Student Blog: No Mics, No Marking, No Holding Back

Tech week is my favorite part of the rehearsal process. Set, lighting, costumes, hair, makeup, special effects. It’s magical. In lieu of the play, Good Breeding, opening at Boston Conservatory’s Mainstage this snowy weekend, here is what our tech week looked like and how tech brought the show to life.

I audibly gasped the first time I saw this set. My director had brought us into the theater after our last rehearsal in the studio, just for a glimpse of what we were working with. We had just finished our designer run, exhausted and ready to go home, but goosebumps flooded the room the moment we stepped into the theater. The entire floor was painted a silicon white. The stage looked like a massive slab of marble. The traditional wings were removed and replaced with sheer white curtains to open up the space and make it feel exposed. Hanging from the ceiling was a heavy rectangular structure that framed the world of the play with sharp, geometric lines. Having performed in this same theater many times before, I had never seen it look like this, a dystopian, blinding world where time does not exist.

My director warned us, “When you enter a larger space, you can’t let the space consume you. You have to fill up the space.” I think our cast more than just filled up the space. It is easy to mark during tech or simply run through the motions of the play without feeling. With a show where most of the tech cues are based off of the intense acting beats and actions, we had to own the space like no other. Tech forced us to match the intensity of the designer’s vision, bringing more energy than ever before to this show.

First, was safety. With the set, we had to practice moving the large pillars in the center of the stage, jumping off of them and tilting them down to the floor and back up again. That broad rectangular structure that hangs from the ceiling? Yeah, it moves from a fly system. The airborne structure rises, falls, and tilts all while us actors are onstage. We had to run through each moment when the structure moved to ensure no one was in the way or would get hurt. Besides safety with the set, we had to take note of moments where our costumes could get in the way of actions. How do I do a backwards roll with a tight choker necklace on? How do I jump onto someone’s back and get flipped over without whacking someone in the face with the chains hanging off of my belt? How do I get dragged on this floor if I am wearing a leather jacket? How do I fight someone and get fake stabbed with a heavy helmet on? Adjusting to these new, technical elements safely took focus, quiet, and most of all, communication.

Next, was makeup! During the first two days of spacing rehearsals, we were taken downstairs to the mezzanine for a session with the makeup artists. There was glitter, gore, eyeshadow, fake tattoos, and lots and lots of eyeliner. There is something about wearing a black smoky eye and a red lip that elevated my character to another level.

In this makeup session, my Costume Designer came over to me and whispered that I could get my nails painted any color that would match my costume. Immediately the next morning before getting to the theater, I rushed for a 9 a.m. appointment at the nearest nail salon. My black chrome nails were the perfect addition to my character and costume. Of course the goddess of vengeance would have shiny, metallic claws growing out of her fingers. I felt fierce, lethal, and larger than life.

Lastly, the lighting for this show is out of this world, literally. There are projections tailored to specific actors that amplify their bodies onstage. There are lights shining through the pillars, descending down through the ceiling. There are red, purple, and green gobo effects that enhance the blood and gore in fight scenes. All of this lighting is backed up by sound cues from our sound designer, who added sci-fi inspired noises and songs that fill the theater. Regarding sound, our director believed that we are trained enough to articulate the story without microphones that a typical show in this theater would have. We had to be more cognisant of projection and resonance in our lines than ever before. After all, we do spend hours in Voice and Speech class solely focused on projection, resonance, and articulation for this very reason, so why not utilize our training from this school!

Working with these special lighting and sound effects was an experience like no other. In the scene where my fellow actors and I perform a haunting ritual, the lighting made it look like there was green smoke festering on the fluorescent ground. The sigil we painted on the floor with our hands was projected in a bold red color onto the stage. As we were immersed in and enhanced by the eerie lighting, the devilish “theme song” for our character murmured in our ears. These lighting and sound effects made the scene so much more real and nuanced for us. As actors, we did not have to rely on our imagination as much anymore. The haunting we were casting seemed to actually be there.

On the first day of rehearsal, designers had shared their visions through pinterest boards, lighting cue visuals, and spotify playlists. These designs then accumulated in our minds during the process, influencing our acting and character work in the studio. Watching these visions grow into our last days of rehearsal in the theater, overlooking marble-painted slabs hanging from the ceiling, feeling the spotlight on our skins, and hearing the sounds that enhance our characters, made me eager to put this show in front of an audience. Tech brought nuances to Good Breeding that I didn’t even know were possible.