A roar of applause fills the auditorium as the final night of “Beetlejuice Jr.” comes to a close on Nov. 16. While the actors and actresses take their final bows, the show is not over: the spotlights are still being operated, and the curtains must be drawn.
The mechanics behind all the moving pieces of the show are still working behind the scenes.
“Tech is super fun and creates great bonds, but I feel like people don’t realize how much work we actually have to put in,” sophomore Cathryn Cooper said.
The theater tech crew’s role includes managing backstage operations and ensuring technical elements run as planned. They spend multiple months running the music, lights, creating costumes and making sure every transition runs smoothly.
“I wouldn’t say doing tech is difficult, but it can get challenging sometimes,” sophomore Riley Henderson said. “It really depends on the show. I would say if you consider joining theatre, give it a chance, it can be really rewarding and fun.”
Students began building the set-in early September, spending schooldays and weekends painting, sewing and assembling the props. The week before the show takes the stage signals the start of tech week for both the cast and the crew.
“Tech week is definitely our most stressful week,” freshman Christian Hatch said. “We are here from 8:30 in the morning to 8:30 at night, with only a few breaks. During those breaks, we all try to quickly eat and do homework, just trying to make our workload less stressful. Our overall goal, however, is to get everything on stage to perfection.”
Cooper said the purpose of tech week is to perfect the show and how it runs.
“Tech week can be really exhausting,” Cooper said. “It can sometimes be a struggle to manage because everyone’s stressed. This is West Shore, we all have schoolwork piled up, so anytime we get a break, we’re always doing schoolwork.”
Reaves said managing both schoolwork and a full-time musical program involves a significant time commitment.
“I do homework between every break,” Reaves said. “It definitely takes a certain kind of person to be in tech; you have to have lots of endurance and mental strength to be able to balance school and tech week.”
Sophomore Amabel Tartaro said the tech crew is a consistent after-school community.
“Obviously, our priority for being in tech is to put on a well-run production, but since we all spend so much time together, we have become a tight-knit community,” Tartaro said.
However, the work does not stop after tech week. Generally, each show runs for about three days, and tech is responsible for managing every element behind the scenes and on set.
Even after the final bows are taken, the crew is still accountable for running stage lights, closing music, striking props and closing the stage.
“Once the rush of tech week is over, we can’t fully enjoy the show yet.” Henderson said, “We still have to run three shows and do it perfectly. Only after the very last show do we finally get to breathe and take in our hard work.”
In total, there were 15 named position members of the tech crew. Additionally, the student construction crew consisted of 22 students.
“We can always use more hands,” sophomore Elizabeth Gibson said. “It’s an enjoyable environment to be in. I love making friends there, and it’s just a great time, and while sometimes it may be like ‘Oh, we’re building today,’ or ‘Oh, we’re painting today,’ it’s really fun to just hang out with everyone in tech and work on the set together.”