# Emergency situations



## Nolan Chapa (Mar 2, 2016)

Can anyone share some stories of some last minute emergencies, and how you managed them as best you could? 

Hazards, fires, injuries, technical malfunctions? I feel like the more prepared I am for any situation, the better I will be able to handle it under pressure with a cool head.

So please feel free to share the most unexpected, and unorthodox situations that you have found yourselves in.


----------



## coldnorth57 (Mar 2, 2016)

with live theatre anything can and will happen.....

Middle of a childern show and the power went out ..... good thing the com systems was battery backup for the main system and everyone was on wireless headsets, had everybody hold position, power came back in 30 seconds or so, had to wiat for the lighting board to reboot and then MADE sure everybody was one the same page and on with the show.

During a summer show I got a little carryed away with the fog and haze and the AC system was carring all of the fog off stage, the fire alarm went off, we stoped the show , I turned on house lights, the public was asked to exit as we quickly figured out what happened, rest set the alarm system and had the house seated and back up and running in under 15 minutes


----------



## BillConnerFASTC (Mar 2, 2016)

Well, too many perhaps. Three small fires - actually one not so small. Power failure - Theatre At Monmouth in Maine - during the quality of mercy scene in Othello - quickly scruried along balcony rail and "refocused" three pairs of bug eye emergency lights whose batteries lasted to curtain. My most memorable was during a pay called General Gorgeous at the Yale Rep - running a home made fog machine for a disappearing gimmick - but unfortunately the trap failed before the gimmick and Carmen Lavallade came through the floor. The best part was John Neville-Andrews vamping Shakespeare in his El Grande da Coca Cola character while the trap was temporarily supported and Carmen recovered and went on. The show did go on.


----------



## sk8rsdad (Mar 2, 2016)

Several power outages, actors missing (locked out of building when going for a smoke), a couple of medical issues with patrons that required a pause in the show, and all the minor mishaps that happen during performances. Broadly speaking, minor mishaps during performance break down into 2 categories: _plow on through and hope the audience doesn't notice_ or _pause, fix, and resume_. Fortunately, the latter is very rare. The only surefire solution for coping with a technical malfunction is a competent technician.

Our venue has published procedures for fire, medical emergencies, and power outages when the public is in the building. Anything else last minute is left in the hands of the stage manager (backstage spaces, performance in progress) and house manager (public spaces, pre and post-performance). The situation you want to avoid is "too many chiefs". Always work through a designated person in charge, usually the stage manager, to coordinate the response.

Training continues to be a challenge since we're an all-volunteer organization.


----------



## MarshallPope (Mar 2, 2016)

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but it's a good story and I have to share. 

We had a recent mishap during a show. The set included an upstairs bedroom - 6'x12', 7'6" in the air, with only one door to the out-of-sight upstage hallway, and no other ways down. I was under a time crunch to finish the set, so I used a couple of screws as doorstops for a few of the doors, rather than taking time to cut and install slam strips. All worked fine until the 4th performance of the run, when an actor went upstairs and closed the door behind him with a bit too much force, bending and bypassing two screws, firmly jamming the door shut. The next scene, an actress goes upstairs to talk to him. I am watching from the house, and perk up when I hear "Did you lock me out?!" "I'm sorry, I just can't handle this right now." Well, crap. I scurry backstage and find them doing some stellar improv to finish the scene, yelling through the door, as I am crouched at the actress's feet trying to triage the situation. I send for a pry bar, with the ASM at my side counting down until Actor 1 needs to be downstairs. "4 lines left" Actor 1 is silently pleading with me through the door crack to get him out. Where is the pry bar? No sign of it anywhere. "2 lines." I squeeze my fingers into the crack between the frame and the door and find I can get a little bit of play in it. OK, let's hope the actor is ready to sell that he is opening the door and it doesn't suddenly look like the house is haunted. "Now!!" as I wrench the door open as I quickly duck out of sight and the actor comes rushing past me down the stairs.

Turns out, a good portion of the audience had no idea anything went wrong.


----------



## kiwitechgirl (Mar 2, 2016)

- Mac 600 catching fire pre-show (a capacitor gave way spectacularly and set the wiring loom on fire). Chief LX went up a ladder with a fire extinguisher and put it out. Called the hire company and they got one to us in double-quick time; addressed it and hung it up. I'd let the ushers know we may start late but it went up on time.
- A brown-out which was long enough to cause the moving lights to go out, then of course they can't hot restrike. LX op busked his way through until the movers came back online.
- Student production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", using a (manual) revolve which we'd put off-centre. It had three walls on it, dividing it into 3 offices, with a timber skyline next to it as part of the set. We'd had a hell of a get-in and been short on time and so it was less than perfectly built; on opening night a piece of timber on one of the revolve walls came loose, and when the revolve op winched it around, the loose piece caught the skyline, pulling the whole thing down on top of him. Luckily he was unhurt. We frantically closed the tabs, got the actor who was doing the voiceovers to make an announcement (the main character in the show has a book titled the same as the show and an actor "plays" the book as a voice over character) and madly screwed the skyline back up. The next night the revolve operator turned up wearing a Valkyrie helmet.
- Professional production of "La Cage aux Folles" which had a track in the floor so we could move furniture on and off without having to push it - it locked onto a pin and was controlled by ropes in the wing. All good until an actor jumped a bit too vigorously on the sofa and managed to jump it off the pin, meaning we couldn't track it back offstage. One of the cast had a pair of black overalls and black baseball cap as a costume; he wasn't wearing it at that moment so I ended up throwing it on, tucking my hair up under the cap and running on to push the sofa offstage, having abandoned the LX operator to take the cues himself (he was more than capable - same guy who put the Mac 600 fire out!).
- One rehearsal stop and one show stop in a production of "Les Miserables" caused by smoke from a smoke machine getting to a detector which wasn't on the isolate circuit. Both really were a series of unfortunate events. Four fire engines turned up both times, figured out very fast what was going on and we continued.
- I'm originally from Christchurch, so I've had my share of earthquakes during shows. We developed a protocol which all actors and crew were briefed on: our procedure was that the stage manager, operator or actors had the right to stop the show if they felt it necessary - but stay put until the shaking had stopped. It was the SM's call as to whether the building would be evacuated; the ushers were all briefed that if there was a good-sized quake, they were to open the fire exit doors as quickly as possible once the shaking had stopped, in case of aftershocks which would jam the doors closed (obviously the first quake may have jammed them, but you can't do much about that!). We were also very conscious when rigging lights to make sure that safety chains were very secure and that on older units (Strand 803s mainly!) and bigger units (2ks - we'd normally safety the barn doors anyway) the barn doors were safetied on as well. It was complicated for us by the fact that the theatre was in a heritage stone building, so in a quake you lose chunks of the outer facade - so evacuating could actually be more dangerous as being hit by flying stone was always a possibility. This was a non-flying house though so we didn't have the concern of heavy scenery above people's heads. A different theatre had a production of Les Mis on (not the smoke alarm one!) when an good-sized earthquake came through; they did stop the show and not continue it until everything had been checked (although it turned out everything swung OP-PS and not US-DS so nothing hit other scenery pieces or lighting bars).
- A show I worked on but had handed off to another SM did have a fire which could have been serious - very long story, but mercifully we had a completely sensible, reliable, un-flappable actor in the cast who was right there and had the presence of mind to grab the fire extinguisher and put the fire out before it took hold. They stopped the show and didn't continue simply due to the amount of smoke in the building; the fireys turned up as the alarms had gone off and checked that it was extinguished.
- In my current job I manage an opera orchestra. I had a player appear halfway through a show to tell me that a bunch of music stand lights had gone out; raced to investigate and discovered it was one "chain" (they daisy-chain from one stand to the next in chains of six) that had gone out so we flipped enough of the pit fluorescent lights on so they could see the music (it wasn't a show-stopper) and madly started troubleshooting. Turned out someone had moved their chair leg onto a cable and sat on it, breaking the cable (24v so no danger of electrocution, luckily). We replaced the cable, turned the lights off and the show continued.
- We've had several show stops lately due to revolves not revolving - usually it's a three or four minute reboot of the controller and it comes right.


----------



## NateJanota (Mar 2, 2016)

- Was working a stunt show at Disney a while back. Heard a tickticktick BOOOM and watched a Desisti 5k go up in smoke. Shards of molten glass rained down but fortunately no one was hurt. Lead had to improv an excuse for the explosive effect whilst the techs figured out a way to handle the extremely hot Desisti and stop it from dropping any more hot glass or metal... all the while giving hand signals to the Tech below who had never run the lighting console before for the show.

- At another event, one of the live stages, had an LN2 tank enter emergency depressurization. Unfortunately, it was a humid, rainy day so that LN2 began to fog up stage egress routes and guest areas to the point of no visibility. Had to navigate by hand along a screeching 3000L LN2 tank in whiteout at night trying to find a way to release tapoff pressure to stop the vent. After that, had to navigate up stage wing stairs, find the actors in the whiteout, and then hand-in-hand lead them back down the stairs. (They were in "furries" and couldn't see through articulated eyes.) Did I mention the noise of a decompressing LN2 microbulk tank? *shivers*


----------



## Les (Mar 3, 2016)

sk8rsdad said:


> Our venue has published procedures for fire, medical emergencies, and power outages when the public is in the building.



I was going to come along and mention this. Having a well-designed, up-to-date, and readily available Emergency Action Plan is a good idea and most likely a requirement for your venue.

Of course it will be impossible to cover every scenario pertaining directly to live theatre (and varying employees/volunteers), but basic emergency procedures inherent to operating a workplace/public building should be accounted for, and responsible persons on permanent staff should be listed with their roles and contact info. All emergency services' contact numbers should also be included. Every staff member, house manager, stage manager, and director/tech director (at minimum) should be familiar with how to effectively use this plan. Preferably, every crew member would also be familiar with how to handle these emergencies, such as fire/alarm events, natural disasters/severe weather, power outages, medical emergencies, active shooter situations, bomb threats, etc.


----------



## TheaterEd (Mar 3, 2016)

Here's my most recent story. I run a high school aud, and for our most recent production I was running our performer flying rig. After my final Act 1 cue, I got back into my professional attire and headed to FOH to open doors for intermission. When I get there, I see a custodian with a leaf blower trying to dry the floor and have two parent volunteers tell me that we need the audience to only use the side doors to exit because the floor in front of the two main doors is slick as Ice (this is not practical since the side exits are single doors and we have a full house). Apparently, a child had thrown up all along the corridor, and whatever they put on in to absorb it made the floor WAY to slipper to walk on... Keep in mind, we are currently in the last big number of act 1 before intermission starts. I first tried to run a dust mop over it, but it was very clear that wasn't going to get the job done in time. Fortunately I remembered the cart of rugs that custodial puts out in the gym for basket ball games. I haul it over there and grab the cart. Two custodians, my Student Tech Director, two parents, and I set up a 12' x 40' section of carpeting and were taping the edges down during the applause! No one tripped, no one slipped, and only a few people noticed how much I was sweating... Could not believe we got out of that in one piece without having to cancel intermission.


----------



## Will Elphingstone (Mar 3, 2016)

Fire Alarm- house lights on all other lights off, lamp off arcs. Shutdown everything and unplug., De-ass the building
Power Outage- Unplug everything incase of a power surge when power returns.
Tornado- Power off and unplug
Fall/Injury onstage(No major injuries thank god) Record a marco to go to a blue out time 0. Hit it and wait till the grand is closed. Then house and work lights up. Make an announcement to calm audience.
Traveler gets stuck and won't move- call early intermission and fix it

Those are the only things that have happened to me.


----------



## Les (Mar 3, 2016)

Will Elphingstone said:


> Fire Alarm- house lights on all other lights off, lamp off arcs. Shutdown everything and unplug., De-ass the building
> ...
> Tornado- Power off and unplug



I will add my opinion to only worry about shutting down/isolating equipment that can become dangerous if left unattended. Don't let a potential power surge to an ETC Ion take priority over evacuation/shelter-in-place.


----------



## BillConnerFASTC (Mar 3, 2016)

I'll guarantee you that there are many more injuries from people falling in the aisles that are poorly designed, illuminated, marked, and/or guarded than any other single cause. But someone falls and breaks an arm and we don't consider that an emergency.


----------



## JonCarter (Mar 4, 2016)

It was a 300-seat summer theatre in-a-barn,. We were running a 10-week season of one-a-week Gilbert and Sullivan and operettas. I was working as T.D./lighting designer/light crew during the day and board operator during performances. 

The light board was a home-designed (and maybe home-built!) (but not by me!) affair, with 2kW circuit and 8kW master autotransformer dimmers. Each 2kW dimmer had a 3-position switch controlling its source of power; either "power" (from one phase of the supply), "off" or "master" (from one of the master dimmers.) The design fault (which I found out later) was that each dimmers' power came from alternate phases of the supply. And so did each master. (You electrical guys are probably ahead of me by now. Derek!) The result was that, with a master at 10, the difference of potential between the "master" and "power" positions of, say, dimmer 1's switch was 0, while the difference of potential between "master" and "power" positions of dimmer 2's swithch was the full voltage between phases. Switching a fully loaded circuit "power" to "master" on dimmer 1 (fed from the same phase as dimmer 1) might result in a small arc as the circuit was broken and remade. Switching a fully loaded circuit "power" to "master" on dimmer 2 also resulted in an arc in the switch, but this time maybe from phase to phase.

Comes the first act finale of, as I remember, G&S's "Patience" and time for a cue which took a number of circuits off master and to individual, in order to leave them up as the masters dimmed out. (You newbies and your electronic boards haven't had the "fun" of figuring out how run a cue requiring moving 8 or 10 handle simultaneously. Trust me, it can be done, sitting on a stool and using hands, knees and feet and maybe a stick across some handles.) Anyway, when the switches were thrown, one of them decided to play "arc flash." Fire coming out of the both the switch in front and the back of the board. Everything dimmed to about half. I pulled the master (nothing like opening a 400 amp knife switch under load) and the battery-powered emergency lights in the house came on. Fortunately the resistance of the wiring between supply and the failed switch was sufficient to limit current to the point where we didn't have a serious explosion.

The orchestra and cast finished the last 10 measures of the act in the dark; the ushers got everyone out of the semi-dark house and the house manager offered everyone free drinks at the patio bar while I did some quick re-wiring of the board to provide enough functionality to complete the second act. The following weekend, on top of setting the next show of the season, was spent rewiring the board so that each circuit's "hot" feed came from the same phase as that circuit's master. 

This was in 1960. I have the burned and blackened switch in by bag of souvenirs. 

For all I know that theatre's still running with the same gear.


----------



## Wheezy (Mar 30, 2016)

One small theatre I work with is using freeware lighting software with a USB dongle converter. It was on a ten year old desktop computer, which decided it had enough of me and crashed the hard drive 30 minutes preshow. Fortunately, quite a few crew live nearby, so one went home and got a laptop. The software had to be reinstalled of course. I ALWAYS back up my show cues to a USB thumb drive. We opened 15 minutes late. No one in the house knew anything had happened.

It's a good idea to back up all show data, both lighting and audio. Have backup copies of software. 

Last, post the phone numbers of tech support for light and sound boards nearby.


----------

