The set caught fire (or so it appeared)

[Dustincoc]

Nobody has figured this out yet. After the closing night a couple weeks ago, I was told the backstage crew had seen smoke coming from the top of a piece of scenery during curtain call. They pulled the set piece off stage and the lead guy back there had gone up on a ladder and didn't find anything burnt at all. They though it was one of my lights(gel burning or something). I went up and couldn't find anything with the lights. Latter that night I was going through pictures I'd shot during the show and found a picture showing the smoke.

The white plume on top of the tower on the right.

Zooming in shows the smoke is definitely coming from the top of the tower.

Even during strike the next day, we found nothing that possibly could have burned up there, or looked or smelled burned.

 

[AudJ]

My first guess would be someone caught short on a smoke break by call needed somewhere to exhale on their way out on stage.

Maybe a prank?

 

[Les]

My guess is that (what looks to be a fixture directly above the flat) heated the muslin/dutchmen enough to cause the smoke. Definitely reposition that fixture as it looks like it's mostly just hitting the top edge of that setpiece.

Edit: I see that you already struck the set. Disregard my last sentence.

 

[NewChris]

My HS just put on a production of Man of La Mancha. One night, as we are watching the show, what appeared to be a cloud of smoke came out from behind the set... All of us at the light and sound boards look at each other and are slightly freaking out. We get our adviser who was standing behind us and he looks then RUNS out to go backstage and see what was happening. I had never seen our adviser run before that moment. He ran into the director and turns out it was baby powder... The lead put baby powder in his hair to grey it. Talking to the lead after the show, him and his side kick (Sancho) were putting it on behind the set, and bumped the container, releasing a large cloud. They both stopped and watched as it floated up.

Basically, you smoke could have been something as innocent a that.

 

[RideTheSquirrel]

Or perhaps they were burning some kind of cyc unit and had brand new gels in it. The burn in can be pretty alarming on some of them!

 

[StradivariusBone]

Or perhaps they were burning some kind of cyc unit and had brand new gels in it. The burn in can be pretty alarming on some of them!

We had that experience with some Groovy Grape from Apollo. Put them in 1k fresnels and almost instant smoke after testing the fixtures.

 

[venuetech]

I have some old choir risers, the rug on them is reasonably clean but doesn't get deep vacuumed, if the kids stomp their feet long enuf a cloud of dust that looks like smoke rises up.