I recently started directing a show at a new theatre (new for me) and I'm having problems with the technical director. He insists that he will not hang the lights until the day of the technical run and cue to cue. This doesn't seem very practical to me, and I hear from other members that this makes for an even longer tech run. I would be more open minded, except he will be lighting the show in a lighting workshop that is being run in the theatre. 2 weeks before the tech run. So the instruments will already be hung. But he's going to take them down and then hang them again. He keeps insisting that 'this is the way its done' and I don't have a lot of experience. Is this the way its done? Do you traditionally wait until the day of the tech run to hang the lights?

I've done a lot of shows and never done it/seen it done this way. Usually the designer meets with the director well before the tech to find out what kind of special lighting will be needed then hangs and aims the lights once some basic semblance of a set it up. Then during the technical the designer will take notes on anything that not set right, and will adjust the lights afterward. Occasionally the designer might want to aim a critical special during the technical rehersal, but that's not even that common.

I don't know if we are blessed with what may be a rare luxury to other theaters, but we have a lighting designer besides a technical director. The technical director is basically concerned with the set. The lighting designer and his assistant observe our rehearsals and make notes. They begin hanging, focusing and programming lights a couple of weeks before tech week. The week before tech, they come around and work the lights while we rehearse. There, a need for a slight adjustment of blocking may rise to accommodate any technical difficulties. During tech week, we have a quick cue-to-cue, and also a quick breaking-in of the person who would actually operate the lighting board. That's usually a volunteer, so we won't have to pay the lighting people extra to run the shows. And that's the way it's being done in our theater for the past 25 years. Others will probably have other ways of getting it done in their theater. General rule to avoid what I call "white knuckle stage production": When things are done as early as possible, there is more time to fix errors, fine-tune the production, and reduce the stress of tech week. So far, our tech weeks have been a yawn. And we wouldn't have it any other way.