Slip slidin’ away . . . seems to be what I see on a lot of stages I visit. Scenery and platforms on casters without brakes can create a real hazardous situation for technicians and performers alike. I wrote about one scenario a few years ago where a child actress was expected to climb a ladder that was leaning against a tall piece of mobile scenery, and that certainly gives one a wake-up call for sanity.
Brakes can come in many forms:
Some are designed to bind the rolling casters so that they can’t rotate (similar to a parking brake on a car).
Some lift the scenery / platform up off the floor so the casters are no longer in contact (kind of like puttin’ a car up on blocks). Some lock the scenery to the floor with pins (like a sliding door bolt).
Some chock the wheels with a wedge.
Regardless of your method, it obviously has to be easy to activate and deactivate, otherwise the crew and/or actors may not use it. Part of the safety protocols of a show with rolling scenery should be to have a clearly defined procedure to set and release brakes. If nobody is checking and double checking, then someone else could be seriously injured.
It can really help if the brake activating mechanism is clearly visible to the crew. Painting it a bright (fluorescent maybe) color, or in situations where it may be dark during the change-over, wrap it with a piece of photoluminescent (glow-in-the-dark) marker tape. Locate the color / glow area so when the brake is OFF, it is not visible; and when the brake is ON, it is visible.
Lock-pins, wheel chocks, or the entire scenery pieces can also be equipped with brightly colored “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT” flags like they use on aircraft. If you are working on a raked (inclined, sloped) stage, then this becomes even more important, as run-away scenery can end-up in the orchestra pit or the front row of the audience. This has happened with prop cars and they nearly crushed some musicians in the pit for that show.
If lift jacks are used, they can be mechanically operated by a lever, screw-jack operated by a portable electric drill, pneumatically lift the scenery on air casters, have a pressurized air bottle on-board that releases the break (or lowers the casters) when the valve is open (this provides a fail-safe mode like a semi-truck trailer – no air pressure, the brakes are locked), or be electrically operated via a motor driven screw-jack or solenoid (like an electric dead-bolt on a door).
If lock-pins / dead-bolts are used, be sure the receiver holes in the floor are robust enough to actually lock the load. By nature, most wood is fairly weak and can split or splinter along the grain, so installing a metal receiver in the floor deck can assure that there won’t be any unplanned departures.
It is not just during the show that castered devices should be secured. Loose carts, furniture dollies, hand trucks, road cases, and musical instruments can all present serious hazards throughout the course of a show. It doesn’t matter if they are on-stage, on the dock, or in the shop, the same precautions should be followed.
Whoa there, Nellie!
by Erich Friend
Feb 7, 2013
Slip slidin’ away . . . seems to be what I see on a lot of stages I visit. Scenery and platforms on casters without brakes can create a real hazardous situation for technicians and performers alike. I wrote about one scenario a few years ago where a child actress was expected to climb a ladder that was leaning against a tall piece of mobile scenery, and that certainly gives one a wake-up call for sanity.
Brakes can come in many forms:
Some lock the scenery to the floor with pins (like a sliding door bolt).
Regardless of your method, it obviously has to be easy to activate and deactivate, otherwise the crew and/or actors may not use it. Part of the safety protocols of a show with rolling scenery should be to have a clearly defined procedure to set and release brakes. If nobody is checking and double checking, then someone else could be seriously injured.
It can really help if the brake activating mechanism is clearly visible to the crew. Painting it a bright (fluorescent maybe) color, or in situations where it may be dark during the change-over, wrap it with a piece of photoluminescent (glow-in-the-dark) marker tape. Locate the color / glow area so when the brake is OFF, it is not visible; and when the brake is ON, it is visible.
Lock-pins, wheel chocks, or the entire scenery pieces can also be equipped with brightly colored “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT” flags like they use on aircraft.
If you are working on a raked (inclined, sloped) stage, then this becomes even more important, as run-away scenery can end-up in the orchestra pit or the front row of the audience. This has happened with prop cars and they nearly crushed some musicians in the pit for that show.
If lift jacks are used, they can be mechanically operated by a lever, screw-jack operated by a portable electric drill, pneumatically lift the scenery on air casters, have a pressurized air bottle on-board that releases the break (or lowers the casters) when the valve is open (this provides a fail-safe mode like a semi-truck trailer – no air pressure, the brakes are locked), or be electrically operated via a motor driven screw-jack or solenoid (like an electric dead-bolt on a door).
If lock-pins / dead-bolts are used, be sure the receiver holes in the floor are robust enough to actually lock the load. By nature, most wood is fairly weak and can split or splinter along the grain, so installing a metal receiver in the floor deck can assure that there won’t be any unplanned departures.
It is not just during the show that castered devices should be secured. Loose carts, furniture dollies, hand trucks, road cases, and musical instruments can all present serious hazards throughout the course of a show. It doesn’t matter if they are on-stage, on the dock, or in the shop, the same precautions should be followed.
As Supremes sang: "Stop, in the name of love . . ."