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

272 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication 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.