Luckily, I have not suffered any major injuries in the
theatre, but my worst one has sort of an interesting story.
Last year we were striking the set after the opera, Gianni Schicchi.I was going down the fly
rail, flying everything out so we would have enough floor space to move everything. I got to the painted
drop, which was awkwardly weighted anyway, since it was on the same
batten as a set of legs. The problem was that the
drop was shorter than the legs, so they were pooled on the floor. I'm still not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow the
line was
arbor heavy. I started flying it out, and got it going a little too fast. (stupid thing #1) I stopped it, and was lifted so that I was standing on the fly
rail. I figured it coudn't get any worse, so I continued to fly it out, while still standing on the
rail. (Stupid thing #2) It got going a little too fast again (#3) so that I was standing on a support brace about 6-8" above the
deck. It was still moving, so I tried to find a place to hold on to. The first thing I got ahold of was the the
track for the carriage. (#4) About two seconds later, the carriage finds my
hand, and my fingers just happen to be in the path of the metal wheels, and were quickly run over. I grabbed the weight rods as soon as I could reach them, and slowly lowered it the rest of the way. I was able to get a nearby tech's attention (He is really quite useless. Just saying.) and got him to lock the
line. I climbed down and found a bandaid and finished the
strike.
Damage report: a cut on my pointer finger and the crap torn out of my middle finger, along with a black fingernail for a couple of months. It could have been much worse, but it definitely hurt, and taught me a lesson.