Technical Information

What to Expect

Technical Rehearsal
You will get a technical rehearsal of up to 3 hours for your show. The festival provides a technician to run sound and lights from the technical booth in the House. You will not get more than 3 hours of technical rehearsal time or early access to the venue, and there are no exceptions to this.

Lighting
Each venue comes equipped with a general house lighting plot. You can expect a general wash, warm and cool lighting looks, and probably up to 3 lighting spots in the downstage area (specials) for each production.

Audio
All venues come equipped with a PA system, an analog sound console, and a small stock of wired microphones and DI boxes. There are no in-house wireless mic, or monitor options. You may have wired mics. The Victoria Fringe cannot accommodate wireless lav mics.

For audio cue playback, you can provide your own laptop or device (some but not all venues may have a Mac mini equipped with QLab 4 in the booth) that the technician can operate for you.  If you want us to play back your cues, you can provide us with a pre-prepared QLab file (it’s pretty easy – see here https://qlab.app/ and here QLab video tutorials, and many simple cue lists can be built with the free version). You can also give us the individual sound files, but be aware it will take the technician time out of your technical rehearsal to build the QLab file for you.

Projection
Some venues may have a video projector and a white projection surface (the cyc) in place, but not all do. We cannot guarantee your venue has a projector – if it does not, you would need to provide one. In the case you provide one, it cannot be mounted in the venue– it will have to project from the floor.

Shows will need to provide a video playback device (e.g. a laptop) and an operator for it.  The connection to the projector is VGA, so your device needs to support that and you’ll need to bring any adapter needed.

Questions? If you have further questions regarding Technical Requirements for your show not covered here, please can contact Fringe Producer, Emmett MacMillen (emmett@intrepidtheatre.com) / 250 383 2663).

Technical Rehearsal Preplist

• CHECK your tech time and make sure you arrive on time
• PAPER TECH – Before going in to tech rehearsal do a ‘paper tech’, (talking through all of the cues and clarifying with the group what you want.)
• BACK UP – Have THREE backups of your sound files: laptop, flash drive, CD or cloud back up (with the actual files in a folder in addition to Q lab files). Note, computers may not be supplied at your venue, so bring your own laptop (and power cord).
• LIGHTING LOOKS – Generate two lists – your basic one and one with your ideal looks if the venue can accommodate.
• CUE SCRIPT – a copy of your script with cues marked on it. 
• CUE LIST – a list with cue #, page number, Q lab line/#, action (see example below)

What to tell your tech at the beginning of technical rehearsal:

• SCRIPT – Give them a paper copy of your script
• SET – How much set do you have to build, set up?
• STAGE MANAGER – Do you have an SM? If not, who is the ONE assigned person from your show who communicates with the tech?
• SCHEDULE – Outline your goals for the usage of tech time (e.g. Q2Q for 1.5 hrs, full run 1 hour) and work out a schedule with your tech.
• LIGHTING – How involved is it? How many cues do you have?
• MUSIC – How many cues?
• VIDEO – Any projection? Does a projector need to be hung? Screen?
• ACCESS – do you have an ASL interpreter, or is it a relaxed performance?
• Are there any other special tech requirements?

A guide to preparing for your Fringe Tech Rehearsal

Need more detail? Here is a guide created by former Fringe Venue Tech Carolyn Moon. Fringe 101 Tech Tutorial

Other Useful Resources

Cue Sheet Example – feel free to download and use this template

Qlab tutorial – how to video from the Arts Club Theatre Co.

Definitions

QLab – A playback program for sound, lighting, and projections.  It is the simplest way to execute complex sound designs.  There is a free version that allows for two channels of audio; you can rent or buy the pro version online, for more channels of audio, projections, or lighting.  It is only available on MacOS

Multiplay – The Windows equivalent of QLab.  It is not as commonly used as QLab.

Q2Q – A technical rehearsal where you literally go from cue to cue.  You step through the show, skipping much of the text, and give your technician lead up time to your cues, so they can execute them properly.  This is the ideal time to let your technician know if you want to make any changes to calling points, looks, or levels.

Cue Sheet – A list of lighting, sound, and projection cues, with times and calling points, and cue numbers.

Prompt Script – A script with lighting and sound cues indicated with clear calling points. You can also give your technician a blank script and let them annotate it in a way that works for them!