Your worst theatre injury

[Sony]

Seems to me that you need to get some lights up there!

Or a railing....

 

[MarshallPope]

Not the worst I've ever done, but on Thursday I tried to jump up on the front lip of stage (it was only 2 feet high) and I missed...I don't know HOW I missed but my toe slipped off and my shin rode down the edge of the front of the stage and I landed on my other knee. I've got a huge scrape on the front of my shin and my left knee was killing me for the rest of the day. It's something I do all the time but for some reason I screwed up this one time and payed the price.

Sony's post reminded me of this: Never sit cross-legged on the edge of the stage, with your back to the house. If you do, definitely do NOT lean back to get your phone out of your pocket. You will fall off the stage. It will hurt, and there will be much laughter. How I know this, I would prefer not to say.

Ha.

 

[Esoteric]

Notice Logos said it was at the end of a very long day. It was that momentary mental vacation, like ajb said. Just another example of why working long hours can be dangerous. When you are tired, you don't process things as quickly or clearly.

I've done the same thing. I was only 3-4 feet up, luckily, but it still messed up my back.

Yeah, at the end of a 96 hour summer stock work day I was putting up a fence with a pneumatic nail gun and got into a haze going through the motions and nailed by hand to a post.

 

[Esoteric]

No big accidents to speak of, but my disregard for OSHA would get me fired from a real theatre Dizzy sick in a suspended ceiling off the catwalk is always fun

When I was in college we did some stupid crap (with a road house ME standing, watching us). We stood on the top rung of a fully extended rolling A-Frame, we walked 5-6 feet across schedule 40 pipe to get from catwalk to catwalk instead of going around, we walked across a slanted acoustic ceiling, we walked on the hand rails of the catwalks, we used a bosuns chair with no strap or harness (by bosuns chair I mean a 2x4 with rope on both ends), and the worst, we had these trolleys that would go out to lighting positions in our black box, well the lighting positions hung about 3' below the trolley, so to get to it someone would have to hold your legs while you hung backwards and upside down from the knees up out of the trolley.

In an amusing side note, I left the theater department to pursue other endeavors. Well I had only done 2 production (slave labor) credits. Well, when I came back there was some little underclassman ME girl that told me to hang off the trolley to focus a light. She tried to taunt me into doing it, so I rolled the trolley back and told her if she wanted it focused she should get up there and do it herself.

She actually told the facility ME on me!!! We laughed at it while he pretended to dress me down for it.

 

[Noramac]

My worst injury without a doubt is when a ten foot tall wall frame that wasn't bolted down to a flat yet fell on me. I just got a little winded, no major injuries but a couple of bruises.

 

[lchslightech]

well my key to the 1st through 4th electrics was in my pocket wen 3rd electric fell 30 ft and was about 7ft from hitting the stage floor during practice for To Kill A Mockingbird good thing we were all in the house...

 

[mstaylor]

Would you care to explain what caused that little mishap?

 

[DuckJordan]

Would you care to explain what caused that little mishap?

I second, What the hell happend to cause the 3rd electric to drop like that (what system do you use, counterweight? Hemp? Some other non approved system?)

 

[gumboot]

Before a performance of WSS in our school hall one evening, our teacher/TD had her iPhone running through the sound system so we could listen to music while we waited until the cast was ready to mic. Some of us were looking over her shoulder to see what was on the screen while it was in her hand, at which point she goes "This is a cool song!", her right fisted hand flys up/backwards in exclamation and smacks me square in the face. Bloody painful. But hilarious at the same time.

Otherwise I haven't really been hurt working on a show. Sometimes I'll get a little burn from touching a PAR can while focusing it cause I'll be on a ladder and it's a bit akward. But nothing serious.

 

[danhr]

I was, ironically, putting a safety cable on an instrument on our 8' high grid. I scampered up a 4 foot ladder without noticing the legs weren't locked and it collapsed under me. I would have been fine except my left (and dominant) hand landed on the foot of the ladder instead of the stage floor, bending it backwards. I got up, shook it off and continued working. The director arrived soon after and we began hanging some curtains. Every time I tried to tie a knot I yelped. He suggested I get it looked at which I did. No long term damage, but 6 weeks of physical therapy. A lot of my day job involves ladders as well, but the few times I have fallen have never been higher than 3 feet. I guess it's the false sense of security of "I'm only going up a few feet and it'll only take a second..."

 

[Teber]

It didn't happen to me, but a theatre I've worked at -- he was in the genie focusing lights (he wasn't bright enough to use the out riggers-) and leaned too far and the genie tipped, and he grabs the shakespeare and hangs there until the venues TD manages to get a ladder up there to get him, skin melted to the 750w shakespeare which had been on for probably 20 minutes. He was driven to the hospital. His wife was not happy.... Now Instead of break a leg -- we now say burn your hands -- crude -- but a cruel reminder to use the d**n outriggers.

 

[avkid]

You have to do be doing something pretty stupid to tip the lift even when not using outriggers.

 

[JChenault]

I'm looking at this thread, and it occurs to me that it has more pages than any other I have seen on this site. ( Not sure how to verify this - but I am sure that DvsDave could do a quick query ).

Not sure what to do with that fact, except to remind ourselves to work hard to be safe so that the worst injury you ever have does not end your life, leave you crippled, or send you to the hospital.

Stay safe folks

 

[avkid]

Probably the longest serious (mostly) thread.

 

[derekleffew]

I'm looking at this thread, and it occurs to me that it has more pages than any other I have seen on this site. ( Not sure how to verify this - but I am sure that DvsDave could do a quick query ). ...

While viewing the thread listing of any particular forum, click on the Replies/Views column title (or almost any other title) in the header to sort the list. The white triangle pointing down is descending order; up is ascending order.

Our longest thread is appropriately (people love to show off), http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...hought-we-could-share-pictures-our-shows.html with currently 1,140 replies and 660,496 views in almost seven years.
You are correct that this is the longest thread in the Safety forum. Personally, I feel the thread should have ended with post#55.

 

[mstaylor]

The length of this thread simply shows how dangerous our chosen profession is. I am constantly on my guys about paying attention and to not horse around. I have younger guys that want to wear ear buds while they work. I will not allow it, I will send them home if I catch them with them in. I want them to answer me when I want something and get out of the way when a danger warning goes out. That can not happen if they have buds in their ears. I had a very good hand that went from the A list to the C list because he kept wanting to break the rule.

 

[avkid]

Wow, that's a new one.
Occasional phone calls are bad enough, but that's crazy.

 

[mstaylor]

Wow, that's a new one.
Occasional phone calls are bad enough, but that's crazy.

I work in an arena setting so rigging happens at the same time as trusses being bolted and sound getting assembled. The last thing I want is a guy hurt because he couldn't hear me tell him to move.
That's the safety side of it. I personally think it is rude to the show guy and to fellow crew members to not be connected to the task. I know when I am the show guy, or even just running local guys, I do not want to have to walk ten steps to tap a guy on the shoulder to get his attention.

 

[shiben]

I work in an arena setting so rigging happens at the same time as trusses being bolted and sound getting assembled. The last thing I want is a guy hurt because he couldn't hear me tell him to move.
That's the safety side of it. I personally think it is rude to the show guy and to fellow crew members to not be connected to the task. I know when I am the show guy, or even just running local guys, I do not want to have to walk ten steps to tap a guy on the shoulder to get his attention.

I have never understood wanting to wear earbuds... On most shows I work on either fun discussion of some oddball thing the Systems Tech came across in your town or straight up rapid-fire instructions are going on, and if your just hooking truss together, there is usually another guy... Plus that means your iPod is now on your person, which means its more likely to get broken or dropped.

 

[avkid]

I have never understood wanting to wear earbuds... On most shows I work on either fun discussion of some oddball thing the Systems Tech came across in your town.

Like when the promoter booked the out of town IATSE hands in a rather "flamboyant" local hotel.