Rigging History Thesis

[rochem]

Hi guys,

I'm finally a Senior at my undergrad, and part of my graduation requirements include writing a semester-long thesis on a topic of my choosing, and I've chosen to write about non-traditional uses of counterweight rigging. I've reached out to a number of people for comments (and there's a few individuals on here who I'll hopefully be speaking with in the coming weeks), but I'm currently struggling to find written information on the history of counterweight rigging. I haven't been able to find any modern texts that delve too deeply into the subject, so I've been trying to look for older books that might have information. I'm also open to articles or even personal testimonies.

Does anyone know of any texts that might go into detail on the origins of counterweight systems, or when they began to be installed in theatres? Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Clancy has a collection - like 100+ years - of their catalogs. Might help. Also look at Izenour books.

 

[MPowers]

....... writing a semester-long thesis ................non-traditional uses of counterweight rigging.
.............Does anyone know of any texts that might go into detail on the origins of counterweight systems, or when they began to be installed in theatres?............

OK! The first thing is to define "counterweight rigging" for the purposes of your paper. Sandbags in a hemp house is counterweight rigging. Or, do you mean specifically metal weights held by a device that allows weights to be easily changed to match the weight of the flown scenery? You should start by looking at some of the stage machinery of the Renaissance. Also research into the history of stage rigging. Remember it all started when tall ship sailors worked in theatres during the winter months when sailing northern seas was dangerous and unprofitable. Did the Greeks use counterweight to balance the load of their Gods when they lowered them in with the deus ex machina? If so, is that the origin of "counterweight rigging"? Do you know who Inigo Jones, was? Among other things, he was credited with introducing movable scenery. Maybe that's where counterweight rigging began????

Just in case no one's ever told you, actually writing a thesis is only 10% -20% of the project. Research, research, research, reading and more reading and then checking one source against another. That's the 80% -90% of the project. When I was in Grad School an "obscure" professor taught me this, his name was Oscar Brockett. At least in today's world you don't have to spend hours thumbing through 3x5 cards in a card catalog.

Anyway, a very interesting topic. I'm truly interested in what you find and what you write. Keep in touch and let me know how the project is progressing.

 

[rochem]

Thanks for the reply Michael!

For the purposes of this project, the history is actually a fairly small part, so I'm pretty much looking specifically at modern installed systems in theatre - or more specifically, when we went from installing blocks as needed for specific shows to having battens overhead that we could use. The overall thesis is discussing the modification of installed systems, such as kicking sheaves or using mule blocks to create angled linesets, and in order to really break down this topic, I need to establish when we went from installing new per-show to modifying pre-existing installations. I've already realized that there is very little written information on this topic, so a solid portion of my research thus far has been in the form of conversations over beers with Local 1 riggers. I still have quite a few more sources to reach out to, but most of what I expect to find is in personal recollections and industry practice rather than from books.

 

[MPowers]

............a solid portion of my research thus far has been in the form of conversations over beers with Local 1 riggers. I still have quite a few more sources to reach out to, but most of what I expect to find is in personal recollections and industry practice rather than from books.

Personal interviews are indeed a ligit form of research. If you haven't already done so, document each source. Get their name and a bit of background for each interviewee. Cite the sources in foot notes as you write and then put the source info in indexes or appendixes.

 

[gafftaper]

A fascinating but difficult topic. I think that interviews with "more mature" riggers will be your best source. Be sure to contact Jay Glerum and Uncle Bill Sapsis. They are both busy but I have found both have a strong desire to help and teach.

You should probably come up with a specific set of questions you ask everyone so that you maximize time use and don't miss any questions

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

When you narrow the topic to modern (100 years?) manual ferrous guided counterweight stage rigging (I think I hit the relevant points), the Clancy catalogs document developments pretty well. Rod Kaiser at Clancy would be a good source - consider a factory visit - Syracuse - and a long lunch meeting.