By Conor Gillingham
Backstage is one of the most important parts of theater. The tech crew focuses on many important aspects of the show like props lighting and cues for the cast.
While the cast focuses on the lines, acting, and choreography, theater tech focuses on the set and environment for the cast, making it a different experience than being a member of the cast. The main challenges of the tech crew is getting the cast to know their lines on time, getting designs in, and making sure the different categories are up to speed and on time. Theater has the biggest time commitment in the school because they stay after school for late nights and also have to come on Saturday, making it one of their biggest challenges. While the time commitment is a lot, their hard work pays off.
There are three stage managers in Herndon High’s theater tech: Senior Tina Thayer, Sophomore Zach Wemyss, and Senior Carlos Avelar, who are in charge of the whole tech crew. This is Tina's second year of tech crew. She took tech sophomore year and came back this year to be a part of tech. Going on to his second year, Zach became a part of tech because he did it at Herndon Middle. He really liked it and decided to do it at Herndon High. Tina and Carlos did regular theater freshman year, but they found tech to be more interesting and they wanted to be a part of it. They have important jobs as managers regarding the cast and the shows as a whole.
“There’s a stage manager up in the booth during the show that runs all cues and communicates from the booth to the stage to make sure everything runs smoothly.” Thayer said.
The three of them think that Mr. Pafumi as a director is much better than the years before because it is much more organized and they don’t need to figure out what to do themselves. Overall they like tech crew and expect great things from Mr. Pafumi in the future.
While we focus on the main cast when we go to plays, the tech crew is just as important because of how they contribute to the shows and the time they put in.
