# Tech Week for Actors: What to Expect and How to Survive It > A day-by-day guide to tech and dress rehearsals for actors: what paper tech, dry tech, cue-to-cues, and holds mean, what the stage manager needs from you, and how to keep your lines and your energy when the run stops every few minutes. - URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/tech-week-for-actors - Published: 2026-10-23 - Last updated: 2026-10-23 For weeks, the show has lived in a rehearsal room with tape on the floor and a folding chair standing in for the staircase. Then you walk into the theater. There's a real set, a lighting designer at a table in the house, and a voice from somewhere in the dark saying "Hold, please" just as you open your mouth. Tech week is the strangest stretch of any production. You'll spend long hours mostly waiting, then have thirty seconds to hit a mark you've never seen in the light. And the line you've said a hundred times can vanish the moment you're asked to start halfway through a speech. The short version: tech is for the crew and designers, not for you, so your job is to be ready, quiet, and close by. Know your lines and blocking cold before you arrive, practice starting from the middle of scenes, and save your full energy for the runs. Here is what each day looks like and how to get through it. ## Tech is for the crew, and that changes your job Until now, rehearsals have been about you and the director. In tech, the priorities flip. The lights, sound, set changes, props, and costumes all get added to the show, and the people running them often have only a few days to learn what you've had weeks to rehearse. That's why the stage manager takes charge. Indiana University's theater department, in its [production principles](https://theater.indiana.edu/documents/student-portal/TechExpectations_v4.pdf), calls the stage manager the driving force of technical rehearsals. It says the stage manager calls the holds and decides what needs to be worked and reworked. Directors often defer to them through tech. So your job changes too. You're no longer exploring the scene. You're giving the crew a consistent target to hit, which means doing the same thing, in the same place, at the same time, again and again. If you change a cross or speed up a speech, a light cue built around the old version may miss you. Our guide to [memorizing blocking](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-memorize-blocking) helps you lock that down before tech starts. ## Tech week, day by day No two theaters schedule it the same way, and a school show may squeeze it into a handful of evenings. But the order is usually similar, from the fewest people in the room to the full company in costume. ### Before you arrive: paper tech and dry tech The first steps often happen without actors. In a **paper tech**, the director, designers, and stage manager meet to place every cue in the stage manager's calling script. IU's guide schedules it in the week before tech. A **dry tech** is a technical rehearsal without actors; IU uses one mostly for musicals, to train the crew on scene shifts. You may not be called for either, but they explain why the stage manager already knows exactly where every cue sits in your lines. ### The cue-to-cue The first rehearsal with actors is usually the cue-to-cue. The [Oberlin Stage Management Project](https://sites.google.com/oberlin.edu/oberlin-sm-project/procedures/how-to-run-tech) calls it "usually the first form of tech rehearsal." Instead of running the show, you jump from cue to cue. The stage manager picks a point just before the next cue, everyone starts there, the cue runs, and then the stage manager holds while the director and designers decide whether to run it again. For you, that means a lot of "Can we go from Algernon's line about competition?" followed by thirty seconds of acting and a stop. Then you skip ahead several pages to the next cue. It feels like rehearsing the show with most of the pages torn out. ### The long days and tech runs Once every cue has been set, the company starts running the show with all the technical elements, stopping when something goes wrong. In union houses, some of these are **10 out of 12s**: as the [Dramatists Guild explains](https://www.dramatistsguild.com/news/industry-conversation-around-10-out-12s), it's an Actors' Equity rule that members can't work more than 10 hours out of every 12, to protect a lunch and a dinner break. IU's sample 10 out of 12 for its university productions runs from a 10am call to a 10pm finish, with a two-hour meal break in the afternoon. Expect to stop and go back often. IU's guide says designers and the stage manager should feel completely free to stop rehearsal, rerun transitions, and talk through problems. It also says not to expect a full run on a day like that, though tech should still reach the end of the show by the end of the rehearsal. Some theaters have moved away from these days. The Dramatists Guild names ten theaters, including Steppenwolf and The Old Globe, that pledged to end 10 out of 12s, six-day weeks, or both. ### Dress rehearsals Then costumes, wigs, and makeup are added. IU says there are typically three dress rehearsals before a preview and opening. It also warns that the first dress may not run straight through, because the wardrobe crew is working through the changes for the first time. A hold during dress can be requested by wardrobe, a designer, the director, the stage manager, or an actor, to rework a quick change or when someone or something could be hurt. A shorter schedule might look like this one from [Saint Mary's College of California's theater guidelines](https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/academics/liberal-arts/performing-arts/theatre-production-guidelines), which dropped the long tech day for students' wellbeing: - Thursday and Friday evenings: cue-to-cue. - Saturday: add costumes and finish the cue-to-cue in the afternoon, then a full dress run at night. - Sunday: the whole company has the day off. - Monday to Wednesday: full dress runs each evening. - Thursday: opening night. After each dress run there, the director gives about fifteen minutes of general notes to the cast, and actors can sign up for an individual notes session the next day. Ask your stage manager early for your own production's schedule, so you can plan work, sleep, and meals around it. ## What to do when someone calls a hold A hold is a full stop. Actor Louis Butelli, writing about tech on *Mary Stuart* for the [Folger Theatre blog](https://www.folger.edu/blogs/folger-spotlight/louis-butelli-mary-stuart-tech/), describes the stage manager saying "hold, please" over the theater's PA when something hasn't gone right. Then the actors involved repeat their lines or actions while the team fixes it. A few habits keep a hold short: - Stop where you are, stop talking, and stay still. You may not know why the run stopped, and the reason could be something you can't see, like a set piece moving behind you. - Don't use the hold to chat, check your phone onstage, or ask the director about your character. The designers are working. - Listen for where to pick up. The stage manager will usually name a line and sometimes a position. Repeat it back if you're not sure. - When the run resumes, give the crew exactly what you did before, at the same speed. They're timing their cue to you. Between your scenes, stay close. Kent State's [BFA Musical Theatre etiquette guide](https://www.kent.edu/theatredance/etiquette-students-bfa-musical-theatre-program) tells students to stay near the stage during tech, because the designers are always going to go back a few scenes when they resume. It also asks for no talking or whispering offstage. If you're on the far side of the building when they go back to your entrance, the whole room waits for you. Oberlin's guide tells stage managers not to give acting notes, and it says the cast gathers for the director's notes after a tech rehearsal. The stage manager may pass on practical ones from the director, like "stay in your light" or "please enter on time." Write them down. For the rest of the relationship, see our guide to [working with your stage manager](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-work-with-your-stage-manager). ## Keep your lines when the run keeps stopping Here is the problem tech exposes. It's easy to learn a scene only by running it from the top. Each line cues the next, so the whole thing is a chain. Break the chain in the middle, with a hold and a "Pick up from 'Only relatives, or creditors,'" and the link you need may not come. Take this speech from Act I of Oscar Wilde's *The Importance of Being Earnest*, from the [Project Gutenberg text](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/844). There's a sound cue in the middle of it: > **ALGERNON:** My dear fellow, it isn’t easy to be anything nowadays. There’s such a lot of beastly competition about. [The sound of an electric bell is heard.] Ah! that must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner. Now, if I get her out of the way for ten minutes, so that you can have an opportunity for proposing to Gwendolen, may I dine with you to-night at Willis’s? > > **JACK:** I suppose so, if you want to. In a cue-to-cue, that bell may be rehearsed more than once. You might be asked to go from "There’s such a lot of beastly competition about" and then, if the bell came in late, from that same line again. If you only know the speech from its first word, every restart costs you. If you can start from any sentence, you'll be ready every time. So before tech, practice starting in the middle: - Open your script at random, read only the line before yours, and say your line from memory. - Mark the lines in your part where a cue happens: a sound, a light change, an entrance, a prop. Those are the likeliest restart points, so drill them most. - For a long speech, practice from each sentence to the end, not just from the top. - Run the scene once with deliberate stops. Pause for a minute, then pick up again from a line a friend chooses. Offbook reads the other characters out loud and waits for your line, and the video below shows how to control a run: skip ahead line by line, by pressing Enter or saying "next line", to start partway into a scene, and turn on scene looping so the scene starts again when it ends and you get several passes in a row. Video: [Practice controls](https://www.offbook.com/learn/practice-controls) (1:06) A word on why a new space can shake your lines. The classic idea is that memory works best in the setting where you learned it. A [2021 replication](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8568063/) of the famous study, in which divers learned word lists on land or underwater, didn't find that effect. Its author notes that environmental context effects on memory are well established but often weak. So don't blame the theater alone. Fatigue, nerves, and constant restarts are working against you too. Practicing from anywhere is the part you can control. ### If a line goes in tech It will happen. Ask for the line the way your company does it, take it, and keep going. Tech isn't a performance, and nobody is grading your memory. But if the same line goes twice, it's telling you something. Write it down at the next break and drill it that night with the cue before it. You can also turn any speech into first-letter prompts with our free [line memorizer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/first-letter-memorizer), then test yourself on the way home. If it happens in performance, our guide on [forgetting your lines on stage](https://www.offbook.com/blog/forgot-lines-on-stage) covers how to recover. ## Save your energy for the moments that count Butelli puts it plainly: tech is very long days, and for actors, a fair amount of it is down time. The trap is staying wound up for twelve hours. You end the day exhausted without having acted much at all. ### Mark, then go full out on the runs In a cue-to-cue, the crew mostly needs your timing, your position, and your volume. Some actors keep those three exactly as they'll be in performance and hold back only the emotional peak. Check with your stage manager or director before you mark anything, since they may want the full performance even here. Then, on the runs and dress rehearsals, give the full performance. That's when your castmates and the crew need the real show. ### Look after yourself through the week Christopher Peterson's [tech week survival guide](https://www.onstageblog.com/columns/2019/7/18/how-to-survive-tech-week) on OnStage Blog makes the basic case. Know your lines and blocking before you arrive, don't skip breakfast, eat light, and get as close to eight hours of sleep as you can. A few more habits help: - Bring a water bottle and snacks you can eat quickly at a break. Kent's guide allows only water while you're in costume. - Keep a pencil in your pocket for notes and blocking changes. - Bring something quiet for the long waits, like a book or your script. - Warm up your voice before every call. Long days in a bigger space can wear it down. Our guide on [projecting your voice](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-project-your-voice-on-stage) has a short routine. - Thank the crew. They're learning the show in days, so patience and good humor go a long way. If you want a few classic scenes to practice cue pickups on, our free [run lines online](https://www.offbook.com/tools/run-lines-online) tool reads the other part and waits for you. Our library of [public-domain plays](https://www.offbook.com/plays) has full texts to work from, including the Wilde above. ## Questions actors ask ### What is the difference between a cue-to-cue and a tech run? A cue-to-cue skips from one technical cue to the next and leaves out the text in between. A tech run goes through the show with all the technical elements, stopping only when something needs fixing. ### Do I need to be off book before tech? Yes. Tech is not the time to learn lines, because everyone else in the room is learning their part of the show around yours. Companies often set an off-book date well before tech so the cast has full runs without scripts first. ### Can an actor call a hold? Usually the stage manager calls holds. But IU's guide lists actors among those who can request one during dress, and it allows a hold whenever someone could get hurt. If you need one, tell the stage manager right away. ### Why are tech rehearsals so long? Because the crew has only a few days to learn and time every cue, change, and prop move, and the only way to do that is to stop and repeat each one until it works. ### What should I bring to tech week? Water, quick snacks, a pencil, your script, warm layers for a cold theater, and something quiet to do. Ask your stage manager what to bring for costume and makeup.