Useful Tech Rehearsal Tip

Thursday, July 29th, 2010 | Uncategorized

I’m sitting in tech.

It’s for a show that doesn’t have many costume changes so I have plenty of time to not only over-analyze my design, I also have time to find out new ways of multitasking during tech.

There can be quite a lot of downtime while the actors figure out their blocking, and of course sorting out all of the light and sound cues. All of the backstage choreography needs to be figured out as well. So it’s often useful to have a laptop available, especially during the first tech rehearsal.

So the useful bit of information I found out today, is how to change the colors on the screen so that you get the reverse. Black becomes white, white becomes black, and all of the other colors change into strange techno-versions of themselves.

Why is this useful? Because a brightly lit screen annoys some actors (or the Stage Manager who needs you close enough to talk to, but is distracted by the light coming from your computer). My job during tech is to ensure that my design looks the way I want it to look, and to otherwise keep out of everyone’s way unless they need me.

I realize that I may be behind all of you in this new discovery, but it made a huge difference to me, so I thought sharing the tip might be useful to some.

Doing this does limit what you can work on to some extent. You don’t want to try and adjust photographs, and surfing for image research online for your next show could be difficult. But if you need to write emails, or research written material, write notes for your show, or write blog entries… then it works very well.

Here are detailed directions for Mac.

Or if you just want the keyboard shortcut it is CTRL + OPTION + APPLE (with the left hand) and the number 8 key with your right hand.

For those of you who have not yet discovered the awesomeness of Mac computers (yes, I have a bias), there are instructions for Windows machines too.

The real benefit is in not needing to turn the lights down so far on your computer that you are squinting to see what you are working on. Ten hours of that will give you a headache for sure, and no one wants to sit though a tech notes session with a headache.

Now, if only they could come up with a silent keyboard….

What sorts of tricks or tips do you have for getting through tech? Please share in the comments.

1 Comment to Useful Tech Rehearsal Tip

@TheGirlPie
July 30, 2010

WAAAAHHH! You made me miss the days of tech and dress rehearsals… *sniff*sob*gulp*!

But then you made it all better with this nifty tip that I know about, but never thought of using in a dim space to avoid the distraction of the light… YAY!

And then that reminded me that back when I was in techs (yes, with gas footlights, smarty pants) the glowing laptop was just a gleam in baby geek’s eye… which means I’m ancient… WAAAHHH!!

My tips:
>I pinned dozens of safety pins to the hem of my long skirts or tops for easy grabbing when I saw a costume needing it;

>I wore a roll of painter’s tape (easy release, it was white in those days) as a bracelet up my arm for marking off (and labeling) the backstage wardrobe racks that never were available in advance;

>I took Polaroids (and old-fashioned camera, dearie, no phone attached!) of the kids onstage in costume (in addition to the wardrobe room archive/matching photos we take) to build into a closing night collage or other hand-made wrap gift for the cast as a group or as individuals;

>I once wore Uncle Murray’s lighted men’s watch with the clock face & light turned under on my left (writing) hand so I could see my clipboard in the dark for making notes;

>I always saved a fun little bit of a costume for those bored chorus kids, and gave it to each during a tech before dress so they’d have a hankie, or a walking stick, or a boa or something that was always in my design but wasn’t vital to anything prior, just a fun piece of my visual puzzle for the show that made them feel less like cattle, more individual, gave them something to think about and work with as characters and not just “rubarb-rubarb-ers” —

Yikes! Plenty more but I gotta leave room for the other commenters — sorry, but you got me started~! Ha!

Thanks Jessica,

~GirlPie

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