Sounds to me like your carriers may not match your
track. I never heard them referred to as "mice" before, but I can see why they could be called that...
If the carriers twist (rotate horizontally around the pin that holds the curtain) at all as the curtain is pulled from the floor, the wheels can bind in the
track until enough force is applied to unbind the
carrier wheel. A cheap solution might be to rip shims (out of 1/8" maso, maybe
UHMW tape,
etc?) and run them vertically on the inside of the outer walls of the
track such that the carriers are pulled in a more uniformly direction with less chance to bind. The trick is finding out exactly what
thickness this
shim needs to be in order to better constrain the carriers without also binding them up.
How tall is this curtain? Is this standard EDC
track? Does this binding happen in the same place every time? Are there any kinks or bends in your
track?
I don't know that I buy this "the designer doesn't want to use rope" reasoning. As others have pointed out, there are lots of instances where it can LOOK actor-vated on
stage but is actually rigged or controlled offstage (more consistent that way, too). Besides which, surely this curtain has to gather somewhere when it's offstage, even if it does travel the full width of your space, so there's already automatically space for a floor-operated rope
line to be rigged and masked from being seen. Do you not have the right hardware? Not enough crew? Admittedly, it's simpler to just hang a curtain on
track carriers rather than rig it but it's definitely more efficient in operation; as the rope
line helps align all the carriers in a single direction and minimizes the twisting possibilities.
Good luck,