Fly Traffic

[kirbz60062]

SO neway during one of our rehersals for our Varitety show this year we had to raise our hanging mics for the Color/Flag guard performance. Unfortuneatly the hanging mic cables came off the fly system on the opposite side of where the flys actually were so it was my job to make sure the cables didn't get caught on the booms. :? So we were going to move the downstage one first, but instead both of them were moved at the same time. In my confusion I wasn't able to grab either of the mic cables and both cables got torn straight out of there connectors (the connections stayed gaffed but the cable got ripped out of the connectors. The cables whipped down and hit one of the colorguards in the head. So we had to rewire our hanging mics that night for the show in two weeks.

It was a lot of fun.

 

[tjbaudio]

I hope your color gard did not get hurt.

I had one potenialy very bad fly mishap (ok one of a few.)

I toured into an old theater with an old hemp system. The place was very pourly maintained. The sand bages had holes in them. The electrics were tied off and they just keeped adding instruments. We should have walked on the gig it was so bad. Took us 2 hrs to fly a drop. Also over the stairs to the basment was a platform that had some small junk on it. It was hinged to the wall and had some legs that were noched 2x4 that rested on the railing. On the out I went to lift the legs so we could pull the dance floor. I got them a foot up (they were 150lb out of weight, cool pic of me floating on one )

BTW not taken at the time of the insident, this was taken after load out and yes I am floating by the rope. I could walk up and down the pin rail as well as float on the rope.

At 1 foot out I heard a crash and a screem. A rope that was on the wall had gotten tangled at the grid and snaged on the shelf. The rope was unrelated to any thing I could find. I think it was an old pic line. It was about 10 ft upstage of the leg I was moving. It lifted the shelf just enough for it to slip off of the railing. The screem was a young cast memeber (pree teen) who was standing in the door to the out side under the shelf. Fortunatly it just pushed her out of the door and she was not hurt.

This goes to show if you have a bad feeling about somthing unsafe INVESTIGATE, If you cant make it safe the show must NOT go on.

In your case better comunication would have helped.

Most theater acidents are cascade failures. In my case it took neglect on the part of the theater owners, tangled rigging, an unsafe shelf, Me not forcing the company to call off the show. Or walking off my self. I should have saw the snage in the hours I spent trying to straiten out the rigging.

It was not my direct falt but I should have prevented it!

Tom B

 

[sallyj]

I am not a touring person, nor does my theatre rent out the space for tours very often, but it seems strange to me that there was not a staff member from the space to help things go more smoothly. The few times we do have outside companies in, we usually include in the fee a "responsible person" or two to help with the rigging and such. Usually that person is me. Living in a hemp house, I am familiar with the feeling of floating. It is a fact of life here.

SJM

 

[tjbaudio]

it seems strange to me that there was not a staff member from the space to help things go more smoothly.

SJM

Very strange to me too and I have been on both sides of that. An office person just said heres the theater, the light board is up there. When I asked where our tech contact was she said "oh he may not come in today" When I called him he said he was not planning on beeing there and did not know it was required. Should have walked then. From the condition of the back stage area, they must do that alot

Tom B

 

[plug_in_baby]

just tell them you wont be coming back, i assume you wont?

 

[tjbaudio]

No I will not go back there. Nether will the dance troupe I was there with. I wont give the name on line. It's really sad too. They spent millions on the house and $40,000 on a new lighing system that is mostly not hooked up. Out of 2 96 space ETC racks full of 20A and 50A dimmers only the 20 50A dimmers that replaced the origonal dimmers are used. THe house lights are not even on this system When I asked about it I was givven a gruff "we only spent $40,000 on it what do you expect!" My reply was somthing like "you should have talen $2000 of that and had an electrition hook up that $40,000 system so you could aculay use it!"

TJB

 

[JP12687]

I have a nice fly accident for you. So there had been a talent show at my school, and i had refused teching in it because i was on the judging panel and was busy getting the show ready in other fashions. So i had a kid who had been doing tech for YEARS do everythign. the show went fine, except the next day (saturday) when we had to go in and get everythign ready to put on aLiceS wonderlanD one of the kids (VERY big/strong kid) went to bring up an electric(it was our last electric that wasnt used in the show and was left down behidn the Cyc((not exacly the best idea)) but needless to say it was never re-weighted. The bar went flying up and the kid tried to stop it(again the kid weights about 240lb all muscle) it lifted him off the ground and he tore up his hands pretty bad.

Now no1 does anything that involves changing the electrics or flys without myself present.