Aaron Clarke
Well-Known Member
So, I recently joined our local community theatre and am now working in the oldest theatre I've been in to date. Most of my previous time was in black box or newer school facilities constructed by qualified engineers. When I started walking the theatre I saw how they had 'rigged' pipe for the balcony rail and is a little concerning to me.
My primary concern is safety- In the picture you notice they just used flat stock steel (1/8" or 3/16" is my guess) bent over the top of the balcony. There is a about 3 inches over the back side with a bolt (is some, not all) that is tighten up against the wall under the cap trim. None of the bracket is physically attached to the structure. The more alarming thing in my view is that to hold the pipe off this bracket it is just a piece of flat stock welded at a 90 degrees (flat) with the pipe about 12" out from the bracket. There are just two brackets at each pipe end (about 6' apart) holding 6-7 source fours with two I-cue mirrors . There is no safety for the pipe should the bracket fail. Am I right to be concerned?
Also there is a practical matter that originally the lights were under hung, but to get better access and improve angles they move them to be mounted above the pipe. Fine with me but now they are above the balcony and block the first two rows view.
If its a legitimate safety concern I'd like to get them moving to revamping the way these are mounted while lowering the bar enough to improve audience sightlines. Since they don't know me, I know if I bring up safety without some support I'm likely to get the "it's been that way for XX years" speech.
If anyone would care to share their best suggestion to safely mount rails to a balcony without major construction it be helpful to know what kind of mess I'm getting into. I will likely be financing or at least find helpful partners to finance the fix.
Thanks for your input.
-I apparently don't know how to just upload a pic to the post. I hope the way I did it works