Tech Week

Cast vs. Crew #2

by Lindsay Champion

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. THIS IS BOOK TWO OF A 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.

Genres: Middle Grade, Theatre

208 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2026

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 writes books about kids discovering and falling in love with the arts. She is the author of the YA novel SOMEDAY, SOMEWHERE and the middle-grade drama club series CAST VS. CREW.

Reviews

[Katrina (at)FlirtingWithFiction · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review to come!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, the hurricane of Tech Week! The middle school is staging "Curie: the Musical" and Murphy's Law is strong in this production. Ella, the meticulously organized stage manager, just quit after a major set piece she'd worked on for ages fell apart, and she lost her theater keys to the mistake of trusting someone who used them illicitly. Levi, the Tech Lead and Ella's (former?) bestie, is in a showmance with Rosa, the lead actor, breaking all the conventions that cast and crew should never date. Plus, he's back in touch with his parents, and hoping they've set themselves straight enough that maybe he could live with them again? Willow, the reluctant sound manager (she had detention), is both over the ridiculous prank war between the cast and crew, and going rogue with some pranks of her own. The director is at her wits' end, ready to cancel the show if the kids can't keep it together.

I love theater and theater stories, but wow, do I feel for this director! So many of the kids seem to take the show for granted, and that a vicious prank war is just part of the experience rather than destroying community, hurting people either literally or emotionally, and damaging the set and props and the theater itself. The author does a great job of making the characters really distinct, so that even though there are multiple storylines, I didn't get anyone confused and I cared about all of them. One thing I really loved was that when it really mattered, Levi didn't make a dumb decision, but went and got a responsible adult who helped him without question. Great modeling! Also great worldbuilding for all of us theater nerds. Will the show even make it to the stage, if they can't even make it through a single full run-through? Guess we'll find out in the next book! Thanks to Libro.FM for a free educator copy of the audiobook.

[Ekemini Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tech Week really captures the particular kind of chaos that can happen when a middle school theater production gets to the point where everything suddenly has to work—and, naturally, nothing does.

I liked how the story stays almost entirely with the kids backstage. The collapsing set, broken headsets, disappearing keys, and escalating prank war make the production feel like it is constantly one disaster away from being cancelled. Willow was especially interesting to me because she starts out frustrated with everyone else’s behavior but gradually gets pulled deeper into the conflict herself. Her willingness to turn the prank war into something bigger adds another layer to the mess.

Levi and Rosa’s situation also worked well because their showmance isn't just a cute subplot. Levi is already trying to hold together his responsibilities as tech lead while dealing with the complicated situation with his parents, and Rosa is carrying the pressure of being the star of the musical. I liked seeing how those personal issues collide with what is happening backstage.

Ella quitting after the set disaster was another turning point that made sense to me. It showed how quickly a role that requires organization and responsibility can become overwhelming when the people around you stop taking the work seriously.

What I enjoyed most is that beneath all the jokes and theater terminology, the book is really about teamwork, trust, responsibility, and learning that a production belongs to everyone—not just the people standing under the spotlight.

A fun, messy, very theatrical middle-grade read. And by the end, I was genuinely wondering whether Curie: The Musical was ever going to make it to opening night.

[Christine Letizia · Rating 5 out of 5]

TECH WEEK, book two in the Cast vs. Crew middle grade drama series, follows where the delightful first book, SETTING THE STAGE left off. This second book details the tech week before the big musical and kept up the pace of the story. We get all of the behind-the-scenes drama and hijinks plus the background on what happens during the craziness of tech week.

Lindsay Champion shares the joys of the drama community along with the struggles of middle schoolers beautifully by digging deeper into the main POVs. Leo's POV particularly stood out as he faced new challenges with his birth parents and his foster parents, while handling his first almost-dating break up. His interiority was so spot on, I had to read it a second time to savor it.

This second book did not disappoint. I know MG readers, like me, are eager for the third in the series.

[shybookstagramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one picks up almost immediately after book one with the start of tech week aka hell week. I like that it sprinkled in important details here and there from book 1 so even though I read book 1 awhile ago I was still able to remember important things. It did a great job of showing how tech week can be hell week both with theater drama and personal middle school drama. It was an entertaining middle grade book that is perfect for the middle school readers but also enjoyable to other ages too. I'm excited to see the conclusion of the series and how the play turns out in the end after all the drama and with that happened at the end!

thank you to holiday house peach tree for the gifted copy. all thoughts are my own

[Ashlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this middle grade read! This is told from multiple perspectives following the crew of a school production. There are pranks, there are funny moments, and then there are serious moments with situations that middle schoolers could relate to. This is the second book in this series, and I highly suggest reading them in order. The first book sets up this one perfectly. This book is perfect for readers who love drama. I look forward to reading what's next!

received this book for free from the publisher, which does not affect my review.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid book with theatrical lingo that mg students will like. I did have a hard time with the premise that the cast and crew would jeopardize the show with their practical jokes. Theater kids take their performances too seriously for that aspect of the book to seem real. Otherwise, fun.