Sunday, November 15, 2009
Amateur rigging can result in injury, or death.
Backstage at BackstageJobs.com: "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."
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24 comments:
That video was horrific. I have never seen a show go that awry in a performance. It is as though the crew had NEVER gone through the show. Also how was the platform that peter crashed into not screwed into the ground? Since he was flying through it, they should have secured it even more that usual as it was likely to have high impact. Also, how the crew could have flown the actor totally escapes me. The same person should not have been responsible for multiple acting rigs. This is a scary thing, that was not taken as seriously as it should have.
i also looked at the article that was linked at the bottom of the page citing the young grad who died in her church play due to improper equipment and staff. The realities of non-professional companies or places that are not set up to do theatre regularly (like a church) are very scary, and should be more publicized. I think everyone thinks its all fun, but need to realize the consequences more, if things aren't done properly.
I have actually hd a very personal experience concerning rigging in a production of Peter Pan. I wored th flies of Peter through the whole production. And I can definately tell you that caution is the key to every thing. Everything is to be clearly identified and labeled and only those trained on the equipment should be opperating it. Safety and care are the most important aspects of and flying stunts. But not only that, it is also important for the actor to feel safe in the hands of the techs in charge. The actor must be aware of any moves or changes in position, whether that be verbally during rehearsal or a choreographed move in a perfomance.
I too have had some experience with flying, although not in Peter Pan. And, as stated above, everyone thinks it is a whole lot of fun, but many do not realize the full effect if not worked correctly. When my school used this effect, we went through extensive training with Flying by Foy to ensure the safety of everyone involved. This should definitely not be done by people who have not been trained, and should never been taken lightly. It is a very cool effect to use in a show, but should only be attempted if training and safety concerns are made the utmost priority.
Wow. Talk about a complete fail for a show. More importantly, that was ridiculously unsafe. I was in a high school, like many that did not even have a fly system. We rented and set up a system to get to do Peter Pan, and it was very serious business. Waivers had to be signed, the school had to approve the flight system, and only upper classmen were allowed to work the fly system. Not to mention, our technical director was always backstage during shows in case something went wrong. Clearly, in a learning environment someone has to be watching to make sure people learn correctly and so no one gets hurt. I think its perfectly allright to have flight system for high schools, but there's a great deal of responsibility that goes with it.
It's scary seeing amateur rigging like this. The one time that I've seen my high school fly someone (there was only one person flying in the show) there were no incidents, but high school rigging seems like an accident waiting to happen. This applies to any high school rigging, not just flying people.
Before my high school got renovated, our theatre had a fly system (hemp rigging, not a T arbor system), and minor incidents (luckily no one got hurt in my memory) happened a few times a year, like gridding a batten or flying in an electric instead of the needed set piece during rehearsal. While high school is a great place to learn (and make mistakes), when it comes to rigging, safety has to be considered very seriously.
I don't understand why people can be so sure that they're qualified to do something that is SO DANGEROUS. Obviously, the training for that particular high school production was nowhere rigorous or clear enough to allow the operators to have that job. Kids look at flying as something that's fun rather than something that can kill you if done improperly; this is a very dangerous attitude.
You would think that flying people in the air would be recognized as a dangerous enough activity to warrant care taken and certain safety measures. I have operated flying rigs on several occasions, and days were spent with the representative from ZFX teaching us how to keep people safe in their harness as well as while they were in the air. I am really troubled by the thought that people would be ignorant enough to fly people without the proper safety measures.
While I understand that the article was meant as a warning for those who use flying as an aspect of the show, the article undermined itself some with the video of the high school performance. Generally, the moment I hear that a high school has flying in it's performance I find myself wondering just how many times it's been screwed up. The high school featured in the video was not even proficient enough to secure their set pieces, so the fact that they could not work a fly system really doesn't surprise me much. I think high schools in general could actually learn from this example since sometimes they just are not skilled/equipped enough to pull of the flashier effects that more professional theaters do.
Flying is such a dangerous thing in theatre. Done right and it's beautiful and impressive, done wrong and not only will it ruin a production but it will potentially ruin an actor for the rest of their life. I agree with this writer about the how irresponsible the flying crew was in the video shown, and his suggestions for improvement are also dead on.
The production of THE WIZARD OF OZ at my high school involved flying. We rented the equipment from ZFX and there was a massive training session. The people from ZFX stayed through the whole session and trained each crew member. This is a very good idea. To have the people who make the equipment teach it. But that will only get you so far. After it's taught you have to trust the crew to continue to be vigilant. And lets face it, there are some people that we just would never trust with that job.
So really the final component of safety is the choice of operators and that varies with each production.
Many people never really take the proper precautions until they themselves are either the causes or the victims of an unfortunate incident. I agree with Charley about the fact that many things seem to go wrong with high schoolers flying. Especially for a task such as that.
Flying is dangerous. There is no doubt about that. Like so many other people have mentioned on this thread, flying can be wonderful when done well, but disastrous if done wrong. What I feel is incorrect about this article is the assertion that teenagers can't be trusted with a fly system. I don't think age should be a factor with this, but instead maturity, responsibility, and trust. I have spent a lot of time in amateur high school and community theater, and i have met a lot of people. Out of these people, I think I would be most comfortable trusting members of my crew, who are a year younger than me. I have seen back stage moms and dads act so immaturely to the point where high school students have to shush them. If I had to choose between them and kids i know and trust, I would choose the kids any day. I think the assertion that age and maturity both follow the same curve is often untrue, and this article is just perpetuating an inaccurate standard. It is all about discretion and judgement of character.
Let me for a moment ignore the question of whether high schools should be allowed to fly actors. Even if the crew were young and inexperienced, how on earth could they let the production open up when there were clearly so many safety hazards? I am hard pressed to believe this cast had smooth sailing rehearsals when I see what a truly disastrous performance ensued. Usually schools are intensely worried about liability. Where were the paranoid school officials when this death trap was putting up posters for opening night?
After my training here in the 101 of theatre design and structure I am rather surprised that so many high school put on productions with not sufficient amount of knowledge to even build a flat with the peace of mind it won't fall over with the wrong shove. What's fighting about that video is there is an audience in the house. What the hell went on during the school's technical rehearsal that made them comfortable enough to fly people or even open with their set?! As idealistic as it may be, every high school that wishes to have a drama program of some sorts should be certified in some way in the basics of scenery and safety. The more advance theatres become the more advance high school theatres try to be and students can only assume their superiors understand what they are doing. Oh my god, did their parents sign a release form for Peter Pan?
This is absolutely horrifying. Seeing the amount of danger this thing presents, I'm shocked that high schools have even approved it in their productions.
Chris and I both were the crew members flying people during INTO THE WOODS last year, and the training we had to do was rather extensive--and, I'm glad. What they mention about not flying the actors first, but flying someone who works for the company or is on staff, is such a valuable thing and speaks to the importance of safety.
I can't believe that someone pulled the line of the wrong actor, on multiple occasions. That's something that should be clearly labeled, and multiple people should be working on. And, it's even more scary to me to hear about schools making their own fly rigs. The real ones are dangerous, but making your own is even more so.
This is one of those stories that comes along every year or so to remind us all how important it is to do our job well. And perhaps, humorously so, how poorly some other people do it. It calls into question numerous safety concerns which we should be addressed in any production but often are not. The scenery in the first video was clearly not built in a safe way, because it fell the way that it did.
Construction and scenic infrastructure are important things to consider when mounting a show and in this case it was clearly overlooked. When performers are flown, this is even more paramount. At the very least this should remind us all that what we do it not there just to look pretty and tell a story. It must also be indeed SAFE and PRACTICAL
First of all, I believe, if anything, this should just be a warning that no one should ever put on a production of Peter Pan.
EVER.
But seriously, I almost wish there were laws that said that no high school anywhere could be allowed to do any form of rigging in any situation. I know when I came her (to CMU), I found out pretty quick that many of the rigging techniques I had been using for years were outdated, illogical, and frankly completely unsafe. More than once I put lives in jeopardy, and that was with some trained adult supervision. The reality is that, short of high schools with enough money to hire a professional rigger, almost every high school out there routinely takes it upon themselves to partake in the single most dangerous part of technical theatre and it's never going to turn out well.
This is ridiculous. While I can sympathize with mistakes, this is beyond the world of safe.
When we did my high school production of Peter Pan (the set was in nearly the same configuration... thank you Foy) our Peter flew right through the nursery windows. She broke the windows, but the flat stayed up. The fact that the entire unit fell over is RIDICULOUS!
As for the second mistake: obviously a flustered crew member having just run back offstage grabbed the wrong line so she flew the wrong person. This should have been something second nature to the people running the lines and show a severe lack of rehearsal time and time for the fly people to get accustomed to the system.
Over the years I've worked on shows that had various home-brew flying rigs, ranging from bace when I was in high school we flew an actor by putting him in a harness and tying it to a carrier on a curtain track (the arbor was raised by having several people pull on it, and tracking him back and forth was done with the hand line) to peter pan (why is it always peter pan?) where the flying was done by attaching a single line to a block on the grid and telling people to pull. At least with Peter Pan they had the fathers of the girls flying on their own daughters' lines so they had some real incentive to make sure everything stayed safe, but even so it was still frightening in hindsight.
What's almost worse than a high school trying to do it themselves without the proper oversight, skills, or equipment, is when professionals in the industry who have "seen it done" before try to do it themselves. Its sort of like a "come on, you should know better" type of scenario. I recently heard about a area high school in New York who tried to fly an actor out for Wizard of Oz using a standard lineset and ended up smacking the poor kids head into the steel grid and then having him get stuck up there. They needed to bring in a superlift to go get the kid -- and this was all under the direction of an older "industry professional." Sometimes, its just not worth it.
It is very scary to think that something that is so obviously potentially dangerous can sometimes be in the hands of people who are highly unqualified to handle it. However I think one of the most interesting points brought up by this article is that of being considerate towards actors. Flying my be one of the most obviously scary and unsafe things they are submitted to but it is certainly not the only one or the most common one. A lot of times theatre sets are filled with things that are unfamiliar traps for actors and because we are familiar with them we often do not give it a second though, or understand when someone gets accidentally hurt or something is damaged. It is of utmost important to communicate and keep safety in mind not only when doing things obviously dangerous things like flying but all the time.
Obviously not enough precautions were taken with regards to the training of the crew in terms of the fly system. Just seeing the video of the high school production, where part of the set fell down is disturbing since it wasn’t properly secured to the deck. The fact that both the set was unsecured and that the people operating the fly system were not properly trained, or were not taking their responsibility seriously is just dangerous. While I feel that high schools I feel should have the opportunity to do some of the flashier parts of theater, in this case, I have to agree with Charlie that there are some things that some high schools shouldn’t try to pull off.
The video in this scares me for so many reasons that everyone has already outlined, but my one question is why they didn't stop after the second time someone got hurled into the set. If injury is imminent, you can't just keep making the same mistakes and unconditionally go on with the show.
Being in my rigging mini right now makes this ever the more terrifying, but mostly grateful for the fact that we do have professional riggers here that can teach us the mere basics of the craft. And with a number one rule of safety, its a part of theatre that no one has the excuse to ignore.
I couldn't believe waht I was reading and watching. This is insane. And, unfortunately, not that uncommon. In our rigging mini, Sean told us all the time that our first job in rigging was keeping people safe. If you can't do that, you ask for help. Clearly these people haven't heard of this. If you can't safely have peter pan fly, you don't have him fly, or you hire professionals. I feel so bad for the kids in this production, and for the poor girl that died (follow the link at the bottom of the article).
I can't believe that any adult would allow that much responsibility to go into a teenagers hands. When it comes to all rigging, things can go terribly wrong, when it comes to flying a person, things can go even worse. Many teenagers cannot understand the consequences of what can happen when rigging goes wrong. I also think that it is the responsibility of the adult technical director at the school to make sure they are supervising every time they are flying a person. In my high school we flew an actor, but this never happened without the technical director standing right by.
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