PEN15 Season 2’s School Play Does The Unthinkable Just By Acknowledging Techies Exist
My jaw actually dropped while watching the new season of Hulu’s comedy series PEN15. They went and did something so niche that, for years, I thought I would only see it on screen if I put it there myself. PEN15's school play actually has stagehands, and Anna finds her power and creative fulfillment a stage manager. For a cringe comedy series it is one of the least cringe representations of theatre I have ever seen in a TV show. I’m biased, but I think that starts backstage.
Anna finds herself “bombarded by the techies” in Season 2 after she doesn’t get cast in the play. PEN15 was already uncomfortably similar to my own middle school experience because I, like Anna and Maya, started seventh grade in the big bad year 2000. It was also around that time that, after I didn’t get cast in a community theatre production of The Secret Garden, I decided to volunteer backstage instead. Even though I was only thirteen, I was given a lot of responsibilities and a headset! I kept with it through high school and in college got a job as a stage manager and lighting designer. I totally understand the power trip that Anna goes on in the episode. Pleading with my own friends to find their light on stage was my entire life.
Every single joke landed with me: the techie* dry humor, putting the “Hell” in Hell Week, being overly concerned with safety, carrying around a bunch of tape, missing props, the mysterious older guy on your crew, actors who show up with inside jokes from rehearsal and don’t take things seriously, rolling your eyes at said actors while fiercely protecting them to make sure the show goes on.
The thing is, this actually shouldn’t be that niche. Every play, concert, and comedy show you see to has a stage manager and a crew. There are multiple shows about what “really” goes on at hospitals, police stations, schools, fire stations, the White House… but we rarely see the behind the scenes aspects of live performance on television. (Yes, I did watch Roadies. Yes, I gave up.) All of those professional productions on Glee just happened magically. Don’t even get me started with Riverdale. Maybe, occasionally, you see an A/V geek stereotype or someone painting scenery in the background. But that’s about the extent, let me think. There’s one stagehand character in the children’s series Julie’s Greenroom who honestly feels like a cautionary tale. As you watch the series, you learn that he once wanted to be a star, but after showing backstage talent was never allowed to leave the performing arts program… and every other alumni went on to be super famous. Skins had a techie character who was stalking the lead actor. I didn’t love that. “Andy’s Play” on The Office has technical difficulties, but nobody to fix them.
I was especially heartened to see this on PEN15 after what I went through watching the recent Netflix film Work It. That movie started so strong, y’all. The main character was the lighting designer for her high school’s dance team. Cool! Finally, I thought, my moment had come… only to watch her take up dancing to impress a college admissions counselor who didn’t think she did anything creative. Is lighting design not creative? Is it not an art form? It put me in a funk that even Jordan Fisher’s charm couldn’t resolve.
But when Maya gets frustrated with Anna and says that she is doing art while her friend is doing tech, Anna snaps right back. It’s all art! When they make it to Opening Night, the storyline culminates in this incredible dream ballet that represents the actors, stage hands, director, and audience working together to tell a story. I could cry.
There’s a reason this gif of Zac Efron dancing on the fly rail in High School Musical 3 lives rent free in my head. OK, there’s a few reasons, but one of them is that I’ll take any backstage representation I can get :)
You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve told people that I learned leadership, troubleshooting, delegating, and teamwork from working backstage only to be met with eye rolls like I’m just another over-earnest theatre kid. (Which I am, but both can be true.) But this show, like any good stage manager, has my back.
PEN15 has this lovely, thoughtful way of not assigning value or judgement to anything its girl protagonists are interested in .Throughout Season 2, Anna has been trying on different kinds of power and strength as a way of coping with her parent’s divorce — and also, let’s be real, as a way of coping with being in seventh grade. Some of those phases are traditionally masculine, like when she joins the wrestling team. Others are traditionally feminine, like when she goes cottage core and starts doing magic spells in the woods. It’s in a supportive leadership role as stage manager that Anna finds her voice. Anna even apologizes for fighting with her mother and compliments her by saying she’s “behind-the-scenes strong,” which is such a sweet and rare observation.
And I’m already worried that people won’t appreciate this episode for the same reason it surprised me in the first place. While I disagree, most people would rather pretend that stage hands and stage managers aren’t there. We exist! Spread the word, get in your light, and toss me the gaff tape.
*I don’t like the term “techie,” it’s demeaning especially when actors (or dancers, who are the actual worst) call you that… but I will admit it is a useful shorthand.
