5:00 p.m.
Arrive. Put on all black clothing (and I do mean, all black, no gray socks or anything of the like) Eat dinner in 5-10 minutes. Sweep the hay off the stage for the Oklahoma performance. Flip a 2-ton house (takes 3 people). Lift the heavy cover (it takes four people) off of the pit for the orchestra. Take ladders, paint, and whatever materials other cast members used off the stage (this often takes a great deal of time). Sweep more hay.
6:00 p.m.
Vacuum the hay backstage. Tell the cast 30 until warm-ups. Take set pieces off stage for fight call. Wait for fight call to end. Sweep during fight call. Put some set pieces back on stage. Call cast for warm-ups. Clean the dishes in the green room. Vacuum the green room. Clean the green room some more. Light the glow tape in the pit. Sweep some more hay.
7:00 p.m.
Warm-up ends. Place several set pieces on the stage. Wait for some actors to end mic call. Quickly place the rest of the set pieces on the stage before the house opens. Close the pit cover (if all the orchestra members arrived). Light the glow tape for a good 10 minutes straight (even though you know it will fade within 10 minutes). Call places.
8:00 - 11:00 p.m.
The performance. Move as many as 7 set pieces at one time within 15 seconds before the lights come up. Make sure actors get in place. Sweep some more hay. Carry set pieces from one side of the stage to the other using the long way around because we can't walk across the stage. Intermission (set the orchestra free by lifting the cover, flip the house again without hitting the wall, sweep again, put the orchestra back in the pit, close the cover, light the glow tape again) Pull the curtain about 30 times during the show for entrances and exits. Pull the curtain without being able to see what happens on stage and judging all entrances by ear and music cues which all sound the same. Judge each curtain pull to the exact second. Get it too early, and you expose the audience to a character backstage prematurely. Get it too late, and the cast will be less-than-happy they have to fumble with the curtain themselves. Sweep some more hay. Put hay in someone's hair. Curtain call.
11:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Free the orchestra again. Clean the green room again. Sweep some more hay. Flip the house again. Receive notes from the director. Sweep a little more. Go home.
Repeat

Above represents a typical schedule of a deck crew member at Taylor University's Theatre. In the span of tech week alone, we lived in the theater for over 61 hours. Sometimes we enjoyed aspects of the job such as our backstage renditions of the song "The Farmer and the Cowman Should be Friends." Sometimes we disliked requirements such as having to sweep the never-ending slew of hay.

Love it or loathe it, backstage work has quite a few life lessons involved. Here's why you should bask in the light of glow tape before you getting in the spotlight.

1. You learn to work quickly

In one scene transition, we have to stack 3 hay bales, a stool, move a fence on, take a bench off, and take a heavy platform off stage (narrowly missing dangling lights) within 15 seconds. Go any slower and the light will spot us.

2. You get to be a part of the show

The show cannot move without you. While you may not be belting "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," the cast might receive a beautiful standing ovation that morning because you helped keep the show glued together. Plus, you get a free ticket to see a wonderful production.

3. You work with interesting people

Sometimes you will get yelled at (even for things which you had no control over). But sometimes you work with gems. At Taylor, production staff eats last after the cast. One of the cast members wouldn't have it. He brought the production staff a bag of snacks just for our consumption. Some actors will hug you and encourage you also. You really live for those moments.

4. You learn to appreciate gratitude

Actors tend to garner all the applause. However, when working backstage, a "thank you" from a performer for holding his or her curtain or grabbing a prop can feel like a standing ovation.

5. You make wonderful friends

I love everyone on deck crew. From interpretive dance to songs in the show to coming up with code names for ourselves, I wouldn't want to work with anyone else.

Not to mention. We all look pretty good in all black.