It was 11:30 a.m. on a Saturday. While most students were sleeping in, student technicians, nicknamed “techies,” were at school rifling through drawers of makeup, checking microphones and silently shuffling onstage to change scenery. They spent eight to nine hours working backstage, stopping only for a dinner break and notes from the directors, to enable the cast to focus solely on their first full-length rehearsals.

This is the beginning of Tech Week.

This weekend the drama department will perform the stage adaptation of the cult film “Clue (High School Edition),” inspired by the classic Hasbro board game. While students easily recognize the work actors put into their roles during the school’s three yearly productions, most are in the dark about the specifics of bringing a show to life. Behind every sound effect, spotlight or prop is a student following cues that were refined during Tech Week. 

During this period, collaboration is key. Senior James Robinson, the costumes crew head, took multiple opinions into consideration when pulling costume options for the iconic Clue characters. 

“It’s really important to, number one, get a reference; often that means going to the internet and looking at what’s popular,” Robinson said. “I like to talk to the cast [about] what they hope they can look like and the directors on what they think people should look like and my crew on what they think everyone should look like.” 

Sophomore Gavin Rafter is taking on the role of set crew head for the first time, and is in charge of the show’s unique set, which mirrors the rooms of the expansive estate the board game is set within. 

“We used turntables and they’re so cool. We’re able to push the turntables on [and off] stage depending if the rooms are visible [or not] to the audience,” Rafter said. “We also fly walls in so certain rooms have specific walls that come in from the ceiling.” 

According to Rafter, the complexity of the set posed challenges for the show’s deadlines. 

“It’s hard because we don’t have a lot of time to build this set,” said Rafter. “We did it in about one month, and this is a very technically intensive set, so it’s been really difficult. We had to have a lot of meetings, but overall, we’ve managed.” 

No time embodies this hustle better than All-Day Tech, the first day of Tech Week: twelve hours for student technicians to nail down the effects and logistics of a performance. 

“It’s the first time we can actually know what every scene change needs to be so that the actors and technicians know what’s happening,” said junior Annabelle Burt, head of publicity.  “If we didn’t do it then, we’d have a harder time pushing for the show with just Tech Week, because we’d be missing a 12-hour walking period.”

Even with the stress of pulling the show together, the crew sees the benefits. Makeup crew member Amelie Shuler, a sophomore, said she gained “a new appreciation for what happens backstage” after being an onstage performer beforehand. 

Senior Sarah Soliman has been a technician for all four years of high school and organizes different crews’ respective stage cues as the assistant stage manager. She initially intended to pursue acting until her father encouraged her to try out the technical side of theater. While she recognizes that techies don’t “get as much recognition for [their] work” as actors do, Soliman finds working backstage fulfilling, nonetheless. 

“If I can think of one thing that defines high school [for me], it is theater,” she said. “It’s helped me get through a lot of things in high school and this theater has become a second home for me.”