An Early Behind The Scenes Look at Tech Week 2022

The Million Dollar Quartet, a musical with its origins in 1950’s rock, is coming to OCCC in November 2022.

Although six months away the VPAC’s stage manager John Farrell and his assistant Andi Gleichman have already started planning for it.

The Million Dollar Quartet will be coming to OCCC for a week of production and rehearsal. Ending the week for two performances. It will be part of what is called Tech Week. The Stage Management team spend weeks advancing and planning for Tech Week.

John Farrell is the Stage Manager at OCCC. He manages the various shows that happen at VPAC theater including Tech Week.

Tech Week is when a production builds their show in a theater to make improvements, maintenance and rehearse. Performing tasks such as refurbishing and repairing their sets.

“Long before the event ever gets here, we go through the contract rider and determine all of our obligations of that rider for the production,” Farrell said.

There is plenty for him to do, even though the production is not going to be here until the fall. OCCC will be playing a significant role for The Million Dollar Quartet’s next tour.

Gleichman is the Assistant Stage Manager at OCCC. She will have a very technical role in Tech Week. Some of her duties will include things such as running the lights and setting up a Tech Table in the house. The Production will have all of the necessary lighting and audio. While it’s not the most exciting stuff. It is very important for the production to run smoothly. Most productions have their own lights and audio so

Gleichman will most likely be plugging it into the VPAC theater’s audio and lighting systems.

Gleichman has some experience with the Million Dollar Quartet when she was at the Civic Center. Musical casts change over time so it won’t be exactly the same. But experience does go a long way.

“Absolutely, I love that kind of music,” Gleichman said.

According to their website, The Million Dollar Quartet captures the contagious spirit, freewheeling excitement and thrilling sounds of the once-in-a-life-time event where four of music’s best talents came together.

Those four talents would be Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash.

It was originally started by Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis having an impromptu jam session. Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash joined that same day.

According to Sun Record Company, the name Million Dollar Quartet was given to a set of recordings made on December 4 1956.

The Million Dollar Quartet website also delves into historians’ questions on whether or not Elvis had a significant impact on the group. Some say that he wasn’t part of the session for long.

There have been others shows that take advantage of Tech Week. The musicals Annie and The Sound of Music have both conducted Tech Weeks at the VPAC Theatre. Another aspect of Tech Week is that there is more than production work. The Million Dollar Quartet will provide two performances at the end of tech week.