Let’s talk about one of the most important weeks in a theatre worker’s schedule
Tech Week
This period of time has also been nicknamed Hell Week, which is one of the first things I discovered on my arrival into the drama school world. Doesn’t sound promising, does it? In fact, a quick look at the Wikipedia entry for ‘Technical week’ reveals this information, and there’s also a ‘Controversy’ section which tells you the following:
“…the common daily schedule during this week is the ‘10 out of 12’ schedule, in which the members of the production will be actively working for ten hours out of the twelve hour shifts.”
The sources cited here are referring to theatre in the United States, but it’s also a problem in the UK. As has been pointed out elsewhere, these are long enough days for actors, but designers and technicians are almost always expected to stay even later into the night. And, as I have learnt over the past year, this isn’t just the case in professional theatre. Students are also putting in extremely long shifts.
There have been times where I’ve arrived home 18 hours after leaving, had just enough time for a quick shower before going straight to bed, then up again after five or six hours of sleep to do it all over again. I’ve seen people wolf down snacks while operating a desk rather than take an hour-long lunch break because things were deemed to be running behind. I’ve been in situations where stomachs are rumbling and energy levels are low, only for “let’s power through” to be the message. I’ve also found that, during tech, it becomes almost impossible to cook proper meals due to lack of time and resources. If it can’t be reheated in a microwave, it’s not an option, and you might even find yourself living on takeaways for a week or two (which isn’t ideal health-wise).
This kind of relentless schedule obviously isn’t good for anyone. I’ve recently seen some articles pop up in theatre publications about the impact on parents and carers, which is clearly a really important issue, but these discussions seem to be centred on performers, directors and producers rather than including technicians. And I’ve seen almost nothing about disabled or neurodivergent backstage workers. There seems to be a general reluctance to acknowledge the presence of techs with disabilities, while at the same time talking about the importance of a diverse workforce. But if we really want to make sure everyone feels welcome in theatre, we have to start practicing what we preach, and taking care of the issues surrounding tech would be an excellent place to start.
I will be completely honest. As an autistic sound technician, I have felt isolated, frustrated and let down on quite a few occasions. I have felt like my needs are not accommodated, and worse, that they don’t matter. People might say, “That’s just what tech is like: deal with it.” And people have said that. They might think changing their minds at the last minute about what time we can all leave the building isn’t a big deal. But to someone like me, who has carefully structured their entire daily routine and meal choices around the information they’ve been given, it is a very big deal and can lead to dysregulation. When such things are happening over a sustained period of time, they can even lead to burnout (and did for me, after one particular show).
Boundaries are a big issue for a lot of us, and it can be incredibly challenging to speak up and say you don’t feel comfortable with something, especially when you’re new in the industry or feel like there’s no one who will back you up. In an industry where freelancing is the norm, it’s unfortunately all too common for people to be afraid of “rocking the boat” because they may lose out on work. The attitude is: “Well, if you won’t do it, then we’ll find someone who will.” But we will only be able to move away from such attitudes if more and more people speak out against them.
If there’s one phrase I’ve become tired of hearing, it’s: “That’s just the way things are done.” And more often than not, it’s been said about tech (often accompanied with a smile when bandying around terms like ‘Hell Week’). But it really doesn’t have to be that way. Hard work and productivity doesn’t — and shouldn’t — have to come at a cost to our physical and mental health.