Tech Day – Ephram Aguirre

Welcome to the run of the show! We are so thrilled about finally getting to put up no one is coming to save us. The runs have been great so far and the audiences have all been different and wonderful each and every time. That being said, before the show could start its run at the Pleasance for the public to see, we had to finish up the rehearsal process by adding on our final technical elements with my favorite time of any show, tech week! Or… I guess in our case it was more of a tech day?

I am currently writing this as we’re coming up on our final 2 performances of our run at the Edinburgh Fringe, but before getting to this point, before even starting the run, we had our time to tech the show, to add our lights and sound and it was by far one of my craziest experiences of this whole process, and of my whole time in theater actually. But let’s start with some context first.

My job for the show was to be its lighting designer, so knowing the how of our technical elements is something I’ve been on top of for the whole process. Since the beginning of our trip we already knew our tech was going to be different from anything we had experienced back at Pepperdine. Instead of the usual week to week and a half long tech and dress rehearsal process we have for our productions, we were going to be given a day to tech our entire 70 minute show. And not even a whole day, but just 3 hours! We knew this during our time in Glenelg and Glasgow, it was discussed every now and then but I don’t think any of us were actually truly prepared or even understood what it meant to tech a show in 3 hours. As lighting designer, part of my job was not only to think about how that day would go, but I would be one of the people actively working to get the job I was there to do, well, done, and thankfully Paul our production manager realized that it would be a very difficult feat, so we got some help.

During our time in Glasgow we had been able to get some of the lighting programming done within the scenic elements we already had made to rehearse with. These “tuffets” as we called them, were made to glow from the inside alongside some free floating LED tubes. I had been making sure they would not need to be part of our tech process to not take up any of our already limited time. Despite all the preparation we could’ve made, the work would have been too much. Enter, Benny. Paul had put me in contact with a programmer that had already worked with past Pepperdine Scotland company’s before and was back at the fringe this year doing more work. Two days before Monday, on Saturday the 28th, when we first arrived in Edinburgh, the production team got a chance to meet him and make a game plan. But first, Benny and I would meet and try to sneak our way into the venue to get some of the file work we needed to prepare for tech day. Time to lock in.

I will take a moment to mention a personal anecdote of this experience. At this time, I was coming down with a sickness, a cough I had kept up since we first arrived in Glasgow was worsening the day we got to Edinburgh, and on the day I was going to join Benny in our exploration of the venue/file extraction plan, I woke up with a fever… Worst. Timing. Ever. This did not stop me however and we met up as planned and got what we needed. We were ready to tackle tech the next day.

Coming off of a fever the day prior, Monday morning came and we were ready to go. We had a game plan, we had a schedule, we had time frames, even my sickness disappeared for those 3 hours… but nothing could’ve prepared us for what really had to happen. Of the 3 hours total we had, almost an entire hour was used to just walk through regulation and introduction talk by the venue staff. After getting through formalities, finally the lights were able to dim, and we got straight to work. I, personally, cannot tell you what actually happened on stage, or in the audience, or what other people were thinking during those hours. It was me, Benny, my very crudely written list of descriptions for what each cue would be, and the lights. Obviously everyone else was there too, of course, but looking back on it all, it all felt like a blur that came and went.

Our wonderful stage manager Jacqueline was on top of her game, keeping us just right on track all the way through the scenes and moments that needed to be seen with lights, up to the very end of our time. There was not a moment of hesitation, not from behind the desk, not from Jacqueline, not from the actors. And our assistant director Santana worked as a wonderful link of communication between us at the light board and our director Hollace, the actors played their part (ha!) and thanks to their concentration and focus helped us make this process as easy and smooth as it could have been. As for me and Benny? It was just a whole lot of speed firing numbers and syntax for him to input into the board as we tried to work as fast as possible and build cues faster than the actors and directorial/stage manager team could finish their literal seconds-long conversations. And suddenly, we had mere minutes left, programming the last dozen cues of the show disregarding seeing the scene they matched up with, and just like that we were at time. Over 120 light cues for a 70 minute show built in the span of around 3 hours. Now I’m not sure if that means anything to anyone that doesn’t work in theater, but let me tell you, that is a very impressive feat to accomplish. Or at least I think so.

Now, I will be honest and say I do not know exactly what the rest of the company made of that day. Was it what we expected it to be? No. It’s hard to imagine what that actually felt like until we were there doing it. But, as stressful and anxiety-inducing and terrifying as doing that was, I think it has been one of my favorite things to have done ever. The adrenaline rush through it all, the sigh of relief at the end, finally being able to catch your breath. In just a few hours, we created a world using light that changes and adapts throughout a 70 minute story. The feeling of having “done it”, done something like that, it stays with you, and while others may not know what it feels like, you do. Just getting to work non-stop doing everything you can to meet that deadline and still be able to be proud of what you made? Nothing beats that feeling. I think it’s the reason I do what I do.

Well, tech day has now come and gone, as have most of our shows for our run actually. Looking back now, they really did go by pretty fast. Tech day was something I had been dreading/looking forward to for the entirety of our trip, now, just part of the memory that has been this trip. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time in Scotland, and the fringe has been one of the most life changing events I’ve experienced. We’re coming to a close soon and preparing to travel back home. I think I’m ready, I think, mostly I can’t wait to tell everyone back home about it all. It has been the trip of a lifetime, I’m excited to be able to look back on it and reminisce. I’m glad I got the chance to be part of it, it truly has changed my life for the better. But the show’s not over yet! We have 2 more shows to go! Let’s make them the best ones yet! I’m not putting up the show blacks just yet!

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