The role
Elements need hands to get on and off a stage. In a presentation, technicians are those hands: they carry elements on and off, set them in place, start them and stop them. Once an element is running it plays itself, and the technician steps away.
A technician has done the job well when the audience remembers the elements and not the people who moved them.
Costume
- Hooded coveralls, identical for every technician, with gloves and boots.
- A number stenciled large on the back, in place of a name.
- Appearance obscured, so technicians look roughly uniform, interchangeable and uninteresting. Nothing sets one technician apart from another.
On stage
- Move plainly, at an even walking pace. Do the task; don't perform it.
- Don't look at or acknowledge the audience, and don't take a bow.
- Bring an element on, start it and walk away. Never play, adjust or reset an element by hand: every element resets itself.
- Hit an element's stop switch before lifting it. It is a safety step and part of the choreography.
- An element with a fault shows it on its own light. Read it when you come to carry the element off.
- When a task is done, leave the stage, or wait still at its edge until the next one.
Technicians and performers
A performer is meant to influence the audience's emotional experience. A technician is not. Technicians support the elements, and it is the elements that are meant to stir thoughts and feelings in the people watching.
A presentation may have both, and one person can fill both roles in it: they wear technician gear while serving as a technician, then change into performance attire to perform.
Performance attire
Clothing markedly different from what a performer might commonly wear in their culture. In the Western classical tradition this has meant a lot of black and white formal wear, which is a fine option but not necessary.
The goal is to dress in a way that reminds the performer and the audience that this shared moment is special, set apart from the mundane procession of daily life.