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

This particular type of fall hazard is specifically addressed in the OSHA safety requirements (you can find this at: www.osha.gov, click on the “Regulations” tab, then “PART 1910 Occupational Safety and Health Standards”, then “1910.23 - Guarding floor and wall openings and holes.”)

One of the key problems in theatres is that almost everything is painted black and the work light levels are very poor (yes, there is an OSHA regulation for the minimum acceptable light levels, too). So you end-up with a black hole in the middle of a black floor.

What can you do about this to make it safer?

• Add railings around the sides of the opening.
• Add a self-closing safety gate to prevent someone from accidentally stepping off into the hole. Below is an Intrepid Industries DG Series self-closing safety gate. Safety chains are sometimes installed, but they don't work too well as a fall stopper, they are difficult to hook and unhook when climbing a ladder, and they are frequently left open due to the difficulty of use.
  
  
• Mark the perimeter of the hole with a contrasting color (yellow is good, photoluminescent paint or tape is even better should the power go off). Typically this opening is not somewhere that the audience could see, so don’t be shy about marking the surfaces that the audience does not have in their direct view.
  
  
• Add some lighting. Depending upon where the hole is, this may have to be a sharp-cut-off light source that just illuminates the opening and little more. Mount the light where it is safe to get to for lamp replacement, out of the path of travel so people aren’t bumping into it, and DON’T use a clip-on light – get a real light fixture and bolt it to the building.
  
  A mezzanine with a drop-off ladder way. The end of the Locking Gallery
  just drops
  to the floor below.