Friday, January 25, 2019
The Top 5 Things You Need to Know to Keep Your Theatre Safe and Compliant
Wenger | J.R. Clancy: Designing, building, or updating a theatre space is just the first step in achieving maximum results for performances. Just like a car needs regular service to stay running and reliable, a theatre requires proper maintenance to keep it safe and fully functional.
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3 comments:
These are all obviously very important aspects to running a safe theater. I definitely agree with training being number one on the list. It doesn’t matter if every tool and piece of equipment is perfectly in order with all the proper safety mechanisms, people can still hurt themselves if they use the tool or equipment improperly. True, some safety mechanisms can actually help prevent injury even in the case of misuse, but not everything can have such a safety mechanism, and even those types of safety mechanisms don’t replace training. I think one thing that this article fails to mention that is somewhat tangential to training is having a culture of safety. I think theater often has a “get it done” attitude that is put as a higher priority than safety. People will use a ladder that it too short or climb on something that is not meant to be climbed on because that is the fastest way to get the job done. I’ve sometimes seen situations where are being unsafe not just to save time, but because there was no safe way planned to accomplish a task and now it is a choice between cutting a scenic element from the show at load in or standing on the top of a ladder. Even if it is something like an add to the show during tech, I think very few department heads would be willing to say, “We are unable to complete this note for safety reasons” when the safety violation would be something as seemingly minor as misusing a ladder. If the mentality of management priorities productivity and efficiency and looks the other way when it comes to safety violations, you are going to end up with a culture that is more accident prone because people will make unsafe decisions in order to get the job done. Training alone isn’t enough, you also have to continue to reinforce the idea that employee safety is more important than anything else and unsafe behavior will not be tolerated, even if being safe means needing to take more time or spend more money.
This article is so important. Rigging safety can quickly turn deadly when equipment is neglected. I would like to see this article expanded to fit low budget school theatres such as middle schools. I feel low budget scenarios are where the most danger lies, because they might not have the money for a whole new rigging system every 30 years. The dangers of an old system became very clear last year when a curtain fell at my middle school theatre during a rehearsal. No one was hurt but it was close. Had unsuspecting middle schoolers been standing 3 feet upstage they would have been gravely injured if not worse. Many peoples first intentions were to find blame but there had been 4 directors in the past 5 years. So whos fault was it, was it the schools administrations, who probably haven't thought much of the theatre program considering the program pretty much paid for all its technical upgrades itself. Or was it the current directors who had been there only three months. If there had been an expected inspection schedule in place by just one person this never would have happened.
Safety is a priority in any working environment but tends to become more intricate and necessary in a theater because there are several equipment's that are a requirement for the productions but which can cause severe harm if not taken care of completely. And this article does a great job listing out five things that if practiced regularly, are capable of ensuring the safe functioning of a theater because a lot of lives and investment is put at stake if the safety of a theater is not up to the point as it should be.
The way the article sums up the five must-dos is really effective an efficient because it clearly tells the readers what needs to be done and why. For instance, safety concerning the rigging systems is so important because for one things that are in the air are capable of falling and presumably hurting people and the investments made. The point about the age about equipment garners equal attention by the readers just cause the functioning of a machine is relative to the number or years it has been to work. These two points, including the other three, really sum up the message of the article that is to tell people that maintaining proper safety standards in a theater are of paramount interest and importance.
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