Ever been on a stage that scares you...
- Thread starterphotoatdv
- Start date
That is not a good thing, but unfortunately all to common for educational institutions. They are the largest users of performing arts facilities (according to Dr. Doom), yet they are regularly found in deplorable shape. Mostly from lack of training and delayed maintenance.
~Dave
~Dave
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Eboy87
Well-Known Member
That's because the money goes to redo the football field every four years and to the other sports teams
Do I have a horse in this race? Sort of.
Well, all I can say is;
- strip lights tied to a batton with rope
Was it good rope? Was it tied with a clove hitch? Then what are you complaining about?
- Plates not on top of weights
Plates should be under weights, 'cause it keeps them from falling off the arbor after you finished your pizza, but not under too many weights or they'll crush and you'll have to clean up the porcelain.
- weights stacked on top of plates
See Above.
- interesting wiring in places
I should think you'd be thankful that they were attempting to keep you engaged and interested.
Been there, done that, Told 'em to keep the **** t-shirt!
What Rigger?
I'm so fly....I Neverland.
Well, all I can say is;
- strip lights tied to a batton with rope
Was it good rope? Was it tied with a clove hitch? Then what are you complaining about?
- Plates not on top of weights
Plates should be under weights, 'cause it keeps them from falling off the arbor after you finished your pizza, but not under too many weights or they'll crush and you'll have to clean up the porcelain.
- weights stacked on top of plates
See Above.
- interesting wiring in places
I should think you'd be thankful that they were attempting to keep you engaged and interested.
Been there, done that, Told 'em to keep the **** t-shirt!
Ohh! Ohh! I get it! Van is using "sarcasm" (directed at the venue in question I believe), and like C-3PO once said "it's like a second language to me."
Honestly, the venue we're talking about sounds a lot like Orange Coast College located in (blank city), California.
I spent my first couple of years in college at Orange Coast College. I stopped by to say hello to some of my old teachers a couple of months back. They've made quite a few improvements since I was there. Based on what I saw in the brief time I had to visit, it's nowhere near as scary as it once was.
Nope, It's actually at a high school. The worst part is I had a conversation with the auditorium manager there about it a couple of years ago. At the time the only problem I noticed was that some of the plates were locked about 2 feet above the weights. He basically said they are stuck and if you want to try to fix it, have fun. During this conversation he even admitted to having several runaways (because sombody tried to move a line while somebody elso was reweighting). Tried to explain that no plate on top of weights + runaway = very BAD situation, but don't think he cared.
since we are talking about fly systems, i learned to put plates between every 5-10 bricks, depending on how many bricks there are. Or when i am in theater that already has weight set to their plot, and then i add lights i place a plate between their weight and the weight i add to counter balance my lights, so i do not have to figure out their weight when we are loading out. What are yalls opinion on placing plates between weights.
elite1trek
Active Member
As long as you have a plate on top of the whole thing then it really doesnt matter.
saxman0317
Active Member
Yes!
One of the local theater guilds I volunteer my services for performs in a 200 year old stone building that serves as a convent, church, nursing home, and school. Awkward mix, i know. But the latest reno on the stage was about 50 years ago. All rigging is done with either a single change of direction pully or is fixed, the power coming into the area changes eough that we have started checking the power coming in to our usage before and during every show o eliminate more incidents...(as well as taking extra electical items out of the dressing rooms). Some lights still operate on mean looking knife switches, parts of the stage can't be walked on by heavier people anymore. ...and to top a light strip tied onto a pipe... When i first started there were 2 2*4's lashed together (LASHED..no mechanical fasteners) with 12 pars, 4 Lekos, 4 fernels, and 2 Leprachan dimmers hanging. scary stuff man
One of the local theater guilds I volunteer my services for performs in a 200 year old stone building that serves as a convent, church, nursing home, and school. Awkward mix, i know. But the latest reno on the stage was about 50 years ago. All rigging is done with either a single change of direction pully or is fixed, the power coming into the area changes eough that we have started checking the power coming in to our usage before and during every show o eliminate more incidents...(as well as taking extra electical items out of the dressing rooms). Some lights still operate on mean looking knife switches, parts of the stage can't be walked on by heavier people anymore. ...and to top a light strip tied onto a pipe... When i first started there were 2 2*4's lashed together (LASHED..no mechanical fasteners) with 12 pars, 4 Lekos, 4 fernels, and 2 Leprachan dimmers hanging. scary stuff man
Actually this is not completely correct. Spreader plates distributed within the counterweight weight stack help keep the uprights of the arbors from "mushrooming" should there ever be a runaway set. Thus, helping to save bricks from being thrown off of the arbor after it changes shape from the compression of a crashhing arbor. I will agree that the top plate locked down properly is very important.
~Dave
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porkchop
Well-Known Member
I must disagree, on at least one fly system I can think of it wasn't uncommon to have the arbor 3/4 or better full. In this case I'd be more worried about the shock causing the arbor bars to bend and let plates out than them bouncing out from the top.
None the less on to the OP's topic. I don't know if it technically counts as a "stage" but the show we did in Medellin, Columbia in a bull ring was certainly exciting. The biggest problem was that this was a bull ring with an ice floor (that we brought in) on top of it and they didn't cover the ultra fine sand from the ring.
Things that made this scary:
- Our 40k+ pound rig was all supported from the ground cause we couldn't rig there. Doing ground support is always a bit scary, especially with the relatively small amount of experiance we had there.
- That dirt got into all of our motors because the locals saw no reason that the motors and their chain couldn't sit on the sand for hours at a time. For those of you that don't use chain motors much you can imagine what dirt does to the motor itself and add on the fact that dry chain = VERY VERY VERY BAD for supporting weight. Then look up one bullet at how much weight we were supporting
- In some places the stage area was too small for the extensions necessary to use a motor to lift the towers so they hand to be lifted in......... alternative manors
- In some cases when the venue needed to extend a length of wire they just twisted copper together and left it, no wire nuts, no electrical tape. Even after talking to them about this they didn't see any reason I was concerned.
- All wardrobe facilities were in the stalls where they feed, house, and eventually slaughtered the bulls. Before you even talk about sanitary concerns, no human was made to be in these kind of places for more than 10 minutes at a time I promise you.
- Just getting to the venue was taking you life into your own hands on the roads.
- The crane opperator that landed our generator and ice making containers didn't see any reason why really sharp ice skates + feeder cable + 6" round coolant lines where a bad idea.
- Last but not least, my translators we Houdini like in their ability to disappear so any time I tried to address most of these problems the people I needed to talk to couldn't understand me and there was no translator to help.
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elite1trek
Active Member
yes yes yes...I was not saying that the only thing you need is a top plate, I was merely stating that you can put as many plates as you like between the weights, you just always need one on top.
I guess I could have phrased that a little better.
porkchop
Well-Known Member
If I was in a snarky mood I'd still argue with you there but that at least sounds like better advice.
Ekirkpatrick11
Member
Im an auditorium director at HS in recently we invested 4 million dollars in the football field - needless to say the theatre is in the same shape but im not allowed the budget ... i guess hurting people on the field is more important than keeping my crew safe
Maybe you could start providing "entertainment support" for the football team and then siphon off some of their funding. If nothing else, you could get them to buy some new equipment that you could use for special games like homecoming. No, it won't fix the theater, but when you do get the money to do that, you won't have to spend money on new equipment (since you already obtained it).
Yeah, Host enough events, in honour of the Football team and sooner < ha> or later some football alum is going to say, " hey we should really fix up this auditorium if we're going to be having awards assemblies in here." Then another guy will say, Hey how about we just build a multi million dollar TV studio/multi-media events facility instead?" Everyone will say" OOOOH, Ahhhhh." and you won't be allowed to use any of the stuff 'cause y'all don't know nothing about TV Lights.
Am I being Jaded and depressing ? What I need is Hope, got some on Wednesday, just need a booster shot.
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