There are many variables involved in the overall success of a school production. These variables, specifically the lights and sound, are controlled by a group of students called the tech crew. At JA, the tech crew is an exclusive, student-led group of individuals who work together to learn the processes of audio and visual for not only plays and musicals, but for any other event requiring sound and lighting. 

“Right now, [we do] pretty much any sort of choir/band thing, anything that requires performance stage lighting or audio sound. As far as like, even in the gym for the Canaan concert, we have to do that,” senior Amara Suchy says. 

Because the technology requires a lot of knowledge and experience to handle, the tech crew is a small group and that knowledge is passed down over time. 

Suchy states, “No one really teaches us, that’s all like inherited knowledge. So when someone in the tech booth is a senior, they have to find someone to recruit, an underclassmen or younger person to come up and learn what they know.”

This technology is difficult to learn, especially because of the outdated systems the tech crew navigates. 

“Everything’s analog,” junior Chloe Fields says, ”the lightboard is from like ‘94 or something. The manual for both the sound and lightboard is a VHS tape.”

Because the equipment is so tedious, the crew must be professional and careful when around it. 

“While being in the tech crew looks like a fun and laid back time, it’s very stressful to work on eventually and you have to have a level of professionalism when it comes to performance and care of the equipment.” Suchy states, ”There are times where the student body may come up and work in the booth and break things we don’t want to be broken and it just becomes hard to do our job as tech crew when things don’t work, when lights burn out, when, you know, cords are broken and stuff.”

Another challenging aspect of the tech crew duties is balancing all of the on-stage action with the corresponding duties in the booth. 

“Running 23 individual mics, knowing who’s number 16, who’s number four, who’s number seven, being able to coordinate exactly what it is what,” Suchy says, “we’re the only ones who know how to do it.”

Although there are many challenges, the crew enjoys their work in the audio and visual booth and feels the experience is worth it. 

“Once you finish something and you can look back on it and realize that, especially after programming all the lights for the show and stuff, it’s very rewarding,” senior Nick Mast says.