The last week of rehearsal – technical rehearsal. For anyone who doesn’t know about ‘tech weeks’ let me explain. This is the time when all the elements of the show come together: actors, light, set, sound and if there’s anything else, that too. It’s an incredibly exciting time, but also often very slow and methodical.

For ‘Only the Men’ the tech week is mainly about lighting as we have been working with our set and sound throughout the rehearsal. Our lighting designer, Grahame Gardner, is a wonderfully talented man and fantastic to work with. He’s also a dab hand with knots which has been very useful in the last day or so.

There is something very magical about the moment when the working lights are turned off and the stage lights start doing their work. The transformation of the bare stage into shape, colour and expanse is always beautiful to watch. The set, costumes and, sometimes, even the actors will never look better. But the real magic is in the subtle transformations that happen constantly, changing times of day, locations or simply moods. For ‘Only the Men’ the lighting will help us pass from the beach to the top of a windy high peninsular head and to an old crofting home. There’s one other location that Grahame will be going to town with but I’m not going to mention it here in case the reader is coming to see the show.

Up to this moment the lighting design has only existed in Grahame’s head so this is our own chance for some drama to see it unfold.

And so to work…

Tim