At my previous job, many years ago we were running a rather nice version of "The Music Man"(if you can stand that musical). We had the hotel wagon out, backed by the park scene drop. The quartet was singing themselves off stage and it was time for the scene change. For this one it's was done in the open, no blackout. All timed, it was a beautiful thing.
The SM called the cue, the fly man got the drop moving nicely and the floor crew grabbed the wagon. Unfortunately one of the actors had a dropped a pen, used in the scene. It caught a wheel on the wagon and it pivoted back just as things were moving. The bottom pipe on the drop caught the wagon and instantly started tearing. The pipe ripped the bottom 8" off the drop 2/3 the way across before the flyman figured out something was wrong. He was edge on so he couldn't see it.
Luckily I was watching the show from the wings. Usually I would have been in the office by this point. I grabbed the headset and told the flyman to keep going, let it rip! It peeled the drop clear across and dropped the pipe right where it started, on the deck..
I had the stage hands grab the pipe, hauled it back stage so we could move on. The entire episode took less than 1 minute. The next day the piece was sewn back onto the drop, it was a little shorter but not really any worse for wear...
The moral..... sometimes stuff happens. Deal with it and move on. The stage hands went out during curtain call and got a round of applause for dealing with the situation....
The SM called the cue, the fly man got the drop moving nicely and the floor crew grabbed the wagon. Unfortunately one of the actors had a dropped a pen, used in the scene. It caught a wheel on the wagon and it pivoted back just as things were moving. The bottom pipe on the drop caught the wagon and instantly started tearing. The pipe ripped the bottom 8" off the drop 2/3 the way across before the flyman figured out something was wrong. He was edge on so he couldn't see it.
Luckily I was watching the show from the wings. Usually I would have been in the office by this point. I grabbed the headset and told the flyman to keep going, let it rip! It peeled the drop clear across and dropped the pipe right where it started, on the deck..
I had the stage hands grab the pipe, hauled it back stage so we could move on. The entire episode took less than 1 minute. The next day the piece was sewn back onto the drop, it was a little shorter but not really any worse for wear...
The moral..... sometimes stuff happens. Deal with it and move on. The stage hands went out during curtain call and got a round of applause for dealing with the situation....
