Tech week (also called “hell week”) is the final rehearsal period before a theatrical production opens, when all technical elements are integrated with the cast for the first time. Kim is directing a show for her vocal ensemble called Encore. They produce two big shows per year, and the first one for 2026 is scheduled for this coming weekend. The show is called and themed as Encore Hits the Road. Since encore likes to sing Broadway tunes, the road trip is intended to represent the group going from San Diego to Broadway stopping along the way on Route 66 and other roadside attractions as they travel the back roads of the country. More on the show later, but now let’s talk about what tech week represents.
What happens during tech week is that the production shifts from bare rehearsal space it’s been using to the actual stage, and actors/singers work alongside all the technical components simultaneously, including lighting cues, sound design, set changes, costumes, hair/makeup, and special effects. It’s often the first time the cast experiences the show as the audience eventually will. The key elements being coordinated are lighting design with cue-to-cue timing, color, and intensity, sound with microphone levels, music, and any sound effects, scenic transitions including risers, flying pieces, turntables, wagons, barnyard animals and whatever, costume changes (especially quick changes between scenes), and general stage management calling cues in real time. The typical progression usually begins with a cue-to-cue (stopping and starting to set technical cues without running scenes fully), then moves into tech runs (slow, stop-and-start full runs), then dress rehearsals (full runs in costume at performance pace), culminating in a final dress or preview performance. It’s called “hell week” because the hours are brutal… often 10-hour days or longer. Tempers run high, and everything that can go wrong tends to surface at once. It’s exhausting for cast, crew, directors and designers alike, but it’s also when a production truly comes alive as a unified whole. In many ways, tech week is the primary responsibility of the director, which is why I’m even familiar with all of this as Kim has shifted to that role rather than performing…at least for now.
Kim is a consummate theater professional who has done musical theater during her youth, studied it in college, taught it in schools for many years and participated in the process as a performer, director and choreographer over and over again for 40+ years in everything from Broadway touring companies, off-Broadway, Regional theater, summer stock (in Vermont), dinner theater and cabaret. She has directed giggly school girls and petulant Broadway wannabes. And twice she has gone back to her home town of Wabash, Indiana to direct two different local productions of the town’s notable history, involving all manner of local residents and even relatives from her Midwestern past. In other words, she’s seen it all and knows exactly what needs to be done. Very few in the ensemble that she is currently directing can claim that they have a fraction of her experience, not that that ever stops anyone from thinking they know better how things should be done. But as they used to say in the circus…The show must go on! … Ringmasters and bandleaders used the term to calm crowds and prevent panic when unexpected disasters occurred, such as a performer getting injured or an animal escaping (yikes!). The principle of keeping the performance moving regardless of difficulty eventually became a deep-rooted credo in live theater and, later, a popular idiom across all of show business and everyday life. Even Freddie Mercury and Queen jumped on the expression with their hit song by the same name in 1991.
I noted many years ago that the Kim that directs shows is a very different Kim from what most people know and from what I live with day to day. She’s all about getting the job done and done well and anyone getting in the way (including me and Buddy) better beware. Today is Wednesday and so far so good this tech week. The company is into the theater as of yesterday and the first run-through went quite smoothly by her standards. Tonight will be the final “dry tech” and another run-through if there’s time. Remember, almost everyone involved has a day job, what they might call on Broadway, a survival job. As much as everyone involved the company is dedicated to their art-form (obviously some more than others), there are simply limits to how much time the company has to rehearse and get the run of show straight. Tomorrow will be dress rehearsal followed by a show on Friday night (I will take two neighbors…Melisa and Yasuko… to that) and another of Saturday afternoon (I will take Kim’s sister Sharon and friend Matthew). Then the ensemble will strike the set, put away the music and let the performance live in their minds for eternity. It’s quite a ride that ends with a dramatic exclamation point.
Here is the run-of-show for Encore Hits the Road:
ACT I – 13 songs/3 scenes
Hitting The Road-Val and Kevin
SCENE 1
Life is a Highway – Full Ensemble, Home Positions
On My Way – Elisa
SCENE 2
Route 66 – Full Ensemble
Fast Car – Erica
Oklahoma – Small Full Ensemble
Journey To the Past – Amber
Shenandoah – Full Ensemble
Trolley Song – Soprano/Alto
Run Away With Me – Edward
Great Adventure – Small Ensemble
When I Drive – Ken and Roland
SCENE 3
Corn – Full Ensemble, Mixed Positions
INTERMISSION
ACT II – 11 songs/ 3 scenes
All That Jazz – Full Ensemble, Home Positions
Wherever We Go – Trio
SCENE 1
Ease On Down The Road – Full Mixed Positions
Take Me To the World – Mezzos Jacquie
I’ve Been Everywhere – Tenor/Bass Sectional
SCENE 2
Home – Soprano/Alto Sectional
California Dreamin’ – Small Group Ensemble
SCENE 3
Old Friends/Our Time – Full Ensemble
As We Stumble Along – Sparkle
Hitting the Road – Reprise Val, Sopranos and Kevin
NYC Medley – Full Ensemble, Mixed Position
As you can see, this is no backyard carnival, it’s a serious production with 60+ people involved and Kim is the glue that has to make it all hang together as a show in two hours start-to-finish. I am expecting great things and am happy to suffer through tech week to allow Kim to get it there.