Amateur rigging can result in injury, or death.

And I include amateurs operating professionally rigged systems in the above statement.

Recently, @thtrbob posted some Youtube videos on his blog “Confessions of a Chicago Theatre Addict.”  They were intended to be a followup to his previous post about his love of “Peter Pan” and not being able to get access to the Flying By Foy rig in third grade.  The videos show 3 different amateur productions of “Peter Pan,” each with disastrous accidents involving the unlucky actors in the fly harnesses.

Before I get into this post, let me make clear that I have no idea who installed the flying systems used at any of the theatres shown in the videos.  There are a few flying specialty companies, such as Flying By Foy, ZFX, and Hall Associates.  However, this does not mean that one, or any of the these companies installed the rigs shown.

Each video shows a different production, but all suffering from the same dangerous mistake: flying the wrong rig/actor at the wrong time. Instead of Peter, one of the “children” is literally ripped from their beds and flown at high speed toward the upstage wall, all while the poor actress has no idea what has just happened, or if she is going to smash into something during her unguided flight.

This video is the worst of the bunch.  It seems to be at Greenport High School, (Greenport, NY).  On opening night, not only is the set not secure, but the crew running the flying rigs have no idea what the f**king hell they are doing.

First off, a set piece should not be able to fall over simply from the weight of one person. While the video does not directly show it, I am assuming that “Peter” was flown through the window too low to clear the window seat, resulting in the crash.  This shows that A. The fly crew did not have enough practice, because B. They were not working together.  “Peter’s” over-stage controls were moved before his vertical controls were ready.

The next part I would almost excuse, due to the previous problems.  One problem almost always begats another in any performance, and after knocking the set over, one could understand the crew being nervous about trying the move again.  However, that does not excuse the fly crew grabbing the controls FOR A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT RIG, and throwing an innocent actor halfway across the stage without warning! Not only is that an inexcusable mistake, as each set of controls should be fully labled, but why is (apparently) only one team operating both flying sets?  There are multiple people flying, so there should be one team assigned to each actor.  The fact that it was possible for the “Peter” team to grab the “sleeping girl’s” rig shows that there was no other team on that rig.

Now, I understand that this was a high school.  You expect certain things at a high school production (it’s sort of a right of passage for theatre people), such as the curtain being closed or opened early, lights not coming up or down correctly, missed entrances, wig problems, etc…  Most of these rarely rise to the level of being unsafe.  But when you are flying someone, you are taking full and total responsibility for their safety THE ENTIRE TIME THEY ARE CLIPPED IN TO THE RIG.  It is not something that should EVER be entrusted to a teenager.  Again, I don’t know who was operating the system, but it is clear from the video that communication was lacking, and even “Peter” was not taking his own safety seriously.  The poor girl was so distraught over her impromptu flight into the scenery that she had to leave the stage.

This is not to say that mistakes don’t happen on professional productions.  They do.  But moves are designed and practiced to ensure that if a mistake is made, it can be corrected quickly, and safely.  Professional flying companies, such as the ones I mentioned earlier, all include training on how to use their systems for each production, and stay with the production until all moves are finalized.  They do their best to train the crew to deal with all possible circumstances.  But they cannot be held responsible for the crew failing to adhere to their training after they leave.

Usually, the most painful time for an actor that will be flying is during the training/flying rehearsal. Everyone is learning the rig and how it responds and moves, and chances are good that, a few times, the actor will be set down a bit to hard or sent into a chair or set piece.  It’s part of the process, and that’s why rehearsals are done.  The actors learn how they should move while in flight, and the crew learns the travel limits of the rig.  Most non-theatre people would be surprised that the fly crew must stay on the rig controls the entire time an actor is is clipped in to the fly line, even when the actor is not flying.  The line must travel with the actor as they walk, and slack must be paid-out or taken in as the actor negotiates stairs, chairs, or a raked deck. Failure to be aware of where the actor is in relation to the rig can result in the line snagging on scenic items, or the actor being yanked backwards if his/her rig has not traveled with them.

I’ve been able to witness all this on numerous productions.  But on one occasion, about 10 years ago, I was able to experience it firsthand.  I volunteered to be a “fly dummy” to train the crew covers for the Foy system being used.

That’s me on the left.  A bit younger, a bit lighter.  If I had known I would be spending part of my day in a Foy harness, I would have worn different clothes.  The young lady and I were chosen because we were similar in height and weight to the actors in the show.  This fell under what I call “protect your actors, then protect your crew.”  We did not want to subject the actors to the training of a new crew, as they had suffered enough during the training of the main crew a few weeks back.  We did volunteer for the job, knowing pretty much what we were getting into.

The training went as expected: first with the lifts and landing, then lifting and side-to-side, then a few “flights” (with a few crashes, as expected).  We got into the swing of things soon enough.  But the big lesson was to be learned the hard way.

The bedroom (shown above) was on a raised set piece, about 4 feet above the main deck.  The final “flight” was from the bedroom down to the main deck downstage left.  We would do this flight, and then walk back to the unit.  We were offered the chance to unclip, walk up the stairs in the back, and reclip when we were in the bedroom, but in the interest of time, I elected to just climb up from the deck.  A little awkward, but no worse than climbing out of a pool without a ladder.  I was on my second walk back to the unit, getting ready to jump up, when suddenly the guy running my lift line decided to “help.”  Without warning I suddenly shot up into the air.  I had just started to realize what he was intending, when apparently realizing that he was making a mistake, he dropped me.  My arms smacked the unit floor as I fell to the main deck.  I remember being less concerned about the fall then wondering if I was going to take off again.  Behind me, the house carpenter/crew chief was chewing the guy a new @$$hole as he ran to check on me.  “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! YOU NEVER LIFT A PERSON WITHOUT WARNING THEM FIRST!!!”

I was fine.  A little bruised, and certainly shaken up, but fine.  We even continued the rehearsal.  I said then, and I still feel now, that it was better that it happen to me, than to one of the actors.

That was at a professional company. We had well trained crew members (training their covers, in this case) to make sure that the system was used properly.  We practiced the flights before the shows when we felt there might have been a problem the night before.  All controls were clearly labeled, and the only the crew assigned to a given actor was allowed to operate his or her rig.  While some mistakes did occur once in a while (overshooting the landing, usually), we never had the wrong rig operated at the wrong time.

I have nothing against high school or community theatre.  It is where most of us, including myself, got our start.  But flying someone is not something you want the two gung-ho drama students doing, nor do you want the system designed and installed by the shop teacher.  Flying someone is taking full responsibility for their safety and should only be done with dedicated systems intended for it, installed by and with training from those that specialize in such effects.

When flying is done by the ignorant and inexperienced,  it is not surprising when serious, and sometimes deadly accidents happen.

Tags: accident, high school, mistake, problems, rant, rigging, safety, stagehands, theatre, youtube

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 11:50 pm and is filed under General, accident, schools, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.