# Theatre Closed Over Bad Wiring



## Footer (May 16, 2014)

Saw this on the local news tonight... 

WNYT.com - Cohoes Music Hall shuttered over dangerous wiring

_The show will not go on as scheduled at the Cohoes Music Hall on Thursday night.

The city shut down the theater Thursday afternoon.

According to the mayor, the building has dangerous wiring.

The creative director at the theater says they have been in a battle with the city since last year.

Several performances of "The Little Shop of Horrors" were cancelled last weekend when two cast members came down with the flu._


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## MNicolai (May 16, 2014)

Will be interesting if we find out what constitutes "dangerous wiring".


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## VCTMike (May 16, 2014)

Wow, shocked (no pun intended). Been there quite a few times and nothing appeared obvious from the house side...
Kyle, have you or Mrs. Footer ever been there? What's your opinion?
Saw the cancelled performance announcements and was likewise surprised as I've never seen a local show cancelled for multiple performances before due to cast illness...


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## MNicolai (May 16, 2014)

> The show didn't go on at the Cohoes Music Hall Thursday night after the city ordered the theater shut due to safety concerns over its electrical wiring.
> 
> Ticketholders were turned away from the 8 p.m. performance of "Little Shop of Horrors."
> 
> ...


Cohoes Music Hall closed - Times Union


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## Footer (May 16, 2014)

VCTMike said:


> Kyle, have you or Mrs. Footer ever been there? What's your opinion?



About 2 years ago both of us ME'ed a show there. It was supposed to be a quick freelance gig... hang, focus, walk away. We did not realize the can of worms that we opened. We ended up spending an extra day going through everything that we were using to make sure it was not going to burn the place down. I spent probably 4 hours in their dimmer area pulling orange extension cord powering DJ dimmers, romex everywhere, and a bunch of really junky cables. When we left everything we had in place was safe and we had "disabled" some of the really sketchy stuff.... and we did not use any of the romex. 

*Keep in mind these pictures are from 2 years ago,* some things could have changed. We did report them to our fire marshal which I believe did an inspection. I also brought up these electrical issues to the artistic directors who had a "I'm shocked there is gambling going on in here" look when we told them. Lets just say I never got a call to do another show there... and I would not have taken it anyway. 

Understage crossover circuits...



The other side...



This was found by Mrs. Footer powering worklights (it was red hot)



Twist to stagepin adapter on the 1st elec...




I have a feeling that the romex issue probably kept spreading. The stuff was EVERYWHERE. All exposed, all gaffed and plumber taped.


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## coldnorth57 (May 16, 2014)

just one word WOW!


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## danTt (May 16, 2014)

WNYT.com - The show will go on in Cohoes

Wonder how much is "fixed" and how much is political pressure. Places like this usually need much more time than a few hours to fix properly.


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## JD (May 16, 2014)

I would think the "quick fix" would be to disconnect all that junk and rent in a pallet of proper 12/3 SO cables for the show. No way of knowing from the pics what the condition of the dimmers and fixtures are, but assuming they were up to code then changing out the cabling will get them open. The real question is who is behind all this romex wiring? If that person is still there, then it was probably worse than it was two years ago.


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## porkchop (May 16, 2014)

Yah as we've seen here before this was probably an agreeable compromise to get the show going (it does the city no good to put the theatre out of business). The question I have is what does the rig look like when the next show opens?


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## Les (May 16, 2014)

Man... All that and here we have so many qualified technicians looking for work!


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## danTt (May 17, 2014)

Not saying you should take this as gospel... but Audition Update has quite a bit to say about this company, and if it is true, it makes me not surprised at all that things are in the state they are.


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## porkchop (May 17, 2014)

danTt said:


> Not saying you should take this as gospel... but Audition Update has quite a bit to say about this company, and if it is true, it makes me not surprised at all that things are in the state they are.


The one guy trying to defend the place really cracks me up.


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## coldnorth57 (May 17, 2014)

and one more word ....WOW!!


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## VCTMike (May 18, 2014)

Holy crap! Thanks for the pics Kyle. There's another venue I've worked at nearby in a similar state. I refuse to go there again even to see a show. How they have avoided not getting their CO pulled is beyond me. Standing puddles of water where a multitude of undersized extension cables are routed.


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## headcrab (May 19, 2014)

VCTMike said:


> Standing puddles of water where a multitude of undersized extension cables are routed.



Water-cooled extension cables?


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## VCTMike (May 19, 2014)

headcrab said:


> Water-cooled extension cables?



Lol, not really, but that place scared me. Overloaded orange extension cables (and I don't think they were even 12 gauge, just your garden variety cheap big box cords) to every location on the stage as the main 'feeder' to shoebox dimmers. One of the cords had a melted end...<we replaced it for our show with a 12 AWG SJOOW and left it unplugged, coiled in the corner when we left>. Extensions with wires twisted together and taped, not even a wire nut used. Zip cord used for makeshift house lights. Even the pipe grid scared me hanging on the ends with some stiff connectors and a couple of proper crossover clamps but most interior hanging points was done with perforated plumbers hanging strap. We were told to be careful where we hang things. Scary place.


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## BobHealey (May 19, 2014)

VCTMike said:


> Lol, not really, but that place scared me. Overloaded orange extension cables (and I don't think they were even 12 gauge, just your garden variety cheap big box cords) to every location on the stage as the main 'feeder' to shoebox dimmers. One of the cords had a melted end...<we replaced it for our show with a 12 AWG SJOOW and left it unplugged, coiled in the corner when we left>. Extensions with wires twisted together and taped, not even a wire nut used. Zip cord used for makeshift house lights. Even the pipe grid scared me hanging on the ends with some stiff connectors and a couple of proper crossover clamps but most interior hanging points was done with perforated plumbers hanging strap. We were told to be careful where we hang things. Scary place.



Would you be willing to name the venue so others don't accidentally end up there? I've got my own pile of sketchy power I'm trying to get fixed (summer in theory), but other venues keep coming after me too.


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## TheaterEd (May 20, 2014)

I just pulled about 300' of orange wire out of a theater. Anything that wasn't short enough to be considered a jumper got taken home by their head carp. Apparently the fire marshal never had an issue with it


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## VCTMike (May 20, 2014)

BobHealey said:


> Would you be willing to name the venue so others don't accidentally end up there? I've got my own pile of sketchy power I'm trying to get fixed (summer in theory), but other venues keep coming after me too.



Stageworks


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