Super-Dangerous rigging experience(long)
William McLachlan
I've been trying to post this for a week, but it never seems to show up.
I'm a netcom customer, so I'm not surprized. If anyone has ALREADY seen
this article come thru, please mail me at wi...@wmld.com. Thanks.
-----------------------------------
>>>WARNING! Long article follows...<<<
Here's a "real life" story of the utter stupidity of some of our esteemed
production practices.
As some of you know, I'm out on the "Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat" bus and truck tour(although we have yet to go
anywhere other than by plane, which really gets on one's nerves). We
are doing 1 week stops with the occaisonal split week or 2 week stop.
Many of you here on the list have been on our local crews and know
what the show is like(6 trucks, 25 or 30 cast members, 80 Vari-lite
units, tons of props large and small about 10 full sets of wardrobe,
etc.)
Here we are this week[April 22] in Jacksonville FL where we are trying to
to this B'way show in a hockey arena(I heard the road house in town is down
for remodelling). "A hockey arena?" you may ask...Well, the promoter hired
Mountain Staging Productions(one of the major suppliers of outdoor venue
structures and flying roofs) to fly a typical supergrid roof over the portable
stage, with additions such as:
aluminum I-beams laid on top of the roof structure as shieve wells
and head wells with shieves, head blocks, and schedule 80(!)
battens positioned to provide fly pipes as per our show's hanging
plot.
Locking Rail/Arbor/Purchase systems on both SR and SL water ballasted
to the floor(one side for Scenic pipes, the other for Electrics pipes...a
novel idea).
Extra structure offstage right and left to hang masking from and provide
block-and-fall cable and utility picks.
We(the road crew) arrived this monday at 6pm to begin the loadin, and
found the roof flown, but the cables from the arbors to the pipes
still hanging down to the floor thru the shieve wells, and 85% of the
pipes still laying on the stage. The Riggers from Mountain Prod. and
the local Riggers were busily clove-hitching and crosbying(with the
pipes laying on the floor...we thought about suggesting sawhorses,
but didn't say anything...), but it was obvious that we were many
hours from ready to begin a loadin, and would probably work around
the clock until the opening show Tuesday at 8pm.
We had just finished a week of shows and a load out of the Fox
Theatre in Atlanta at 4am Monday morning, had a 6am bus call(yes, 2
hours turnaround...we are expected to do it at least once a week...)
for an 8am flight, 9am arrival, 10:30am check-in and sleep from about
11:30 until 4:30pm.
During the first 90 minutes of the load in, the road crew and the local
crew unloaded 3 of the 6 trucks, started hanging a front truss, running
mains, and positioning the lighting control racks. Suddenly, "BANG!...BANG!...
BANGBANGBANG!...BANG! We all look up to see the arbors coming rapidly down
about 5 to 10 feet and stopping, and the head blocks falling out from between
the two I-Beams that comprised the Head Well on the SR system! When people
stopped running for cover and diving out of the way, It was apparent that the
onstage I-Beam of the head well had deflected(bent) about 30 to 36 inches
onstage at the center, causing most of the head blocks to fall out between
the bent beam and the offstage beam. The fact that about 85% of the system
pipes had been attatched to the down cables, pipe weighted, and flown out
to about 20' allowed the head blocks to slide down the cables to the top
of the arbors, and miraculously stay attatched to the cables and not fly
down to the deck below where 75 or so people were pushing boxes back and
forth. Even more miraculously, the already threaded headblocks for a
few pipes upstage which were not yet cabled seemed to hang on to the unbent
headblock beam and NOT come flying down pulling the unattatched cables up
and out of the shieves.
(insert 70 column wide ascii art...)
- PLAN - - ELEVATION -
head well beams | =====
/ / | / \
/ / | headblock> | o |
x x | \ /
o | | | | o | ______=====______
o | | | | o | -+ +- -+ +-
o | | | | o |headwell> | | | |-bend!>
ooo| |oooooo| |oooooooooo | -+ +- -+ +-
o | | | | o | ---------------------------
o | | | | o | 0 0 0
o | |(x- hea | | o | ---------------------------
o | | blocks | | o | | / | \ |
ooo| |ooooooooooo| |ooooo | | / | \ |
o | | falling | |o |roof | / | \ |
o | | thru -x) | |o |struct.>| / | \ |
o | | | | o | | / | \ |
o | | bend!-> | | o | | / | \ |
ooo| |oooooooo| |oooooooo | | / | \ |
o | | | | o | ---------------------------
o | | | | o | 0 0 0
o | | | | o | ---------------------------
ooo| |oooooo| |oooooooooo |
o | | | | o |
|
DSR onstage---> | (view of high Off SR Front)
Needless to say, we stopped the loadin. The Head Carpenter, the
Rigging Foreman from Mountain and various presenter officials
discussed for a few hours their options while the Roof Riggers went
up and ratchet-strapped and otherwise saftied the damaged I-Beam, and
it was eventually decided that Mountain would attempt to replace the
beam with a larger capacity one the next day at about noon and
generally re-evaluate thier load bearing approach to the Head Wells,
and we *might* continue the load in tommorrow(tuesday) at about 6pm.
We would cancel Tuesday nite's performance and open on Wednesday, if
everything about the fixed roof is certified as "safe". The BIG
question of course being WHO will do the certifying.
The road crew proceeded to move out to the back of the arena and discuss
what we were looking at, and we all observed many things we felt were done
wrong. It's easy to sit there and criticize these kinds of things, but
we all agreed that there were some really obvious mistakes made, even simple
common sense questions of "lab technique" that could create some serious
safety hazards.
The first thing we all observed was that the I-beams which comprised
the head wells were the same apparent size and wall thickness of the
shieve wells, which made us all wonder "if that's how strong the
shieve wells need to be, shouldn't the head wells be *way* bigger
than that?" We further observed that as far as we could tell, the
two beams that comprised the head wells were not apparently attatched
together in an on-and-offstage direction, but seemed to be resting on
a cheeseboro/beamclamp combination on top of the roof stringer
trusses. One of the local riggers added that the head blocks were
not attatched with the bottom brackets spanning the outside edges of
the head well beams but rather were grabbing the inside flanges of
the beams. From what we could tell looking up at the head blocks and
shieve blocks, many of them seemed to be attatched to the inside
flanges. We all seemed to remember being told somewhere or sometime
that headblocks attatched to the outside edges of headwells to help
with load distribution, but none of us were really sure(but it certainly
makes sense!).
We all had a laugh when the prop man said "wait a minute...there's no
loading bridge!" and we all realized that the "plan" was to hang 30
or 40 or so pipes with cable and electrics and scenery and such,
Mule-motor it all up to the roof, weight the arbors *at the
floor*(many of which weighed in at well over 750lbs, and one pushing
1300lbs.!) It was even funnier that the prop man noticed and not one
of the 10 people in the Elex or Sound or Carpentry departments :^)
Obviously, we *all* noted and were very concerned by the fact that
the arbor system was not even completely built, mabye 1000' or so of
sched. 80 pipe and the counterweight to go with it had not yet been
added to the load on the roof, AND we still had 18 motor points, 9
electrics worth of cable and picks, and all the flying scenery(again,
some pipes pushing 1200lbs. weight on the pipe/arbor) yet to hang!!
The even more appalling thing that came to light during this time was
the fact that the venue had hosted a hockey game on saturday night
previous to our arrival, and the Roof and Arbor system install call
had begun at about 6am sunday morning and HAD RUN CONTNUOUSLY SINCE
THEN!!! This meant that even though the call had ran 36 hours
continuously at the point that the road crew arrived and the local
had been thru 3 shifts of riggers and the fourth was soon to arrive,
the Riggers from Mountain Productions(the men expected to lead and
supervise the install) were still working in the air after more than
36 hours on call, with no plans to stop. It's bad enough that road
crews come in and are expected to lead and supervise and execute the
hanging of many thousands of pounds of equipment safely after 3 or 4
hours of sleep in a 36 hour period, but this seemed like an absolute
travesty that was endangering the lives of the riggers, the crew, the
cast, the children's chorus that is part of every "Joseph..." stop,
and even the audience. In all of our estimation(with our limited
knowledge of criminal liability laws), if a rigger had fallen or an
item had been dropped and injured or killed a person on the
ground(like the two 4' snap braces that had been allegedly dropped
earlier that day), then someone in our management, in Mountain
Productions management, or the local presenter's management(or all of
the above) should and probably would go to prison for a very long
time.
In my opinion as a Designer and Technician, the people at Mountain
Staging were being INCREDIBLY irresponsible by letting thier riggers
be put in that position and I will for now on make that fact known to
any producer or client of mine when faced with the need for those
type of services. That's like an airline asking a pilot to fly for
36 hours straight, or a Skyscraper construction project asking a
super-crane operator to lift loads for 36 hours straight. I was
absolutely shocked at the apparent disregard on the part of a roof
and steel staging contractor. To witness a company allowing that
kind of blatant danger to that many people just blows me away.
We all went away from the night without the usual half-hearted
bitching about management that usually goes on, but a palletable
sense of dread-like someone *really* didn't give a fuck if we lived
or died doing thier little show.
But, at least we all get to sleep now...especially the riggers!
Please comment or contribute as you wish. This article also appears in the
Stagecraft mailing list.
Thanks all,
\/\/ /\/\ Willy McLachlan Scenic/Lighting Design and Production
\/\/ /\/\ wi...@wmld.com, http://www.wmld.com/welcome.html
\/\/ /\/\ "Mommy, what's a tele-communicable disease?"
Bsapsis
It sounds like a very large problem. One that I must admit, I am
surprised that Mountain is invloved in. Thought they knew better. What
steps were finally taken to correct the problem? Sounds like it was
basically incorrectable (is that a word?).
I would like to caution you regarding posting this info and your feelings
in an open forum. I know you are angry and tired and frustrated and maybe
more than a little concerned for the safety of your people, and I do not
blame you. I'm not sure that venting here is your wisest choice however.
As others will attest, I'm the last person to keep my mouth shut, but i
would be yelling directly at Mountain, not at the world.
Having said that then, i think we all still want to know what happened.
I have some experience in the rigging business <<gg>> and would like to
discuss this further. E-mail me if you wish.
Good luck
Bill Sapsis
Sapsis Rigging, Inc.
http://members.aol.com/BSapsis/SapsisHome.html
Pam
I don't think the original post was a vent, he relayed information about
what happened...Isn't that what a *NEWS*group is about?
Steven E. Eyrse
Here is a CLASSIC example of why all shows should be union.
Ken Norton
In article <willy-01059...@netcom16.netcom.com>, wi...@wmld.com (William McLachlan) says:
>...ultra-scarry story...
>But, at least we all get to sleep now...especially the riggers!
>
Thanks for the story! Wow! I experienced a lighting tower come down
several years ago (5 people seriously injured) and this story gave me
the creeps when I read it. I was also photographing a concert when part
of the speaker rigging let go and one end dropped down about a foot.
Since I was under it at the time, it kinda scared a few years off my life.
I have heard great things about your tour. I saw "Joseph..." three years
ago in Chicago and was quite impressed, and have wanted to see the touring
version too. 80 vari-lites?????
So, what is the rest of the story? Did the show open Wednesday?
William McLachlan
In article <3187F4...@asu.edu> (rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft), Pam <pla...@asu.edu> writes:
>
> Bsapsis wrote:
> >
[...].
> > I would like to caution you regarding posting this info and your feelings
> > in an open forum. I know you are angry and tired and frustrated and maybe
> > more than a little concerned for the safety of your people, and I do not
> > blame you. I'm not sure that venting here is your wisest choice however.
> > As others will attest, I'm the last person to keep my mouth shut, but i
> > would be yelling directly at Mountain, not at the world.
[...]
> I don't think the original post was a vent, he relayed information about
> what happened...Isn't that what a *NEWS*group is about?
>
> Pam
Thank you Pam. Bill is right, though(in all seriousness, he usually
is :^> ). One should be careful to avoid accusing or berating fellow
proffessionals in open forums. I wrote carefully to keep from doing
that, but still tried to relay my *observances*. I felt that a
particular party was acting irresponsibly by expecting their staff to
perform that type of work in that kind of condition, but that was my
*opinion* only.
Cheers all,
\/\/ /\/\ William McLachlan WMLD
Biscayne
> As some of you know, I'm out on the "Joseph and the Amazing
> Technicolor Dreamcoat" bus and truck tour(although we have yet to go
> anywhere other than by plane, which really gets on one's nerves). We
> are doing 1 week stops with the occaisonal split week or 2 week stop.
> Many of you here on the list have been on our local crews and know
> what the show is like(6 trucks, 25 or 30 cast members, 80 Vari-lite
> units, tons of props large and small about 10 full sets of wardrobe,
> etc.)
>
> <snip>
> In my opinion as a Designer and Technician, the people at Mountain
> Staging were being INCREDIBLY irresponsible by letting thier riggers
> be put in that position and I will for now on make that fact known to
> any producer or client of mine when faced with the need for those
> type of services. That's like an airline asking a pilot to fly for
> 36 hours straight, or a Skyscraper construction project asking a
> super-crane operator to lift loads for 36 hours straight. I was
> absolutely shocked at the apparent disregard on the part of a roof
> and steel staging contractor. To witness a company allowing that
> kind of blatant danger to that many people just blows me away.
>
> We all went away from the night without the usual half-hearted
> bitching about management that usually goes on, but a palletable
> sense of dread-like someone *really* didn't give a fuck if we lived
> or died doing thier little show.
>
> But, at least we all get to sleep now...especially the riggers!
>
> Please comment or contribute as you wish. This article also appears in the
> Stagecraft mailing list.
>
Yep, I'm one of those local crew who've done "Joe's Coat". I was the SL
carpenter... I know this show... The "sphinx" piece took 2700 lbs. on
our double purchase system here in Grand Rapids, and still had to be
massively overhauled when the fill-in pieces were added...
I'm not sure how a "pink" contract is written, but I'm sure it _should_
say something about working in dangerous/unsafe conditions. If it were
me, I would have gone to the prod. mgr. and "just said no!" If the prod.
mgr. had insisted, I would have been glad to get out my contract, tear it
up in his face, and walked out... Actually, the head carp (is it still
BJ?) should have shut the whole thing down. But if it's still BJ, I
understand why he didn't.
Good luck and peace.
Evan
IATSE #26
Andy Broomsgrove
> I don't think the original post was a vent, he relayed information
> about what happened...Isn't that what a *NEWS*group is about?
>
> Pam
>
> pla...@asu.edu
> http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2336
Um yes, but it didn't really go to the root of the problem and at least
implied that the blame lay with the people actually rigging the thing.
Something that big failing that catastrophically must be due to major
failings in the engineering design, I don't believe that the fault lies
with the guys working on site. At least I assume US regulations wouldn't
allow a bunch of heavies to turn up and attempt to rig something like
that on site without having proper engineering and structural
plans/calculations done and approved in advance.
If something failed to that extent in the UK you'd have safety officials
swarming out of every nook and cranny inspecting it and probably whoever
was responsible for the cock-up would find themselves being prosecuted
under Health and Safety at Work laws.
No I don't approve of people working 36 or more hours without breaks and
I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone who had done that didn't do a
bolt fully up or whatever (been there, but (hopefully) didn't do that,
don't want to go there again), but we seem to be talking about a beam so
substantially under-rated that it bent and not just a small distortion
either. That's a design fault, nothing to do with the riggers or site
and possibly nothing to do with the company who supplied them if they
didn't design it as well.
Again there was an implication given that, having solved the problem
engineers were sitting around watching strain monitors during the
performance going way over maximum ratings and keeping their fingers
crossed that nothing would break.
I don't believe it, frankly, it implies such gross incompetence on US
engineers and safety regulations as to be totally unbelievable. No
engineer would have signed off on the thing without having calculated
maximum anticipated loads and maximum allowed loads. Any monitoring
would have been to ensure that maximum actual loads didn't exceed maximum
allowed loads and I can't believe that anyone would have been so grossly
negligent as to allow the performance to continue if that happened.
I accept that whoever designed the thing in the first place must have
been way, way out in their design but I can't believe they'd do that
twice.
Andy
Ken Norton
In article <Dqzw1...@cix.compulink.co.uk>, abro...@cix.compulink.co.uk ("Andy Broomsgrove") says:
>Something that big failing that catastrophically must be due to major
>failings in the engineering design, I don't believe that the fault lies
>I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone who had done that didn't do a
>bolt fully up or whatever (been there, but (hopefully) didn't do that,
>don't want to go there again), but we seem to be talking about a beam so
>substantially under-rated that it bent and not just a small distortion
>either. That's a design fault, nothing to do with the riggers or site
>and possibly nothing to do with the company who supplied them if they
>didn't design it as well.
My understanding of the origional post is that the beam calapsed near
the beginning of the rigging process. They hadn't even unloaded all
the trucks yet. Unless the beam was made out of cooked spagetti, there
had to be human error involved in the rigging process. Either missing
bolts, incorrect bracing, or lifting heavy equipment from a single point.
Unfortunately, the rigging was PROBABLY underrated to begin with. Cutting
corners is the rule. "Joseph" is a far more complex show with far more
equipment, etc., to be hung than most any concert event.
I personally am tired of seeing severely underrated rigging being passed
off as acceptable. (gee, it's just a bunch of brain-dead teenagers coming
to this concert, anyway--mentality).
>I don't believe it, frankly, it implies such gross incompetence on US
>engineers and safety regulations as to be totally unbelievable. No
>engineer would have signed off on the thing without having calculated
>maximum anticipated loads and maximum allowed loads. Any monitoring
>would have been to ensure that maximum actual loads didn't exceed maximum
>allowed loads and I can't believe that anyone would have been so grossly
>negligent as to allow the performance to continue if that happened.
You imply that an engineer was actually present during the rigging process.
There probably was, but when schedules are that tight, the tendancy is to
fall back on past experience (successes without explanation), and keep
the presses rolling.
I'm sure that with the arrival of the crews from "Joseph" the stress level
of everybody present went up dramatically. Whoever WAS in control suddenly
became a gofer and a total loss of focus is typical.
>I accept that whoever designed the thing in the first place must have
>been way, way out in their design but I can't believe they'd do that
>twice.
"...uh, you want fries with that Whopper?..."
Ken Norton
Bsapsis
People have been talking abou engineers and how we here in the US *must*
have some governing body that polices all of these events to make sure we
are doing things right.
Wrong!
No one from the feds (or state for that matter) gets involved in
entertainment rigging until there is an accident. I installed the rigging
at the Palladium and while there were inspectors for everything from
emergency lights to the bartenders INS forms, not once did anyone come up
to me and ask me if I knew what I was doing (I did) or if i was
"certified".
Scary stuff eh? In this country it is up to the company doing the work to
decide if they need structural engineering for that 2,000,000,000 pound
piece or not.
Seems a bit stupid , yes?
Will Freeman Poulson
In <318776...@ix.netcom.com> "Steven E. Eyrse" <ai...@ix.netcom.com>
writes:
>Here is a CLASSIC example of why all shows should be union.
>
>
stupid union crews. The answer isn't union or non-union, it is simply
everyone taking it onto themselves to do a good job. When people try
to slip by, doing half-ass jobs, forgetting that they're working in
conjuntion with ten, or fifty, or a hundred, or more people in a
situation where everyone's lives depend on one another doing thier jobs
correctly, that's when lives startt getting lost.
Steven E. Eyrse
Very thru, stupid dosn't stop with the union lable. But at least then
one has a place to go to say "Folks this is F D and I'm calling a halt
to it. If enough of us do that things will start to change. Both in the
Stage and Film units.
Steve 488
alt.union.iatse
corwin
>Here is a CLASSIC example of why all shows should be union.
>
>
from the information that was posted in the stagecraft that was a
union house.
JTCotton
In article <3197fca1...@news.goodnet.com>, csl....@asu.edu (corwin)
writes:
Not only was it a Union house, but i don't think anyone has suggested that
the local crew was at fault in anyway. The crew operated under the
direction of the staging company, who designed and provided the
staging/rigging.
JTC
Live Sound, Production Management, John T. Cotton
Audio & Video Engineering, Theatre, P.O. Box 135
Consulting & more. Binghamton,
NY 13905-0135
JTCo...@aol.com
JTCo...@musicbiz.com
Will Freeman Poulson
In <319806...@ix.netcom.com> "Steven E. Eyrse" <ai...@ix.netcom.com>
writes:
>
The classic struggle:
The Show must go on
v.
This is stupid, I'm going home.
June Abernathy
In <4najiv$1...@newsbf02.news.aol.com> jtco...@aol.com (JTCotton)
writes:
>In article <3197fca1...@news.goodnet.com>, csl....@asu.edu
(corwin)
>writes:
>
>>On Wed, 01 May 1996 07:33:44 -0700, "Steven E. Eyrse"
>><ai...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Here is a CLASSIC example of why all shows should be union.
>>>
>>>
>>from the information that was posted in the stagecraft that was a
>>union house.
>>
>>
>
>Not only was it a Union house, but i don't think anyone has suggested
that
>the local crew was at fault in anyway. The crew operated under the
>direction of the staging company, who designed and provided the
>staging/rigging.
>
>JTC
No, not a union house. A hockey arena. The touring company was union.
The local stagehands may or may not have been - he didn't specify. But
the problem came from an outside rigging/steel company that the Arena
hired to construct the framework and grid for the show. Not at all
uncommon to have a non-union company responsible for the steel work,
even for an otherwise union show. Many members of my local avoid rock
and roll calls for this reason - the rest of us wear hard hats.
Remember that Florida is a right to work state.
June
Local #321
Tampa
Dale Farmer
Steven E. Eyrse (ai...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: Here is a CLASSIC example of why all shows should be union.
Then I won't tell you about the show I worked where the union
member drove his cart off of the edge of the loading dock. Twice.
--Dale Farmer
--
Everything I said is subject to debate and correction. This is a
personal account, so I don't have to stick in something about covering my
employers ass. Unless of course it is billable, in which case they will
be glad to claim responsibility.
William McLachlan
In article <4nb2tr$7...@dfw-ixnews6.ix.netcom.com> (rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft), je...@ix.netcom.com(June Abernathy) writes:
> In <4najiv$1...@newsbf02.news.aol.com> jtco...@aol.com (JTCotton)
> writes:
> >
> >In article <3197fca1...@news.goodnet.com>, csl....@asu.edu(corwin)
> >writes:
> >
> >>On Wed, 01 May 1996 07:33:44 -0700, "Steven E. Eyrse"
> >><ai...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>>Here is a CLASSIC example of why all shows should be union.
> >>>
> >>from the information that was posted in the stagecraft that was a
> >>union house.
> >
> >Not only was it a Union house, but i don't think anyone has suggested
> that
> >the local crew was at fault in anyway. The crew operated under the
> >direction of the staging company, who designed and provided the
> >staging/rigging.
>
> No, not a union house. A hockey arena. The touring company was union.
> The local stagehands may or may not have been - he didn't specify. But
> the problem came from an outside rigging/steel company that the Arena
> hired to construct the framework and grid for the show.
I wrote the original, and yes the venue is staffed by the Jacksonville IA
Local Brothers/Sisters. I believe this is a full contract, not just a "yellow
card" contract.
I'll again stress that the LOCAL crew were in no way at fault in all this.
They, as per their contract, rotated riggers in if I recall correctly 11
hour (5 work/1 meal/5 work) shifts.
I'll reiterate from my original post. The plan for the roof had flaws.
One of the flaws showed up in the failure of the onstage side of a headwell,
the problem was fixed, numerous problems were left to be "hacked" around
by the roadcrew. Only one out of a planned 3 performances went up, nobody
died, but many could have. Furthermore, my only accusing statement was
that I felt the rigging/roof contractor acted irresponsibly and mabye even
criminally by asking thier staff riggers to work at height for nearly 36
hours. The length of on-shift time may or may not have contributed to the
failure of the beam.
For what it's worth, The local head carpenter from the venue responded
negatively to this same article as it appeared in the stagecraft mailing list.
Thank you, and back to your regularly scheduled slow moving parody...
Willy McLachlan
wi...@wmld.com
Bill Baughn
Willy,
I was the head carpenter for the venue and was part of the crew
that worked from 8 am Tuesday morning until midnight to correct the
problem and to be certain that the rig was SAFE before your show was
allowed to loadin, much less allow an audience through the doors.
There were serious mistake made during this installation. These
mistakes, if not cause by, were certainly exacerbated by the hours
that the crew was required to work.
wi...@twoheads.wmld.com (William McLachlan) Writes:
>Here's what was eventually done to that flying-roof based arbor system
>described earlier.
>
>After the road crew departed for the night on monday, The roof company
>contacted an engineering firm(I think locally, rather than their own >engineer...hmmm)
Immediately after the beam failure occurred the Mountain Rigging
people were on the phone with their engineers who flew into
Jacksonville that night.
>The road crew was on standby all the next day(an actual "day off" on a
>b'way tour...wow!) and went back in at 1pm Wednesday.
At 8am Tuesday morning, while you were enjoying your newly
discovered day off, The Mountain People and local stagehands brought
the grid in to floor level, replaced and reinforced all beams with
bolts and additional bracing. The grid was then taken back to its
high trim and all pipes were loaded and counter weighted at 1500
pounds. The heaviest set flown was 825 pounds not 1300 as you
reported. The total load on the grid was brought to 50,000 pounds
before it was declared safe well after midnight.
Your efforts to describe everyone in Jacksonville and the Mountain
people as incompetent fools would have lost some of its credibility
had you bothered to include the fact that we did load and fully test
the system before you were allowed to loadin your show. It would
however, have been more honest.
It comes as something of a surprise that your production company
didn't include you in the meetings about the steps taken to assure a
safe presentation, considering your ability to judge a rigging system
and the competence of everyone working on it from the vantage point of
your lounge chair on Stage right by the dimmer racks.
> we realized that the concern had shifted from the roof/arbor
>system falling apart to the whole thing pulling the ceiling of the arena
>down.
The structural integrity of the building was never in question. We
were hip deep in engineers and none of them was concerned about the
ability of the structure to withstand the loads we subjected it to.
> I can only guess
>that even though some of the peak reported loads were obviously over the
>stated limit of the main structure's points...
I would suggest that when you are publicly ridiculing other people
abilities guessing isn't good enough.
>That was pretty much it. Except for the portable stage being about
>20' too narrow between the two portable locking rails causing traffic
>backstage to degenerate into a free-for-all, and actors and dancers
>exiting the stage and having about 24" to stop before they crashed
>into the cheesy-drywall screw-and-gaffer's tape railing around the
>locking rails, we actually made it out of there alive.
The portable stage was erected to the specifications supplied by
your production company. The "cheesy-drywall screw-and-gaffers tape
railing was constructed with sections of bolt on steel railing bridged
by one by fours because there weren't enough steel railing available.
It was erected under the direction of B.J. the Joseph's Head
Carpenter. Both B.J and the production Stage Manager accepted it as
safe and effective. Perhaps you should request that they seek your
approval before they approve something like this again.
You mention that your Prop Man was the only one who noticed the
absence of a loading bridge. This absence was so obvious to anyone
entering the building that it never occurred to us that anyone with
your show was so brain dead that they hadn't seen it.
>Thanks to some people for replying to me with the probably
>wise advice that divulging all this publicly might not be the right place
>for the discussion.
Good advise. To which I would add that you should get your facts
straight before you start running off at the keyboard.
Before your show loaded into this venue we had a dozen structural
engineers, your Road Flyman, your Master Carpenter, Your production
people; The house Head Carpenter, Flyman and Steward; The promoter and
building management all satisfied that we could present your show
safely. Which is exactly what we did. The fact that one wiggle light
mechanic wasn't happy never entered our minds.
Bill Baughn I.A.T.S.E. Local 115 Jacksonville, Florida
William McLachlan
In article <4no9hg$1...@alterdial.UU.NET> (rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft), bba...@jax-inter.net (Bill Baughn) writes:
> Willy,
>
> I was the head carpenter for the venue and was part of the crew
> that worked from 8 am Tuesday morning until midnight to correct the
> problem and to be certain that the rig was SAFE before your show was
> allowed to loadin, much less allow an audience through the doors.
I originally posted this article and started this discussion on April 30 on
the Stagecraft Mailing List(and a few days later in this newsgroup), and Mr.
Baughan replied to the mailing list on May 2 with this same text then as he
has posted here. Why Mr. Baughan waited until May 19 to post the same text to the
newsgroup I don't know.
Here is the text of my answer to him which I posted to the mailing list
the same day(May 2).
------begin text------
I've taken my reply to Mr. Baugn(The head carpenter at the Coliseum
in Jacksonville) to private mail, and all I have to say in public
response is that Mr. Baugn may disagree with my opinions, but I am
still entitled to them and name calling is not necesarry. He may not
have observed what I observed, but he was involved in the cituation
in a different way than I or my fellow road crew members and that
does not negate my(our) view.
I never mentioned Mr. Baugn, his fellow local #115 brothers/sisters,
the Mountain Productions rigging staff, or the venue. I
*specifically* stated that *in my opinion* the person or persons who
allowed the vendor-supplied riggers who stayed on shift for that
length time to do so had acted irresponsibly. If I'm not mistaken,
the local riggers rotated in 12 hour shifts.
Truth be known, Local #115 in Jacksonville FL has an excellent reptutation
around the country with touring productions as one of the most friendly,
helpful groups of stagecraftspersons one could work with.
My *observations* and *opinions* are exactly that, and I'm sorry to
see that Mr. Baugn has taken it personally. He, like the rest of us,
wants to see shows in his facility go well. This one in many
important ways did not. It's not the crew's fault. I've already
stated with whom, *in my opinion*, the blame lies with.
------end text------
I will however respond, in two parts, to this last paragraph of Mr. Baughan's
resurrected response.
Mr. Bauaghn writes:
> Before your show loaded into this venue we had a dozen structural
> engineers, your Road Flyman, your Master Carpenter, Your production people;
> The house Head Carpenter, Flyman and Steward; The promoter and building
> management all satisfied that we could present your show safely. Which is
> exactly what we did.
First, NOONE in the above list of people with the exception of the
structural engineers and any others in that list whom could legally prove
they were qualified to make such decisions should have been involved in the
discussion. Our "Road Flyman" and "Master Carpenter" both admitted to the
roadcrew that neither of them were qualified to be involved in conversations
of structural integrity and stated that they would not be.
Second, just because there were no deaths or maimings does not mean that the
entire undertaking was safe. In my *opinion* it was still not safe, in your
*opinion* is was safe, and we are both entitled to those opinions-neither you
or I are truly qualified to say that in *fact* is was or was not safe.
> The fact that one wiggle light mechanic wasn't happy
> never entered our minds.
If I'm supposed to be insulted, I'm not. I'm very proud of ALL the work
I've done over the past 8 years in the field of automated lighting and lighting
design, and my skills as a "wiggle light mechanic" have opened numerous doors
to many challenging, creative, and rewarding projects I'm happy to have
been a part of.
Thank you for this healthy exchange of ideas and opinions.
Willy McLachlan
wi...@wmld.com, http://www.wmld.com/welcome.html
Will Freeman Poulson
In <4no9hg$1...@alterdial.UU.NET> bba...@jax-inter.net (Bill Baughn)
writes:
> Before your show loaded into this venue we had a dozen structural
>engineers, your Road Flyman, your Master Carpenter, Your production
>people; The house Head Carpenter, Flyman and Steward; The promoter and
>building management all satisfied that we could present your show
>safely.
and all these meetings were held, and engineers were under every rock,
where was the mistake made? If all these precautions were taken before
the show, then why did the crew have to add additional supports after
the initial system failure???
Just wondering--- Will Poulson
Tempe, AZ