Electrical Hazards abound in most theatres, and one of the most common items seen are the frayed ends of wire jackets that leave exposed conductors. This problem develops for several reasons:

• Yanking on the cord rather than grasping the connector to extract it from the socket.…

Riddle me this, Batman: What is roughly 6’ x 3’ and will reach safely to a work platform height of 20’? If you said: “Ladder”, you would most likely be wrong:…

Top Ten lists can be fun, except when the list is not someplace you want to find yourself. Each Year OSHA posts information about the most commonly cited violations in the workplace. Admittedly, the majority of the citations came from outside our industry, but this year we, the entertainment industry, were caught in the fray, too. Incidents like the Canopy Collapse at the Indiana State Fair…

In the wake of last year’s tragic venue accidents, a group of production industry professionals got together and formed the Event Safety Alliance. At the beginning of the summer they announced an aggressive goal to create a Best…

I recently wrote about lawyers and defibrillators (http://theatreface.ning.com/profiles/blogs/protecting-your-assets), and realized that more information about WHY these miracles of modern technology are NECESSARY would be a good thing to share. According to the Mayo Clinic (ironic, isn’t it? Mayonnaise,…

OSHA knows who’s been naughty and who’s been nice (and safe). The Deputy Director for OSHA’s Directorate of Environmental Programs, Patrick Kapust, provided the new list of the top 10 violations for fiscal year 2011 (October 1, 2010 to…

On Saturday night, August 13, 2011, and estimated crowd of 12,000 assembled to watch the band Sugarland play at the Indiana State Fair. The sky was covered with dark clouds, there was lightning shooting out of them, and a huge gust of wind, typical of Midwest summer storms, came across the venue, caught the tarp covered canopy some 50-60 feet in the air, and folded the portable structure over like it was…

Energy. Potential Energy. Stored Energy. Captive Energy. Different terms, but they all mean the same thing: Energy that is lying in wait, ready to pounce, and usually lots of it. Not concerned? You should be. This can kill or maim you before you can yell OUCH!

So, where is this ‘energy’ stuff? As with most…

Hearing conservation is a difficult subject to bring people on-board with. Hearing loss is usually gradual and doesn't…

We’ve talked about safety on catwalks before, and we looked at building safe scenery, too. However, I recently visited some theatres with shows up that lead me to believe this warrants further discussion. Fall prevention isn’t just about technicians on catwalks, scaffolding, or ladders – it applies to performers, as well.

There are…

In the far reaches of many theatres there are elevated walkways that tie parts of the theatre plant together. Although there are building code standards and safety standards written to define how these are to be constructed, there are many places where they do not meet these standards. This occurs for two basic reasons:

• The designer…

I travel about quite a bit visiting many different types of theatres and arenas. In my climbing about if find one particular hazard time…

For those of you that missed it in the news – A major Broadway Musical production of SpiderMan suffered a serious publicity snafu last week when the aerialist playing Spidey took and unexpected 30 foot dive off of the scenery. (…