I've always been told (at the school I attend) that Tech is for tech and the acting should be pretty well set. Especially since they dont always stick to the 6 week of rehearsal route.
But venting sorry - the point I was making is that the SMs at my school are told one thing and thats the tech is for tech.
I think the thing to keep in mind (from my perspective on the situation anyway) is that college is oftentimes a very idealized situation compared to what can and often times does happen in the 'real world'. Sometimes you only have an actor for 3 or 4 rehearsals before tech hits and like it or not some of the work that would take place in rehearsal (tweaking blocking, movement, etc) needs to happen while cues are being written, or before cues can be written for that matter.
Sometimes you have an idiot LD who writes not a single basic run of the mill lights up on stage cue before tech and what else would you have the actors do while he's writing the show?
Sometimes you only have 2 weeks of rehearsal for a musical with a cast of 40.
I think like everyone else says, the key to tech is to keep all parties running smoothly. While I always like to hope that tech is just for the tech-ing of a show, that isn't always the reality. I think the better idea to keep in mind is the ultimate purpose of tech is to have all elements of the show put together to create a finished product (and while lights, sound, etc are only added during tech, isn't the ultimate end that the show is finished, {hopefully}) and while that may mean holding a cue-to-cue for an extra two minutes to solidify blocking in a particular scene, if it serves to benefit all parties at the end of those two minutes, then perhaps pausing for a moment is the better choice to make.
In regards to holds- I know some actors who will only take a hold from and SM, and while that is a lovely and respectful thing from an actor it isn't always the most effective. I've never forbidden a designer or director from calling holds. Though I hope that they will try to tell me first though. For example: The show that I'm currently running now has a cast of 20. In one scene 2 people were on stage and 17 were preparing to enter and we did not have good monitor communication or a g-d mike (Aren't showcases just wonderful
). The LD said that we needed to hold before the giant sword-fighting transition, I got on headset to have the ASM stop the actors from attacking the stage and the LD called the hold. I then stepped in with a "We're going to go back and work the lights in that last moment and then take our break. Thank you backstage." I think that worked smoothly and without any question of who was in charge, but that's just me. I like collaboration like that and think there's no issue with doing it that way.
That LD is not the same as the one mentioned earlier who told me that "I was permitted to call a hold if and when he or the director thought it was acceptable," but that's a whole different post...