.
* Make sure that all platforms that vary in height by more than 10" have a step present, and that it is firmly attached.
===== Booth =====
When setting up audience, or in preparation for Q2Q, you need to find a place for Booth. Consult with SM, LD, and Sound Designer for where would be best. SM is probably the most important. Dedicate at least 2 high german platforms for use as booth, and make sure that it has a toe rail and steps.
All cables running around the stage floor should be taped down with nice Gaff tape. If it is running across an enterance or an aisle, then it should be taped down completely along the length. Any hanging tables should be glow taped
===== Headsets =====
Headsets are located in the dimmer closet, in one or two milk crates. The system consists of one control box, a collection of headsets, and a set of cables (Official type unknown). Headsets should be located at booth and wherever runcrew will be be (typically either in the dressing room or the kitchen).
===== Front of House =====
Make sure that you have an extra plastic table, with a table skirt, available for front of house. In order to run box office, you will need:
* A cash box, with change. You can get $1 bills from Bank of America in the Student Center, and will typically need $200 - $300 dollars in change, assuming we still charge $6 for tickets.
* Programs. Printing takes a long time, so don't do it right before the show.
* Reservations transferred from the internet into a physical piece of paper. Consolidated into one list is useful, and alphabatized would be especilaly sexy
* Tickets. These are printed at copy tech. It's probably bestif you get them printed when you get the posters printed. Talk to June MIlligan. Also see if they'll cut them for you-it's quite the pain if you have to cut them yourself. Templates can be found in the Ensemble Locker. Good luck getting them to work.
===== Lobby 10 Booth =====
Contrary to the name, this does not always happen in Lobby 10. Make sure that you reserve a space, the earlier the better. This can be done through Virtual EMS. Everyone involved in the show is typically required to sign up for some number of hours. Do your best to get everyone to sign up. Starting at 9am can be tricky for some, so it's usually helpful to send out a reminder each day, just so veryone's aware of what happens. There should also be an Officer of the Day. Make sure that they're doing they're job as well. Needed at booth are:
* The Publicity Board, so people know what group is being advertised
* Show Posters, so they know what show is goint up.
* Postcards, so they remember what show is going up.
* Reservations Binder, so they can reserve tickets for the show
* Tickets and Cash Box, so they can buy tickets for the sho<del>w
</del>
* <del>Shot Glasses</del> Toothpick Holders, so they remember us fondly.
To make life easier, all this should be stored in one spot in the office during prod week. That way we don't have to get CAC to let us into West Lounge every morning.
===== Backstage =====
This encompasses a huge range of things. It's intent is basically to list the things that make the parts of Sala that aren't the stage or the audience look nice.
==== Neatness ====
* The first and most obvious point. Clean up. Yes it's Tech Week and you're hosed, but try to compact all the tools and random junk around into some corner that's out of the way and out of the audience's view. Make sure there is nothing in the audience and nothing near the doors. This last is also relevant for fire code.
* In places where actors enter and aren't blocked by the blacks, place an Othello screen there. Typical places are the entrance from westlounge and in front of spacedock.
* CAC has a bunch of green screens that are useful for blocking views where being black is not crucial.
==== Blacking out Sala ====
* Having appropriate lighitng backstage is a big help. This includes a lamp at booth(there should be a clip lamp with a blue gel over it in the office) and light for actors backstage. On some occasions we've had a dedicated stage light for the backstage area that's just on dim for the duration of the show. Alternatively you can use the lights under spacedock. They're controlled by the lightswitch on the column north of space dock(jst the normal switch, not the panel. That controls the house lights). If half of the spacedock lights are blacked out(paper or black foil taped over the light works great) and half are gelled blue (gel the light not the waffle) that is incredibly useful.
* Hanging blacks is described in [[:all-about-blacks|all-about-blacks]] But make sure that they are clipped together with binder clips to keep them unified, and make sure that they cover all the relvant parts.
* The curtains on the border of Sala should be closed, both for looks and for blocking out the light It might also be worth binder clipping them together as they have a tendancy to flop open.
* The windows on either side of both sets of Sala doors need to be blacked out. There are many methods to do this
* Plywood. The cross pieces in the windows can be removed by pulling straight up and pieces of plywood inserted. MTG has two black pieces that fit under spacedock that we could theoretically borrow.
* Black shower curtains. These can be purchased from Shaws for $2 each, and can easily be taped up.
* Black Paper taped all around. You can buy rolls of it from Artists and Craftsman. You'll need at least 3 rools to cover the 4 windows, and 4 would be easier.
* The windows in West Lounge should be blacked out. This is more for the decency of actors. The shades don't actually block people looking. The best solution found so far would be to use the black shower curtains.
===== Helping Actors =====
A couple random points here, on things that need to be done.
* One of the doors on the north side of Sala squeaks. Figures out which one it is and label it with a great big 'N', or 'NO' or 'NARN'
* Make sure that there is a path through the kitchen for actors to walk through
* Anything sharp and generally in the dark should be covered
* Avoid glow tape, but use it when necessar
===== Headsets =====
===== Front of House =====
===== Lobby 10 Booth =====
Contrary to the name, this does not always happen in Lobby 10. Make sure that you reserve a space, the earlier the better. This can be done through Virtual EMS. Everyone involved in the show is typically required to sign up for some number of hours. Do your best to get everyone to sign up. Starting at 9am can be tricky for some, so it's usually helpful to send out a reminder each day, just so veryone's aware of what happens. There should also be an Officer of the Day. Make sure that they're doing they're job as well. Needed at booth are:
* The Publicity Board, so people know what group is being advertised
* Show Posters, so they know what show is goint up.
* Postcards, so they remember what show is going up.
* Reservations Binder, so they can reserve tickets for the show
* Tickets and Cash Box, so they can buy tickets for the sho<del>w
</del>
* <del>Shot Glasses</del> Toothpick Holders, so they remember us fondly.
To make life easier, all this should be stored in one spot in the office during prod week. That way we don't have to get CAC to let us into West Lounge every morning.
===== Backstage =====
This encompasses a huge range of things. It's intent is basically to list the things that make the parts of Sala that aren't the stage or the audience look nice.
==== Neatness ====
* The first and most obvious point. Clean up. Yes it's Tech Week and you're hosed, but try to compact all the tools and random junk around into some corner that's out of the way and out of the audience's view. Make sure there is nothing in the audience and nothing near the doors. This last is also relevant for fire code.
* In places where actors enter and aren't blocked by the blacks, place an Othello screen there. Typical places are the entrance from westlounge and in front of spacedock.
* CAC has a bunch of green screens that are useful for blocking views where being black is not crucial.
==== Blacking out Sala ====
* Having appropriate lighitng backstage is a big help. This includes a lamp at booth(there should be a clip lamp with a blue gel over it in the office) and light for actors backstage. On some occasions we've had a dedicated stage light for the backstage area that's just on dim for the duration of the show. Alternatively you can use the lights under spacedock. They're controlled by the lightswitch on the column north of space dock(jst the normal switch, not the panel. That controls the house lights). If half of the spacedock lights are blacked out(paper or black foil taped over the light works great) and half are gelled blue (gel the light not the waffle) that is incredibly useful.
* Hanging blacks is described in [[:all-about-blacks|all-about-blacks]] But make sure that they are clipped together with binder clips to keep them unified, and make sure that they cover all the relvant parts.
* The curtains on the border of Sala should be closed, both for looks and for blocking out the light It might also be worth binder clipping them together as they have a tendancy to flop open.
* The windows on either side of both sets of Sala doors need to be blacked out. There are many methods to do this
* Plywood. The cross pieces in the windows can be removed by pulling straight up and pieces of plywood inserted. MTG has two black pieces that fit under spacedock that we could theoretically borrow.
* Black shower curtains. These can be purchased from Shaws for $2 each, and can easily be taped up.
* Black Paper taped all around. You can buy rolls of it from Artists and Craftsman. You'll need at least 3 rools to cover the 4 windows, and 4 would be easier.
* The windows in West Lounge should be blacked out. This is more for the decency of actors. The shades don't actually block people looking. The best solution found so far would be to use the black shower curtains.
===== Helping Actors =====
A couple random points here, on things that need to be done.
* One of the doors on the north side of Sala squeaks. Figures out which one it is and label it with a great big 'N', or 'NO' or 'NARN'
* Make sure that there is a path through the kitchen for actors to walk through
* Anything sharp and generally in the dark should be covered
* Avoid glow tape, but use it when necessary