[SML] Subject: Flying Effects / Aerial Dance, Liability, and

Tue Feb 2 17:27:51 UTC 2016

about once a year a theatre company will approach me about the availability of my theatre for a production of PETER PAN . . 

my first question is  “who is doing the flying”? 

more often than not the response will be  “ oh we have a father who says he can do it” ! 

I immediately send them a list of the companies that I would approve of them using to fly
performers in my venue . .  don’t use one of them . . you aren’t flying . . 

Keith Arsenault
iaeg.sml at gmail.com

813 831 3465  office
813 205 0893  cellular

"The only difference between myself and a madman is that I am not mad"
   Salvador Dali

On Feb 1, 2016, at 11:11 PM, Duncan Mahoney via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> Damon Gelb asks:
> 
> <big snip>
> 
> "Would any professionals on the list be willing to
> share statements or documentation to support my claim that flying -
> ANY flying - must and should be handled by a professional flying
> company?"'
> 
> If the last line of your question sums up your position, then it's as simple as saying "I'm not comfortable or qualified to be doing that" to your PTB.  There may or may not be fall out, but if "performer rigging" is not in the current job description, it's a pretty big stretch to include in "other duties as assigned"  
> 
> But there's no official industry wide document that says" only professionals will do performer rigging" or even one that defines what qualifies someone as a " professional performer rigger".  With proper training a careful competent theatrical rigger should be able to execute simple performer rigging effects.  Being comfortable with doing it is another matter.  Learning how to do it artistically takes time and experience.
> 
> If your PTB convince you to be more comfortable with "DIY performer rigging" ("DIY Performer Rigging":  an action which should never be preceded or followed by the phrase "hold my beer and watch this"), your first stop would need to be Risk Management.  
> 
> Assuming Risk Management would consider the idea under certain conditions, the next step would be to get trained by a professional performer rigging company.  There are a few that will do training at either their facility or yours, (and on-site training in your own facility is an absolute blast for interested students).  This training, and all the associated travel, fees, shipping, etc., is expensive but essential if you want to actually "fly" a performer.
> 
> Then go and buy some very specialized and expensive gear.  Depending on how you rig it and what tools are already available in-house, a simple "straight line lift" can cost more than a couple thousand dollars for gear. There should be some training on how to inspect the gear, that'll cost extra.  And the odds that the expensive stunt harness that fits this year's performer will also fit next year's performer...are small at best.  Each performer rigging effect will need to be budgeted assuming almost all new gear.  Over time you'll build up an inventory, but it's gear you would not have to purchase if you hired a performer rigging company to do the effects
> 
> Bringing performer rigging in-house to save money is a false economy unless the producing organization is going to do a lot of flying effects.  If you want to get into tracked effects, or winches, there's tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment to buy, maintain, and store; equipment that will be rented to you for a fraction of its value if you hire a performer rigging company to do the effect.  And then there's the issue that adding the duties of performer rigging on top of the other duties of a TD is adding more work, which should either come with more pay or more help to get the other work done.
> 
> But in colleges, we train students to do all sorts of dangerous things; dental surgery, nuclear physics, theatrical rigging...  If performer rigging is something that your department wants to include in the curriculum and expose students to, then properly trained and equipped faculty/staff will have to be provided.  If the department is merely interested in performer rigging as a service in support of the performances, that's another matter entirely.  It will be cheaper to just "hire the service" when needed.  And it's not just the gear and insurance that is being hired, it's also the depth of experience of the professional performer rigger to design a better effect than someone with less experience can
> 
> I and most of my staff have had some training in performer rigging.   In our case, Risk Management will sign off on an effect if the Safety Office will sign off.  We usually have a discussion with the Safety Office about the effect, the training the operators will receive, the design factors of the various bits of gear, and eventually the Safety Office inspects the completed apparatus.  They don't know more about rigging than I do, but they do know about risk analysis and are very good at asking questions to ensure that we have considered potential problems and contingencies.  Any interested Technical Direction and Design students work with us as we rig the effect and in some cases are responsible for operating it.  Over the years we have done a fair number of suspensions and some straight line lifts.  Budgets and time have constrained us from more complicated effects.
> 
> 
> 
> Duncan Mahoney
> Director of Technical Direction
> Associate Professor of Theatre Practice
> University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ____________________________________________________________
> For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
> Stagecraft mailing list
> Stagecraft at theatrical.net
> http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net