Tech is a department in theater that is often overlooked. Many people tend to only focus on the actors, and this usually leads to them forgetting about who makes the show run. The tech department for this year’s spring musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” did an amazing job creating the set, costumes, and props. If you watched this production, you would be able to verify that the set was very well done. I interviewed a few members of tech to gather their thoughts and opinions about tech itself and what it brings to the production. 

“Is tech more important than the cast?” Each person I asked had almost identical responses. Sophomore, Mayra Biga, explained that “actors can act on their own, but to really make a show pop you can’t do it without tech.” After that, Junior Jaden Sams says that “having tech is a really crucial part in theater because we program, we build the set, we do everything. Without tech, there is no theater.” So, tech agrees that both the actors and techies hold the same weight when it comes to a theater production. 

Tech contributes a large amount to a production. Shiloh Mathelier, a Junior at Hinsdale South describes some of the contributions that the fashion department has made for the show. “We’ve added… applications to the outfits and in the past we’ve done cut out flowers and sewn them onto a skirt. Usually we just use what we have and if we need to adjust it or make it bigger or smaller we just do [alterations]”.  

Actors and tech go hand in hand. You can’t just have one of the two. A bad tech crew will create a boring show and a bad cast will create a cringe one. Tech is so often overshadowed, yet we know that without them, any play would just be a group of people talking to each other on a stage.