Deadline: The wife of a Broadway stagehand who fell to his death from a ladder 30 feet over the stage at an empty Winter Garden Theatre in 2020 is suing the producers of the Beetlejuice musical, claiming that the production companies involved in the show were negligent and failed to provide proper protections.
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I have seen first hand the dangers of forgetting the proper procedure as a stagehand in theater. Mostly this danger occurs in spaces of uneducated or supervised people such as high schools. But that is not to say that silly mistakes do not happen in every theater. I have seen plenty of risks taken purely out of ego, pride, or even being lazy in professional and educational companies, even IATSE. There is a culture of the more danger and risk you take, means you are more brave, meaning you are better. However, articles like this really can serve to be a wake up call to us, this is a dangerous industry, and one that takes a toll on your body. You have to serve and to protect yourself for your own being but also for your loved ones, as so poignantly shown in this article. I am sorry for this loss, and I hope changes can be made to protect more workers in the future.
I hope Mr. Wright's family gets the support they need in this lawsuit, although nothing will replace having him back. This is an unspeakable tragedy, and an enormous loss. A loss of human life in a theatre is a preventable incident. This death is a reminder that safety on set means never being in unsafe situations to begin with, no matter how adept you feel you are. Harnesses are essential, and a workspace that fails to enforce this, or even makes it difficult to get the necessary safety equipment, is a workspace that has failed everyone within it. A very real fear in technical theatre is being asked to do something precarious a as a part of the job, like the risk of life for a musical is just an occupational hazard. As Beetlejuice reopens, I hope it’s team instills new safety measures to insure that nothing this tragic happens backstage ever again.
This is a grim reminder of how important safety measures are in the workplace. This is not restricted only to theatre, but in this instance, I will only be referencing work in theatre. I am someone who used to (especially in my high school theatre experience) often ignores safety measures when working. If the method of which I was using to approach a task was more efficient or achieved my goal at hand better, but was unsafe, I did not care and would work recklessly. At Carnegie Mellon, we have stronger safety regulations, and I have been more aware of abiding by them. This article is a reminder of the importance of safety. This does not only mean workers performing tasks in a safe manner but the actual standards of safety being maintained and emphasized by theatre companies. Routine checkups need to be prioritized. Ensuring tool safety is a priority. Injuries and death are preventable things, and should not be a normalized part of working in the theatre industry.
I can only imagine the grief that Peter Wright’s family must be going tough, knowing his life was taken away at 54 from unsafe and hazardous conditions within a theater. Working in the theater industry, because there are always intense and important deadlines, I’ve noticed there is a toxic culture created in which people feel the need to do dangerous and unsafe things just for the well-being of a show and deadline. Time and time again I’ve heard the term “the show must go on” and while I fully agree with this statement, where is the line that crosses this? Where can safety finally be valued more than fixing or completing a show? In any other job, there would be no rush, and safety precautions would always come first, but in theater, there appears to me that workers’ rights and the safety and well-being of workers go right out the window when there is a show deadline. Obviously, there is no way to make money on a show when there are no ticket sales, but even then, I find it insane that people allow so many safety hazards to continue. This is also not unique to theater, but film as well just to get the right camera shots for a scene safety is always put on the line.
I remember seeing the news of Peter Wright’s death, and my heart goes out to his loved ones. This lawsuit won’t bring him back, as others have said, but I wish them the best of luck with it. Really it is so infuriating to me that there are instances of these hazardous conditions; the fact that people in the entertainment industry have and continue to put their life on the line to get a job done is not healthy or sustainable (to be clear: I am not saying they do it by choice, instead these things happen in toxic environments). I am reminded of the shooting of Halyna Hutchins on set of Rust, how that unsafe situation came around because of mismanagement of weapons (and use of guns that can actually shoot bullets, rubber or not). Everytime something like this happens, it is heartbreaking. I hope we can move forward with building better, healthier workplaces and protecting people’s lives.
This is one of many devastating deaths as a result of poor and incorrect safety measures in theater. I hope that Mr. Wright's family and friends are getting the support they need at this unfortunate time. It is crazy that such recklessness in proper safety of employees, especially stagehands is happening even at the broadway level. I was surprised to hear that the venue had already received 4 OSHA violations, yet none of them were properly taken care of as they were related to the improper safety that related to Mr. Wright's death. I hope that this lawsuit against such a large production company will be the extremity that will ensure these incidents will never happen again, and that this precaution trickles down to all regional theaters and other forms of entertainment to end fatal work injuries. People's laziness and lack of awareness should not be the cost of a human's life. I look forward to seeing how this trial plays out.
I do remember reading and hearing about this tragic accident when it happened and feeling very deeply for the family. I hope the family is able to get the support they need through this lawsuit and hopefully win. This accident was a tragedy and sadly it is not the only one that has happened in this industry and will not be the only one if things do not change in the way we operate and handle violations. Hearing that this theatre had received 4 OSHA violations and nothing had happened was absolutely ridiculous. I think in our industry we do things that are unsafe and can cause major injury however think because we have gotten away with it we can continue to get away with it. I also think companies are at fault in the way they try to stretch safety equipment and the things we use in the theatre just to stretch a dollar. I think it is important to switch out hard hats, maintain ladders, get rid of things if it can be compromised in any way. In that way the company and the show is at fault.
This is such a terrible incident to read about. Peter Wright’s death should not be, but is a sharp reminder of the state of safety in today’s theater industry. This traumatic event reminds me of a similar incident a few years ago at Cirque du Soleil, where an actor plummeted to their death from more than 90 feet due to a safety wire failure. As I mentioned in a previous, similar article, the work culture of theater companies has been cultivated in a harmful way that allows the compromise of safety in exchange for efficiency (very in lieu of the famous saying “the show must go on”). This leads to a terrible increase in danger and harm to both crew and performers, something that should never take the death to be emphasized. Once again, I am inclined to question what the safety measures taken before and during this incident were; a 30 foot plummet brings both the company and the equipment used into scrutiny.
Like many other people, I remember reading about this story when it first happened in 2020 because it was such a sad reminder of the importance of safety in theatre. It’s awful because with the proper measures his death could’ve been avoided. It is completely unacceptable that the theater owner has one safety violation, let alone four. This tragedy also showed people that when you are not prioritizing safety accidents such as this one can even happen in what many people think of as one of the most professional and prestigious theatre venues. We often tell stories of how we reached a little too far out of a lift in high school or lifted set pieces onto unstable surfaces in community theatre but you don’t necessarily think of those things happening on a broadway stage (at least I don’t). Putting on a show is never worth the sacrifice of a human life and I hope to hear less and less stories about the lengths people go to.
Someone died on this show and they’re still going to open? I think if this was an actor on stage, this show would have been run to the ground already. I know how dangerous load-outs/ins can be. We have to trust our equipment, becasue if we don’t we can’t do our job. How can anyone work in that theatre knowing that at any time, things can fail? There were four violations that were cited as “serious” but not “willfull” or “repeat”. If this is true, then how come that stagehand fell to his death. I feel like this article highlights how important these safety regulations are. Sometimes, I know that these regulations can seem really tedious and unnecessary, but when I read articles like these, I realize how important these rules and checkups are for the safety of not only the actors on stage but also the stagehands and crew behind the curtain.
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