Play Writing in Depth (Part 5: Techies)

Welcome to part 5 of Play writing in Depth. So finally we have gotten out of the actual writing portion of this series now the next few parts are mainly going to be focusing on the technical aspects of plays, and me being a trained in the technical arts, this will be hopefully very easy. So this part is mainly me going to be ranting about what you need in your scripts to make the lives of people like me a butt ton load easier.

First off write in your script what you want for you stupid props.

I cannot tell you how many times in my three years as a techie (technical person) I have had to ask “so what do you want for props?” and what is the usual response that I get. “Oh I don’t know I will just let you decide”. First things first you never let a techie decide what to do for props because you will either get one of two outcomes. One basically the most basic set of props that you need, or two the most elegant designed props. And what is usual response that most techies get after showing off the props they have created, “that’s not what I wanted”. That’s about it, and you don’t understand how much that angers us. Because you told us to pick it and now you don’t like it.

Secondly know what you need for music and mics.

Again I have learned that when it comes to sound and mics no one understands. What most of us have to do is watch the show at least three or four times to figure out what people need for mics and what sound goes where. So if you want to make your techies life a lot easier tell us how many mics you need not want need and write in where your music and sound effects go.

Finally do not mess with a techies stuff. (I know this doesn’t have to do with actual writing but it’s just something that needs to be said).  

Oh now if you really want to piss off techie do one of two things. Move a techies props/stuff, or two not tell us where it is. This is the one thing that so many actors do and don’t understand how much it pisses us off. It would be like a techie taking an actors costume and not telling them where we put it. You don’t understand I am pretty sure that some techies have hit lists of which actors touch our stuff without permission.

So if you want your show to run smoothly please treat your techies with some level of respect because if not we can very easily make your shows a living nightmare. Well there is that rant next we move onto more on stage and props.