Ancient Lighting System

I help at a middle school whose lighting system hasn't seen renovation since the early eighties. The show is Beauty and the Beast, so naturally there is a massive staircase. However, the top of it is too high to be caught by the five (yes Five) antique lights in the house. The area is also too high to be caught by the lights from the token electric(right behind the proscenium).
I have a lighting bar in the perfect place to flood the area, but have no electric within cable range. So, I need to find/build/steal some type of extension for these lights. I think that the ending is some type of modified edison plug. It has three pins, all of which are different sizes and are in a vaguely circular shape. One of the pins has a piece bent perpindicular to the rest of the plug. I was told I could use a traditional extension cord, but that would never connect, so I am at a loss.

My budget is nonexistent, the supplies are limited, and I only met this form of circuitry this afternoon.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
Does it look like anything like the attached photo? If so it is a twist lock. I think there are a couple different sizes of twist locks.

Hopefully you have a good theaterical supply store in your city. If so, pull down an instrument take it in and ask them to rent you an extension long enough that will fit your connector. My local theater supplier rents cable for about $5 a week so you can afford it.
 

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Remember there are two versions of Twist-Lock connectors new 15 and 20 amp and an old style.
 
It def sounds like you have some kind of twist lock, based on when you say the last renovation was, I would say you have old style(i believe pin out) twist locks.

Those are a little harder to find rental wise i have found, especially in terms of lengths of cable.

I have found it much easier to rent a set of adaptors, with regular stage pin cable in the middle.

Josh
 
It doesn't take much in the way of budget or electrical skills to replace those old plugs with modern plugs.
 
and one can normally get them shipped straight to you off the internet. might be worth it to change everything out.
 
the plug you described is called a twist lock plug for reasons that you twist it in place and then it is locked so it cant fall out it can all so be very annoying at times though
 

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