Timing/Scheduling Your Tech - The Light Lady - Theatre Lighting, Sets, Training and More!

Timing Your Tech

Here are some general timing guidelines that will help plan your tech schedule. You will need to schedule time for the designer and crew to hang and focus the lights, then schedule tech rehearsals in order to set the look, timing and order of the light cues.

Hanging and Focusing the Lights

If possible the light crew needs time on the stage alone in order to hang and focus the lights. The reason for this is that they need to be able to bring down electrics, move around the stage on a ladder or Genie lift, and for focusing, ironically enough, they need the stage in almost complete darkness. There’s also a lot of yelling going back and forth (unless you have a wireless headset system), and they need to be able to hear each other. This is not a situation conducive to concurrently building or decorating sets, or holding rehearsals.

However, that said, this ideal is not always the reality of the time constraints inherent in the theatre. Most experienced lighting and set crews are used to working around each other during tech. As long as your set crew is willing to work under less than ideal conditions during this time The Light Lady is quite used to hanging and focusing lighting while a set crew is working on stage. The main thing to warn your set crew is that the stage may be going dark periodically, but that they will always be given a warning each time this is about to happen.

Following is how much time you can expect to have to schedule for Hang and Focus. The times may vary depending on the experience of your light crew and how many “hands on deck”.

Hanging, Circuiting, and Gelling Lights

Allow about 4 minutes per instrument.
For instance, if you have 60 instruments, you should schedule at least 4 hours for hanging.

Focusing Lights

Allow about 3 minutes per instrument.
For instance, if you have 60 instruments, you should schedule at least 3 hours for focusing.

Tech Week

The Light Lady has often had to tech a performance ‘on the fly’ in one tech rehearsal. However, if you have a complicated play, musical or dance, and/or if you have a theatre with a lot of lighting instruments, for a more professional outcome, you should schedule in at least two tech rehearsals plus one final dress rehearsal.

First Tech Rehearsal

This rehearsal is for the designers, stage manager and tech crew. The actors will have been rehearsing for 6 to 8 weeks, now the tech need to set their “blocking and choreography”. This will be a rehearsal with a lot of stopping, so warn your actors that there will be a lot of standing around on stage and hanging around back stage during this time. This is not a time for the director to stop to give directions, nor a time for actors to go over scenes. Each time this happens during a tech rehearsal it delays the process. Actors do not need to put on make-up or have finished costumes at this time.

For a Play

You should allow at least twice the length of the play.
So, if your play is 2 hours long, you should allow at least 4 hours for your first tech rehearsal in order to set the light levels and timing, and to practice set changes.

For a Musical

You should allow at least three times the length of the musical.
So, if your musical is 2 hours long, you should allow at least 6 hours for your first tech rehearsal in order to set the light levels and timing, and to practice set changes. Some directors choose to do this over the course of two days; Act I the first day, Act II the next.

Second Tech Rehearsal

Again, the actors have been rehearsing for many weeks, and now it is the tech crew’s turn to rehearse their parts. The tech crew has now received their “blocking and choreography”. The designers now need to refine their cues, and the tech crew need to “rehearse” executing their cues. Again, this will be a rehearsal with a lot of stopping, and sometime sections of the play will have to be repeated in order to get the timing correct on light cues, set changes, etc. It’s best to have full costumes at this time, but make-up is not necessary.

The second tech rehearsal may go a bit quicker than the first, but it’s best to allow the same time period.

Third Tech Rehearsal

Not many schools and companies have the luxury of a third tech rehearsal, but if you do, it should be a rehearsal with minimal stopping, while the crew practices their light cues and set moves in ‘real time’ as much as possible. Full costumes and make-up are a good idea by this point.

Final Dress Rehearsal

This is where it all comes together. The crews should know their light cueing and set movements, and the actors should be in full costume and make-up. This rehearsal should be under performance conditions, and there should be no stopping for any reason. The director and designers take notes during the rehearsal and make any refinements and/or changes after each act.

Between Techs

If possible, also schedule in time between the tech rehearsals for the light crew to adjust the lighting. It may become obvious during a tech rehearsal that a light, or several lights, are the wrong gel color, the wrong focus, or in the wrong place. Or, extra lights may need to be hung, gelled and focused that weren’t anticipated during the run-throughs. This is what tech rehearsals are for, so there is nothing wrong with this, but the possibility should be anticipated.

There is no point holding all the actors while adjustments such as these are done by the light crew, so be sure to schedule in time between techs in order for the lighting crew to make these adjustments.

Dry Tech

A word about Dry Techs.

If you’ve never done a Dry Tech, this is where the Lighting Designer, the Stage Manager, the Board Operator and the Director sit down together and design and record preliminary cuing without actors on stage. Sometimes set pieces need to be moved into place to set certain cues, sometimes this can be done without. Adjustments are made to take into account the actor’s and set’s actual movement during the First Tech Rehearsal.

Although Dry Techs are not imperative, if you have time for a Dry Tech before your First Tech Rehearsal, this will make the whole tech process run more quickly and smoothly for the actors, as adjustments take less time than initial designing.