I'll
throw in my measly $0.02. All of my work has been in Community Theater and Church Theater (mostly musicals with live
orchestra) with varying levels of preparation, time and budget (or lack thereof) - and everyone who works tech (and most of the talent) are volunteers. With that being said, from a tech standpoint, I don't want to waste time for anyone (none of us are getting paid, remember?). To me, this is where the value of
Paper Tech and
Dry Tech come in.
During
Paper Tech, we keep the circle small: The various designers (or in many cases, myself, the Director and SM) can discuss, argue and cajole each other into what we want, I can provide
feedback on "that's going to be REALLY difficult" and so on, and we get to do this without having a tech crew (or actors) standing around listening to us bicker...uhh....discuss options.
Between Paper and
Dry Tech, we get the mic
plot finalized (now that we know which actors are playing which roles, how many roles are being combined,
etc.), we get the lights hung and aimed and the lighting computer programmed with areas (sometimes with a full
cue list, but I usually like to wait on that until a
bit later - it's going to change anyway), and the spot light
cue sheets written. If we have a set built (yeah - it's often behind), then we can get the ASM engaged to assign backstage jobs and start drafting our
stage bible (we usually don't have it finalized at this
point).
During
Dry Tech, we expand the circle slightly: The light operator, the spot light operators, the
stage hands, along with Director and SM (no actors, ok - maybe a few to
point lights at and help with cues). Then we try to run
cue-to-cue ensuring that every member of the tech team understands what they are supposed to be doing for each
cue that the SM will
call. This also gives the team a chance to discuss and resolve conflicts (I can't move the couch off
stage during that scene, I'm helping so-and-so with their....).
At this
point, we feel confident to actually start Tech Week, so now we
call the actors,
Orchestra,
etc. and do a full run-through with Tech. Because of the preparation, it is usually not as much of a train wreck as one might expect. The one
point of balance we are trying to achieve is (during Tech Week), when do we stop the show to back up and re-run a missed
cue, and when do we just take a note and discuss it later. Then after each rehearsal during Tech Week, the SM/
Lighting Designer/Light
Console Op and I spend some time tweaking lighting areas/colors/cues,
etc.
So, to answer your question, between Paper and
Dry Tech, we try to have a few days to get all of the decisions/cues that were made during
Paper Tech documented and published.
I'm sure that this is not the most efficient method, but it is working for us.