The risks of repetitive tasks backstage
By Howard Bird for The Stage

Have you ever had that Groundhog Day moment when working a show? You know, the film in which no matter what the hero does, he wakes up the next morning to live the day again. It is that brief second when you are in the gloom backstage, in the corner or in the LX box when you can’t remember whether you are doing the matinee or the evening production. Furthermore, for an instant you can’t actually remember what day it is.

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More from the Denver Post.

...And anyone who doesn't agree is free to ask Brandon Lee.

And while on this subject....fire, even when considered prop fire, is still fire.

Had a little trouble this weekend with some youngsters given the task of running in with a torch and standing onstage. The standing onstage part was fine (with one slightly dramatic exception) but backstage, they just didn't seem to get that yeeesssss, it was a live, open flame. They paid no attention to what was going on. I was having kittens! And I was grumbling about it to the prop man after one particularily stupid manuever something about "what the heck is he thinking" and the prop guy said "they think it's just prop fire".

I think that's a good way of describing it - a prop....that people think must be safe, so all normal precautions are gone, because it is a prop.

Flyman - safety
From The Stage


Theatre technicians are used to challenges. Perhaps they even welcome them. Usually they come from directors and designers who want the leaves to fall off a tree during the course of the action or need a gas cooker to explode or a First World War dugout to collapse.

On other occasions, they come from the licensing authorities, the fire safety officer or an insurance company. Imaginative (and safe) versions of flaming torches or realistic flame effects have evolved as the regulations have become more onerous. Public places have had candle effect lighting fittings for many years but what is acceptable in a restaurant can be totally unconvincing on the stage - especially if candles are to be lit or blown out.

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Safety in the theatre
By Barbara Eifler for The Stage

Occasionally there is an outcry in the theatre industry about how we still don’t really adhere to safe working practices and need to get our heads round health and safety and all the legislation on the subject constantly coming on stream. The lack of money, the lack of appropriate training and the lack of time derived from that all-pervasive motto that ‘the show must go on’, mean that a ‘bodge’ mentality is still too often prevalent.

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Safety I
By Howard Bird for The Stage

One of the regular features of Sightline is the cut out and keep ‘Safety Matters’ section which keeps ABTT members up to date with the latest H&S issues. I was tickled by one article in the section which was obviously written when Geoff was feeling hot under the collar.

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Safety II
By Howard Bird for The Stage

Is this familiar? “Along one wall runs a huge metal frame, tatty strips of red and white warning tape attached to it in a cursory attempt to stop people falling through the foot-wide gap in the floor. On the opposite wall, reams of electric cable end in fuse boxes worryingly stacked above two corroded sinks.”

Or this? “Another big challenge was cooking facilities and [food] preparation areas… space was quite limited and we had to share the sink with the crew, who needed it to fill mop buckets.”

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Technical Talk
By Howard Bird for The Stage

When I look at the agenda for a committee meeting that I will be attending and see that there is space allotted for somebody or other to give a presentation, my heart sinks. It usually means that some bod has been dragged in from outside to bulk the meeting out with information which is irrelevant, misconceived and will bore the pants off us all for 15 minutes or so.

It is therefore a real pleasure when something useful appears. Such was a presentation made by PLASA’s Nicky Greet and Ron Bonner at a safety meeting I sat in on recently. They were introducing the new National Rigging Certificate (NRC), something that makes you wonder how the industry has got on without it so far.

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The same thing is happening on this side; for the first time, we're getting a program to certify riggers. The first ~200 people have taken the test, but the results have not been announced.

What does this mean? Well, at best, it means that those of us who walk or jete' on stage will be able to do so with confidence that the people who hung heavy objects over our heads knew what the were doing. At worst, it means that theatre managers will have to explain to our survivors why the heavy objects that killed us were rigged by unqualified people.