Technical Rider

The next important step that was needed and had to be finalised was the technical rider. The rider is an essential for any performance, it informs the tech crew and the actors, and it’s a schedule that has to be absolutely followed. In my case I gave plenty of time for contingency just in case things didn’t go to plan. For example, for the tech day rider I knew that it would be nigh impossible for the company to get the lighting and sound cued up in time, so I allowed there to be a couple of hours that could have been spent rehearsing to be used up and rehearsals pushed back another time. Obviously during tech day the most important aspects are the technical aspects, that is why it is important to get through all tech and if there is any time left over run a cue to cue, we unluckily only had four hours for our tech day which meant a lot of the time was spent on lighting and sound and the rigging of the set. I would rather that we used up all that time doing so, so that the next day during the performance we did not waste any time on something that could have been done the day previously, especially as during the day we need every minute that we can get.

The day of the show was spent heavily on rehearsing, I initially told the cast that we would be doing cue to cues but after the first section I realised that they would be better off rehearsing fully as they would be made aware of everything around them wondering when the next cue will be asked for. I feel that this greatly helped the performance as it got the tech side ready and straight to the point as well as the actors ready. I feel it is of great importance to make sure a show day is relaxing and not stressful; I’m all for the tech side being stressful but the actors need to be at ease. I gave the cast plenty of time for breaks as I thought that they would need it the most, especially as I had insisted everyone gets to the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre at eight-thirty in the morning to ensure that they were ready for a full day. I did not want the cast to be tired and not performing to their best ability and so during the first quarter of the day, they generally hung about relaxing.