Well I'm a little late to this discussion but I want to
throw out a story about how it's done in a big time show. (As you no doubt are sick of me talking about by now) I took that backstage tour at Cirque Du Soleil Ka during
LDI 2008. On the tour we noticed that just about everyone on the crew was wearing a harness. We were told this was because the policy is if you get within 3 feet of an
edge you hook in. All over the theater there are areas painted yellow marking that the 6
foot line and a conveniently located way to hook in.
So during the performance I was lucky enough to be paired up with the
deck electrician and follow him on
stage. At a couple of different points in the show he goes out on a
stage about 25' square which is open to a 20'+ fall in the front
edge. He walks out on the
deck between scenes to place specials and help with the placement of
props. He told me that while some of these jobs technically belong to someone else he's already out there and already
harnessed in so it just makes sense for him to do the prop placement work. I commented that it seemed a little odd to me that he needed to be
harnessed in when on the
deck as he doesn't get anywhere near the front
edge and it slows him down quite a
bit to get out there because of the retractor. He told me that after 5 or 6 years of doing this show 10 times a week he fell off that
stage just a few weeks before. It's a fall that would have easily killed him. Okay,
point taken.
While the technical wizardry was amazing backstage at KA, I was even more impressed at the
level of attention paid to
safety. It doesn't get any more big time than Cirque and I assure you they never cut a corner, they get the job done safely, and if a situation is too dangerous the show get's canceled. This is a show that generates $500,000 per night. Canceling a performance is SERIOUS money. If you were working there and got caught not hooking in because it slows you down too much. You would be fired immediately. We are talking about a show that generates about $5,000,000 per week... and the show does
NOT go on if there is a dangerous situation.
Do you want to be a professional
stage technician and have a chance to work a big time gig some day? Learn to do your job safely.