The kitchen is empty at 9:50 pm. The dinner you made is wrapped in foil on the counter. Her phone is dead because she forgot to charge it. The director’s text from earlier said pickup at 9:45 but you both know that means 10:15 on a tech week night.

The dog is asleep on the couch. You are eating a stale cracker over the sink.

Welcome to tech week. The single most chaotic seven days a theater family will live through this season. Here is how to get through it.

What tech week actually is

In the last week before opening, a production adds three things at once.

Costumes. Until now your kid has been rehearsing in sweatpants. Now they are wearing a 1940s suit that does not fit and trying to do a quick change in 90 seconds.

Lights. The crew has been working on the lighting cues for weeks, but this is the week they finally run them with the actors. The lighting designer will stop the show 14 times to adjust a cue. Your kid will stand on a mark for 20 minutes while someone in the booth tries to find the right gel.

Sound. Body mics, sound effects, and pit orchestra if there is one. This is also the week your kid finds out they cannot hear themselves when the band plays.

Stack those on top of a full run-through every night, and you have tech week. Rehearsals get longer. Tempers get shorter. Nothing is going well yet because nothing has been put together yet.

The schedule

Most school productions run something like this. Sunday: cue-to-cue, also called dry tech, where the crew runs every lighting and sound cue without the actors saying every line. Monday: first wet tech, where the actors run through with cues. Tuesday: second wet tech, where they run the whole show. Wednesday: dress rehearsal. Thursday: final dress with audience invited. Friday: opening night.

Rehearsals during tech week regularly run until 10pm. Some go later. The actor union calls this 10 out of 12. Schools are not unions and the rules do not apply.

Plan for it. This is not the week to tell your kid to clean their room.

Homework triage

Most teachers know tech week is coming and many will give your kid extensions if asked. Some will not.

A few things that work. First, your kid should email each teacher the Friday before tech week with a one-line note about the rehearsal schedule and ask which assignments can shift. Teachers respect kids who do this themselves more than they respect parents who do it for them.

Second, identify which classes are flexible and which are not. Most English and history teachers will move a reading deadline. Math teachers usually want the homework on time.

Third, prioritize sleep over perfect homework on tech week. Sleep beats one B+ slipping to a B.

Feeding them

Your kid will not have time to sit down for dinner during tech week. Pack food in the car. Sandwiches, fruit, water bottles. Protein bars. They will eat in the parking lot between school and rehearsal.

Avoid sugar bombs and caffeine in the second half of the week. They are already running on adrenaline. A 9pm soda turns into a 1am wake-up.

The night before opening, feed them something normal. Pasta or rice. Not Chipotle. Not anything they have to chew through. They need fuel and sleep.

The dress rehearsal

Final dress is the run where everything is supposed to come together. It rarely does. A costume rips. A spotlight cue misses. Someone forgets a line that they have nailed every rehearsal for two months.

This is normal. There is an old theater saying: bad dress, good show. Do not say this to your kid on the drive home. They will hate it. But it is true. A messy dress rehearsal almost always becomes a sharp opening night.

What to say instead. Ask what specifically went wrong. Not “how was it.” Specifically: what scene felt off. Did anyone get hurt. Did your costume work. Are you ready for tomorrow night.

On opening night

Drop them off early. Do not stay backstage. Find your seats. Do not text them between scenes.

Bring flowers if your family does that. Most parents in your seat row will. A small bouquet handed over after the curtain call is a piece of theater your kid will remember.

The cast will go out afterward. Let them. They have been working for six weeks for this. Eat the late pickup.

After closing

The kid you pick up on the last night of the show will cry. Not from sadness exactly. From the end of something. They have been a family for six weeks. Now it is over. The cast party tomorrow does not change that.

This is post-show depression. It is real. Give them a few days. By the weekend they will be looking at the spring musical audition cuts. Theater kids do not stay still long.