Theatre Safety Blog: A Pat Benatar benefit concert scheduled for Friday, June 21, 2013 was cancelled at the bequest of her stage crew. Upon arrival to the venue, an outdoor covered arena in Iverness, Florida, the crew was presented with a stage platform that they did not think was robust enough for the show. Rather than risk the potential for a structural collapse, they requested that the promoter have the stage structure inspected and reinforced. A local engineer was brought-in to certify the stage, but the caveats included with the inspection did not satisfy them in time to mount the show.
2 comments:
Now this is a serious eye opener. Being very deeply involved in theatre tech and design and production, seeing the atrocities of this "stage" deeply shocked me and my friends, especially the use of C-clamps to hold the cross beams on. I am glad the problems were realized because it would have been awful if something had actually happened.
Holy crap! Just looking at that stage is terrifying. But the fact that the stage crew said, "Hold up. This isn't okay," is certainly a plus. It's upsetting how often a crew, especially in a school, will often just ignore a blatant risk because they've been told not to worry about it. As humans, our instincts are there to sound the red alert when things don't seem safe. Listening to them is an important part of our business.
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