A Tech Tour of the Production of Noises Off

A Tech Tour of the Production of Noises Off

Samaira Sandil

The first Central Drama play of the 2022-23 school year, Noises Off, was performed on a two-story, rotating set from February 16th through 19th, allowing audiences to view ‘Nothing’s On’ from both the house and backstage perspective. With the long, labor-heavy hours put in by the Tech Crew under the supervision of Head of Tech Angela Nguyen (Junior) and Set Director Andy Blacker, the entire set was built within 7 weeks. 

The purpose behind the rotating aspect of the set is to support the play’s story. Nguyen said, “The whole point of the show is that you get to see the behind the scenes. In the second act we rotate the entire set during intermission and you’ll see the back half of the set. You get to have a little bit more insight into what it looks like behind a set when it’s not painted or done-up like an actual show.” 

What made the Noises Off set-building even more special was the size of the Tech Crew: they had a total of 19 members! This number doesn’t include the additional thespian members who join for tech hours. Nguyen said, “I loved that there were so many people in tech… This was the first major set that most of them built: a two-story, rotating set! That’s crazy! They learned so much and I am so proud of them all for how much they have grown as techies.”

A new member to the Tech Crew is Shaheen Karimpour, who said, “It’s pretty fun [being a tech member]. I found a lot of jobs pretty fast… I’m having a lot of fun to be honest. I really like the group of people here- everyone seems pretty nice and welcoming and I’m very excited for the show.”

Safety measures are essential in the construction of two-story sets, especially since the actors make many exaggerated movements around the structure. Nguyen said, “Obviously safety is a very important thing. A really big part of making sure that the second floor is completely safe is that the first floor is stable and has a good foundation… There’s a really good framework along all of this and everything’s leveled, so that’s great. But there will be a railing, obviously, so they don’t fall from the front and there will be walls so they don’t fall back. So it should be A-OK.” 

Sam Ryan, who played Garry Lejeune in the show, spoke on how safe he felt during the four shows: “Well, I fell down the stairs every night so I don’t know if I’m the most credible, but I thought that the only thing that was a danger was myself. I had to roll on the ground and fall a lot, but the set wasn’t the reason I was bruised up. I’d say the set was overall as safe as it needed to be and it would have been a pretty dangerous show if our tech crew wasn’t as good as they are at their job.”

The production met some obstacles due to the absence of Ms. Ladonna Wilson, the Director of the Theatre Department. Nguyen said, “Wilson was going through a really rough time during the show. Thanks to Andy and the dedicated techies, the set was built on time and beautifully so! Big thanks to Sierra for leading and dedicating so much of her time towards this show.”

Also integral to the tech of a show is sound. Head of Sound Maddie Bigler said, “For plays there’s not a whole lot of things to do with sound,” which is why it was decided to have the actors perform without any amplification. Bigler said, “With Noises Off  I believe we’re planning not to use wireless mics, so I don’t believe we’re micing the actors. But, because we have a very echoey theater, the sound is high quality, we did something similar with our Rumors production last year where we did not mic our actors. However, I will be running sound effects, so they’ll be a phone ringing and all sorts of that and intro music…”

As for what the techies did during the shows, Nguyen said, “There were not many scene transitions other than during intermission for this show; this gave techies a good opportunity to get to know each other, though. During intermission, a lot of it is communication and practice to get everything transitioned well and efficiently. Everyone has a role and an important part to the set.”

As soon as the last show is completed the Techies must completely tear down the set: a process called a ‘strike.’ Many members of the crew as well as the actors who assisted them expressed sadness throughout the quick couple hours it took to dismantle the Noises Off set that they had meticulously built over the past weeks.

Finally, Nguyen said, “Not many techies had built a set like this before and all of them were wowed by the structure and detail of a set like this.”

Additionally, techie Spencer Bengtson shared, “I think that everyone in the tech department works really hard. And you know sometimes it gets minorly overlooked but it’s fine. But, yeah, we’re putting in the real work here.”