more on the janka theater au 🙂↕️🙂↕️
zanka- got into lighting by accident in college, wanting to work with riyo on a show but having limited options (helping with the set or running lights). he IMMEDIATELY latched on to it as being one of the most important parts of tech (in his eyes) and is actually a fucking asshole about it. he is so normal to people wanting to know about lighting theory & colors and whatnot and is happy to teach, but the second that zanka thinks they are trying to take over his Thing he will become the worst person you know and scare people out of his booth. he's also super catty and thinks that lights are the most important part of tech, because no one could see the stage without him. dry tech is his favorite day of tech week because it's all about him, & he loves to yell "find your light" at the actors at any chance he gets. (jabber will not give him the god mic.) ++ he carries around a book on lighting design at all times
jabber-started with odd jobs in late middle school, mostly just muting and unmuting mics, before starting to help with school band/orchestra performances. he helps record them as well, and shows an interest in editing the audio on them as well. by early highschool he gets asked to run sound cues for the fall play! he finds it INCREDIBLY boring. all he's doing is pressing the spacebar and everything sounds like shit. tinny and metallic words fill his ears, and he can't even TALK to anyone because the dude on mics is freaking out about feedback, and the person on lights is too focused on waiting for a standby to hold any real conversation. he could make everything sound much better if he was the one running everything. jabber gets his chance when that hack of an audio tech gets sick- he gets to cover and fixes everything almost immediately. he takes over sound pretty quickly after that. he may have learned the skill incredibly quickly, but the work he put in outside of rehearsals was nothing to scoff at. he studied frequencies and soundwaves, experimenting with eqing already produced songs on music streaming apps. he's one of those people who has a piano app on his phone to check what note random noises are LMFAO!! he's basically a professional by the time he gets to college, micing people perfectly in less than a minute. everyone knows better than to complain if their pins holding their mic hurt their scalp, jabber will not care enough to fix it. he also will nawt train anyone on audio tech because he either gets too bored or doesn't see potential in them. sometimes he will throw fun tidbits to whoever is running sound cues, but they are never given the chance to apply those tips on the board itself. he's so good at handling any and every issue that he starts inventing problems for himselt to fix- resetting the sound board for the fun of redoing all of it on the fly. his favorite part of tech week is final dress, he likes to see everything go wrong and laugh at it (freak!!!). he likes to "accidentally" unmute peoples mics backstage to broadcast whatever conversations they're having to the whole theater. the amount of gossip they hear is INSANE... sometimes if actors piss him off he'll mute their mic in random intervals during dialogue/a solo just for the fun of it.
the two of them get stuck working together on a season of shows at a small theater, both in the booth for long periods of time where noone else can hear them. zanka's in jabber's space, jabber's trying to mess with cables under the desk while zanka's trying to kick him away from any DMX cables (there are none. this theater is broke. its all XLR.) by the second show, they're only arguing with each other. by the last in the season, they're fucking with the actors together. zanka's slightly shifting a spotlight around, making an actor shuffle around the stage to stay visible, and jabber's muting their mic every sixteen words. they are turning tech week into hell week one act of violence at a time...
(bonus: other character's roles in this au!!:
riyo- hair and makeup. got drafted to help with wigs and hair styling and never left the green room. sometimes acts, but doesn't like to dance
august- costume designer DUHHHH he is fitting
EVERYONE out. if you don't like your costume he will literally never speak a word to you ever again. he also does not give a fuck what you think, you are a tool in his overall vision
directors- enjin, zodyl, corvus I enjin is one of those directors that don't really give you any feedback and then launch five pages of notes on you the second you are off book. chill guy but kinda detached. he directs a one act musical. zodyl directs a historical play and spends the first half of the rehearsal process having everyone learn about the time period. there will be NO inaccuracies if he has anything to say about it. trusts his actors to listen to him, is fairly consistent with notes. corvus directs a big musical with a heavy focus on its themes and characterization (urinetown, hadestown, etc it is no small effort!!!! you can tell that most of the budget is saved for his shows, and everyone involved in those shows is just happy to be there!
assistant director- tamsy. he is lingering in every show. he's seen you at your worst and he's seen you shine onstage. he is taking notes.
stage managers- semiu, momoa, gris (in that order) semiu helps keep enjin in check, makes sure he doesn't do anything too insane.. momoa works silently with zodyl as a director- INSANE efficiency between the two of them. gris is the most approachable of the three of them, but does most of his work outside of rehearsal. incredibly detailed spreadsheets and materials for his cast!!
assistant stage managers- amo (!), eishia, follo l amo is learning on the job, and she is doing GREAT!! she's learned not to take any shit from actors and she will fuck you up if you don't listen to her. has the script memorized. eishia is branching out of her normal coworkers, and is fighting for her life every single day. the cast is wonderful, but august and riyo keep dragging her into the costume room without warning. she has a job to do!!!! momoa is her saving grace, she comes to get her every time. by the end of the show, eishia's confident enough to tell august to leave her alone!!! follo is going through hell. gris is letting him train on some of the spreadsheets and paperwork, but he is Not Good at it and the cast... doesn't really listen to him. he will be fine. he will make it work. by the end of the show, it gets a bit better...
dramaturgy- cthoni!! works with zodyl and momoa. she makes history worksheets for the cast!
stagehands- rudo & fu!! two little guys moving around the set. rudo likes the workout and sees how fast he can complete his track, fu just likes to have clear and specific instructions on what to do at all times
feel free to ama about this hypothetical au ^^ as u can tell i got carried away writing this LMFAO
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