pit fall prevention

[BillConnerFASTC]

Obviously my view of high school theatres is skewed by the fact they hired a theatre consultant, but to say the least, I've worked on a lot of pretty complete high school auditorium and stages - with 50 and 80 ft fly lofts, orchestra pits with lifts, balconies, and all of the accessory spaces. It is too bad we don't have a good data base of these. (ETC does have a pretty good data base of lighting systems - but even that probably leaves out the low end - holes in the wall with track lights and wall boxes.

 

[MNicolai]

Obviously my view of high school theatres is skewed by the fact they hired a theatre consultant, but to say the least, I've worked on a lot of pretty complete high school auditorium and stages - with 50 and 80 ft fly lofts, orchestra pits with lifts, balconies, and all of the accessory spaces. It is too bad we don't have a good data base of these. (ETC does have a pretty good data base of lighting systems - but even that probably leaves out the low end - holes in the wall with track lights and wall boxes.

Similarly skewed view here, but we're seeing lots of these get built in the Midwest. Every high school wants their own theater, which in some cases serves as a roadhouse when not in use for the school. Some pretty advanced systems and spaces going into some of these high schools. Sometimes they even hire actual staff to run these facilities. Sometimes.

 

[gafftaper]

Hey @BillConnerASTC any chance of getting a custom made retrofit kit from any of the vendors you know? I love the idea. My sister theaters in the same district both have large pits, and they fight the battle of lifting the huge platforms in and out and then it's a shady rope net keeping things "safe". If there was a way to do a retro install I bet both theater managers would be interested.

As for me my pit is 40' wide left to right, 7' across at center and tapers to less than 2' in the corners, best of all it's less than 4' deep. You can't just see the conductor's head, if he's tall enough you can see his Butt. It's more of a ditch than a pit.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I'm sure they can be retrofitted. And I'm guessing the fillers you mention are home built beasts - not a platform system from Wenger or Stage right or such? HS theatre people across the country - and a lot of their building maintenance people - suffer from these bloated over weight monsters (along with inaccesible house lights).

And you have what I call a demi-pit.​