Tech

Interested in musical theater but not sure where to go from there? Our tech teams have a place for you! No experience needed — we will teach you everything you need to know.

Departments

Hair & Makeup
Work with our directors to design hair and makeup looks for each actor in a given show, and assist the actors in putting on these looks for each day of tech week and every performance. Hang out with cast members and your fellow techies, work with our treasure chest of stage makeup and hair accessories; play with wigs, face paint, fake blood, and more; and let your creativity shine in this low-time-commitment tech department!

Costumes
Collaborate with our directors to create a look-book for each character in a given show; work with our cast to take measurements and tailor each look to their specific needs; source costumes from our costume collection, Emerson College’s theater department, thrifting, and more; and assist with quick changes and other costume-related needs during our performances. If you love fashion and working closely with others, costumes is the place for you!

Lights
Work with our stage managers to identify lighting cues, and design and program a lighting preset for each cue. During shows, run the light board, working off of your established cues and presets. Programming lights for a show may sound like a lot, but we will hold lighting workshops, in collaboration with our friends BU Stage Troupe, BU Wandering Minds, and BU Shakespeare Society, to teach the ins and outs of our lighting systems, and we will be there to help you along the way. Plus, it looks great on résumés! Join us on our lighting teams for a colorful, light-filled blast!

Sound
Work closely with our stage managers to identify sound cues. For each cue, source a sound file and organize and tailor it to the show in Cue Lab, and run each pre-programmed cue during shows. We will hold sound design workshops, in collaboration with our friends BU Stage Troupe, BU Wandering Minds, and BU Shakespeare Society, for you to learn all about our Cue Lab programming and best practices for sourcing sounds. If you enjoy scrolling to the depths of the internet to find something really specific and want to learn how to edit sounds, you should definitely consider doing sound with BUOB!

Build
Do you like Powertools? How about saws? Do you like building things from scratch, or do you want to learn how? You should totally join our build team! We hand-build all of our sets ourselves, and it truly could not be more fun. Work with a great group of people, of all ability/experience levels, to craft our sets, as directed by the Technical Director and their set plans. Build week is the week before tech week for each show, and we want to see you there!

Set Decoration
If you are a painter, collager, interior design enthusiast, or just a general crafter, set decoration is your chance to really push the boundaries of your creativity and work with a bunch of other awesome creatives while you’re at it! While the build team constructs the pieces, our set dec teams handle all of the finishing touches on our sets, making them look and feel real and beautiful — making the show come to life. Set decoration is, at its core, an exercise in world building, and, with OB, it is paint-splattered, trinket-filled, and a total blast! You should definitely consider joining our set dec department!

Props

Run Crew
Work back stage during shows

Tech Directing

The Technical Director oversees all of the technical aspects of the production! They are responsible for making sure all of the amazing tech departments are running smoothly throughout the creative process, and they are the executive decision maker for all things tech-related in the show. They will be responsible for making sure the directors' tech vision comes to life but also ensuring the practicality of the vision is maintained. Overall, they are the main leader in the behind the scenes work to ensure the overall success of the show! 

Responsibilities:

1. managing the tech team 

2. communicating with the rest of the creative team about progress and ideas 

3. making the executive decisions on set design to ensure safety for the actors (and to ensure it fits with the venue) 

4. scheduling general team meetings as well as department meetings  

5. making decisions on purchases based on the budgets 

6. overseeing build week and making a build week schedule 

7. overseeing move-in and strike 

8. communicating with the Technical Advisors and Board throughout the entire process

If you have any tech questions or concerns please feel free to email our 2025-26 Technical Advisors Elle Mueller (ellemcm@bu.edu) and Emma Park-Miller (eparkmi@bu.edu) or onbrdway@bu.edu!