When you imagine a tech, what do you see? Do you envision shadows scampering across backstage during a performance? Jake McClellan, a former Student Tech Director, says that is exactly what Bob Jones tech is.
The setting of a production is often one of the most critical components of creating a work destined for the big screen. Without an appropriate setting, no matter how phenomenal the acting is, the story and themes of a production are lost to the audience. That’s where tech comes in.
In a more literal sense, tech is using creativity, knowledge, and skills to enhance the overall effect of a theatrical performance. B. Dwayne Craft teaches a course concerning technology in theater. His students learn how to adjust light angles and shades to channel the audience’s attention and manipulate its emotions. Ever used a “drill driver”? All techs become proficient in the art of this tool one month into taking Mr. Craft’s course.
Costume design is an equally important job that techs perform. Techs design, construct, and maintain all of the costumes in a production. If an actor is wearing something, it is certain that the tech created it from the bottom up.
Mr. Craft said, “There are difficulties in teaching the course, since there is so much my students have to learn.” All the work, however, is worth it. He loves knowing that the elaborate and intricate performances of Bob Jones are a product of his students’ work.
No matter the difficulties, there is no better school to learn about the work done behind the scenes than Bob Jones. Last year at the South-Eastern Theatre Conference, Bob Jones’ tech crew of roughly thirty-three members moved fourteen set pieces both on stage and off stage in less than sixty seconds! This group shattered Bob Jones’ previous time record of ninety seconds, set a few years prior.
The next time you see a Bob Jones production, thank our techs. Without them, it would not have been possible.
