Tech Week (Cast vs. Crew) - Hardcover

Champion, Lindsay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1645953319 ISBN 13: 9781645953319

Publisher: Pixel+Ink, 2026

Synopsis

The full story of a junior high musical production, told exclusively from the POV of the kids backstage. It's High School Musical, from behind the scenes . . . without the high school.

Book Two of the Cast vs. Crew Trilogy

In this sequel to Setting the Stage, there's one week left until opening night of Curie: The Musical, and nothing is going right backstage.

The set has collapsed, the crew's headsets don't work, and Ella, the stage manager, just quit in a fury. The cast and crew are playing pranks on each other, and Willow, the soundboard operator, is working on a scheme that will turn the feud into all-out war!

Levi, the tech lead, and Rosa, the star of the show, are caught in the middle. Can they unite the cast and crew in time to actually rehearse? Or will the chaos force them to take sides and destroy their showmance?

The teachers call it "tech week." The kids call it "hell week." Whatever you call it, this is the week that the drama of drama club gets real.

About this title

About the Author

Lifelong theater geek Lindsay Champion made her stage debut as a tiger in her second-grade musical. Since then, she's built sets, run the light board, operated the spotlight and (her favorite) stage managed. She is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and was the Features Editor at Broadway.com. She is the author of the YA novel Someday, Somewhere.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1
Levi Jacobson: Tech Lead
6 days, 23 hours, and 4 minutes until opening night

Go. Don’t let them see you. Run.
I throw on my jacket, push through the double doors, and race down the stairs, jumping the last three. I rush past the empty yellow lines in the faculty parking lot. No one in the cafeteria even noticed I left. They’re all still worried about Ella, our stage manager and my used‑to‑be best friend, quitting the show.
Curie: The Musical opens in less than a week and everything is going wrong.
Ella stormed out an hour ago, after the giant set piece she’d been working on for months just . . . collapsed. She thinks someone in the cast did it to sabotage her. I bet it was Jordan and his friends. They’ve been pulling pranks all month, and this time they really went too far.
Ella probably ran through these same doors and down the three blocks to our houses. We’re next-­door neighbors, and I know I should probably trace her path and knock on her door. The Levi from three months ago would. He’d check in with her parents or leave a message with her little sisters. Bare minimum, he’d send a text.
But I don’t do any of that.
Ella and I haven’t really been talking lately. And besides, I have somewhere to be. Somewhere really important.
I’m meeting Rosa, the star of our show, at Nate’s Pizza tonight. I still can’t believe I asked her. After all those weeks of wondering what it would be like, I just . . . did it. And now we’re dating, I guess. ­Maybe-­dating.
I could stop by the flower shop on my way and get her something. Just a little gift to surprise her. Should I get a rose? No, that’s too cheesy. I bet guys give her roses all the time and think they’re being so romantic and original. She probably hates roses, since she’s named after them and everything. How basic can you get? I sprint down the tree-­lined street that leads from the middle school to downtown Juniper Valley. Streetlights glow in the distance, jumping and flickering as I run.
But wait. Maybe roses are Rosa’s favorite flower. Maybe getting one would make her night. Maybe she’s expecting me to bring something, and if I show up with nothing, she’ll think I don’t care. Maybe it’s some kind of unspoken first date rule. I’ve never actually been on a date before, in case that isn’t totally obvious. I want her to know I like her, but I don’t want to freak her out. Don’t think too much, I tell myself. She wants to see you. She likes you.
It’s a few minutes before eight o’clock and the streetlights have just turned on. Most of the store windows in downtown Juniper Valley are already dark, and all the street parking spaces are empty. I pass Miss Jessica’s Dance Studio, where Rosa takes ballet classes, but at this hour there’s just a long, empty hardwood floor and a wall of mirrors. Even Goodman Hardware, my foster dad Sam’s store, closes at eight. So I guess I should have known Juniper Blooms, our town’s flower shop, would be closed too. And yep . . . when I get there, the windows look dark. I cup my hands against the glass front door and peek inside, but I don’t see anyone.
Rushing, I yank my phone out of my pocket to check the time, and a highlighter clatters to the sidewalk. It has my name and Curie: The Musical written on the side. Ella gave one to every member of the stage crew on the day of our first meeting. This show is, like, the only thing that matters to her. It’s her life’s dream to become a stage manager, and I can’t believe she just walked out. I should really text and check on her before it gets too late. But wait, it’s already after eight, and I was supposed to meet Rosa ­by—
The door to Juniper Blooms opens, startling me so much, I trip over the curb. A guy around Sam’s age pokes his head out. He’s bald, with a few puffs of gray hair above his ears.
“Can I help you with something?” he asks. His eyes are soft and crinkly. He’s probably been to Sam’s hardware store before. Maybe I even checked him out at the register.
“No, I’m good,” I start, then change my mind. “Wait, no. Yes. Do you have something I could give my girlfriend, well, my sort‑of girlfriend, for our first date?”
The word “date” sticks in my throat like peanut butter. Ella said that Rosa and I are in a showmance. I hate that word. Ella probably thinks that as soon as the show is over, Rosa and I will have nothing in common and just break up. But what we have is so much more than that. She gets me.
Lately it’s felt like Rosa is the only one who does.
The flower shop guy presses his lips together seriously, like helping me make a good impression on my date is his new life goal.
“What did you have in mind? Are you thinking a balloon, or a teddy bear, ­or—”
“A rose,” I say with confidence.
He smiles. “I think I have one of those.”
Then he ducks back into the darkened store, and I start wondering what they do with all the flowers they don’t sell. It’s not like they’re cans of beans or something, where you can just stick them back on the shelf and try to sell them again tomorrow.
The shop owner returns with a white rose. He tucks its sharp stem into a little paper bag and ties a red ribbon around it.
A rose for Rosa.
It’s perfect.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pixel+Ink
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1645953319
• ISBN 13: 9781645953319
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208