Evansville Courier & Press: The tempest that toppled an outdoor concert stage onto the audience, killing seven and injuring scores more at the Indiana State Fair in August, stirred a whirlwind of safety concerns in the entertainment industry across the country. Even without wind, however, inside a high school auditorium, stage rigging accidents can kill, warns Dana Taylor, technical director at Mount Vernon High School in Mount Vernon, Ind. That's what happened to Martin Kappel, a 51-year-old man who died from head trauma in May 2005 in a backstage accident at Afton Central High School in Afton, N.Y.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Fair accident puts spotlight on rigging
Evansville Courier & Press: The tempest that toppled an outdoor concert stage onto the audience, killing seven and injuring scores more at the Indiana State Fair in August, stirred a whirlwind of safety concerns in the entertainment industry across the country. Even without wind, however, inside a high school auditorium, stage rigging accidents can kill, warns Dana Taylor, technical director at Mount Vernon High School in Mount Vernon, Ind. That's what happened to Martin Kappel, a 51-year-old man who died from head trauma in May 2005 in a backstage accident at Afton Central High School in Afton, N.Y.
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I can't stress how important rigging is. Even when I wasn't familiar with the entire system, I knew that it holds a vital role to a good and safe performance. I am not sure that the entire art of rigging should be under observation in such a public way. There are a ton of dangerous art forms and construction forms. I think that the biggest concern is that rigging systems can be found in schools with underage kids working right there. It is also unpleasant for someone to witness a man being thrown 20 ft. in the air. However, there are plenty of unsafe practices and I almost feel like rigging is being painted as a crazy unsafe, not up to code practice, when not all of these systems have failed. It's all about who you hire and the experience they have to create a safe, workable environment.
This article seems to generally disapprove of having rigging systems installed in high schools. I would have to disagree. Rigging does have the potential to be extremely dangerous when used the wrong way, but so does almost everything else that we deal with in stage construction. The physics of a counterweight rigging system are not particularly difficult to grasp if one sits down and takes the time to learn. Every accident described in this article could have been easily avoided if the people involved had a better understanding of how a rigging system works. Certain parts of theatre are just flat out dangerous; there is no getting round that. But cutting these parts out would also greatly decrease the educational value for aspiring theatre artists. Educating students in proper techniques and safety can decrease the risk factors to an almost negligible amount.
This article is a great reminder of how important safety and redundancy is in overhead rigging. I often work late in to the night and by myself and I see what a mistake that can be. I do not know all of the details of the poor man who died because of an out of weight electric but I would hope that had another experienced person been there. He or she would have fore seen the calamity. When we do a soft goods strike, I will be sure to check loads before I go. For the most part we do. But it only takes one negligent moment. That is the danger with this overhead business. Mistakes are costly.
I know that due to the slew of accidents lately, OSHA has been taking a new focus on entertainment safety. While I think that is absolutely a good think, it means that we should all be aware that safety measures and protection in theater may be on the rise. I think that we should continue discussing the injuries that occur in the theater business, because we all seem to forget sometimes how dangerous the things we do are.
It's interesting that this article focuses so heavily on rigging in high school, especially since for many of us, that was our first experience with using any kind of rigging in a theater space. In my high school, you weren't allowed anywhere close to the rigging system until you had been taught and "certified" to use it, and it was always a process at the beginning of the year because we would always be re-certifying everyone and making sure they still knew how to use the system, as well as teaching the incoming freshman about it, and showing them how to use it. When we had the system redone, we even spent a day with one of the riggers from the company that installed, and he told us all about the system, how it works, etc. It really is all about teaching people about the features and dangers of using the system, and making sure they understand completely what it is capable of. Sometimes that can be taught, other times you have to just learn it through experience, and hopefully you don't do anything too dangerous along the way
The most important point here is that people have to be trained. Rigging is unique in that it requires very specific knowledge and training, and that the consequences of making a rigging mistake can be insanely dangerous. I'm sure that most of the incidents described in this article could have ben prevented if the people operating the systems had been properly trained. What baffles me is that multiple incidents occurred at the same schools or in the same areas and not much (or not enough) was done in reaction in terms of training and safety inspections. I agree with Meg in that high schools should have counterweight systems. They shouldn't have these systems taken away as a result of dangerous incidents, but they should instead only be allowed to operate the systems on certain conditions. For example. it might be a good idea to require everyone who wants to operate the system to go through some sort of formal training before they can do so. I hope that more people heed the warnings of incidents such as the Indiana State Fair accident and put in the effort to keep themselves and their peers informed and safe when it comes to rigging.
This may be a good thing. in general Rigging is one of the most dangerous or potentially dangerous parts of theatre as it involves defy the laws of nature. though the safety clause of rigging can be redundant , there is a reason why and here it is in spades. Safe rigging can save lives and bad rigging can do the opposite. it is a shame that it sometimes takes for something bad to happen for attention to be paid but it is important that attention is paid and it is seen in these articles lately that because of this tragedy attention is getting paid.
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