With tech week fast approaching for Shrek the Musical, we thought we should come up with a list of ways to survive the chaos.
By Olivia Hammermaster
1. Be safe. Who wants to be on crutches during the show? No one! Imagine if you did break your leg right before opening… Relearning your blocking and choreography from a new perspective will be a challenge. So be cautious of how you move your body!
2. Preserve your voice. Just like staying safe physically, don’t forget to keep your voice safe, too. Sure, you got tickets to that concert, but you also made a commitment to sing live to an audience. So if you feel the urge to sing along at the top of your voice, do it in your head.
3. Be nice. You should always try to get along with everyone in the production. You’re basically family now. Everyone needs to be focused on the show, not on petty arguments.
4. Get plenty of rest. As most high school students or college kids will tell you, it’s totally impossible. But it IS possible! Tech week will demand a lot from you, true, but if you go to sleep as soon as you get home and drink plenty of water during rehearsal, your body won’t even realize the late nights.
5. Wear sweats everyday. Literally every single day. This (and finals week, if you’re in school) is the only time it’s perfectly acceptable. So embrace the comfy laziness of sweatpants!
6. Don’t worry; be happy. Tech week is NOT the time to wonder how you’re going to pay for the trip to Europe next summer or why you have such an intense phobia of spiders. Let the troubles of life slip away. You can always deal with them next week. But right now, you better be running lines until you can do it in your sleep.
7. Tell your mom or dad you love them. Let’s be real– our parents help us out tremendously during this time, even if we don’t recognize it. And since you’re going to be spending a lot of time in the theatre, treasure the moments you spend with your family this week.
8. When in doubt, stretch it out. You’re going to be dancing onstage, and you’ve got to sell it. No one cares if you’re a little tight that morning. Get the cast together to lead your own yoga classes before you go onstage.
9. Bring food to rehearsal. You may be busy a lot of the time, but you’ll also have some down time, and since tech rehearsals run for hours on end, trust us when we say you’re going to get hungry. That power bar you ate before you got to rehearsal isn’t going to cut it. Pack a snack– or even an entire dinner if you’re daring.
10. Invite everyone you know. The more the merrier! Text your best friend, email your grandmother, make an announcement in your local coffee shop, and don’t forget to post the details on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook– and definitely on Myspace. Don’t leave anyone out! Not a single person! Shameless self-promo is the way to go!
