# Condemended.....



## propmonkey

After my first class today I walk down to the theatre to see friends. i wlak on stage and all or pipes are down and there is a police line around the stage. We hae been condemended. We need all are pipes replaced. There are the orignal ones for 1950's. We hope to have everything replaced in the next few weeks till then we're condemended.


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## digitaltec

Pipes dating back that long should probably not be still in use in the first place especially in a HS where probably not many know what to look for in terms of stress points, etc. It's a good thing that those pipes are getting replaced. Hope you did not have a show this week.


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## techieman33

that sucks, but it needs to be done, my old high school has pipes like that, some even have crack on the outer couplers, and the best part is however long ago someone put duct tape over it, so who knows how long it had been cracked, the pipes still haven't been replaced, but that's why i'll be contacting ocea shortly, because the school district, doesn't care, and won't do anything about it.


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## ccfan213

well at least its only for a couple of weeks while they fix it, instead of having all your lights and sets fall on the heads of innocent actors and crew... well innocent crew


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## propmonkey

we need 26 pipes replaced(they did replace our electrics and our back pipe in 94). we're also going to get new ropes. we have a rental a week form saturday it looks like it wont happen and i need the money. i just hope theyre replaced in the next 3 weeks. we're looking at $20-30 grand. but it needs to be done.


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## soundman

Good ol dance shows, fat checks for little work, or at least thats how it works around here for rentals. Yea it takes 5 people on deck got a problem with that?


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## jmsinick

I wish that my old high school would be condemed. for a while the only way to turn on the house lights was to throw the main breakers. the system is over 30 years old and there are 20 dimmers total, some dont take any load, while others only take a lite load (~1.5k) and there are only a few circuits that can handle a 2k load. also some of the circuits work while the pipe is in, but the cut out when the pipe is over 10' in the air.

on a side note dance shows are great. they are the only time during the year where i actually run the light board, the other times i just write cues and let someone else run them.

Jeremy


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## ship

I’m confused. A pipe dating from the 1950's might be of a slightly different composition than the standard sch. 40 water pipe of today or better yet batten pipe, but metal to metal it’s not all that different and certainly nothing that needs replacement every ten years. Heck, I was working in a 1926 theater that was still using it’s original pipe. Pipe is pipe. Given if overloaded and stressed in showing something beyond bending as something to condemn the fly system because of it, it needs replacement. But a new pipe when stressed in showing some form of un-safeness is no different than any old pipe simply because of it’s age. As a note, water pipe in general is not rated for use in fly systems - that’s what batten pipe is for in being lighter and stronger. Different carbon or in the case of water pipe, garbage in the mix with the metal mixture. If it were the pipe, I suspect that it’s more for the couplers between them. Officially a water pipe coupler is not load rated and not to be used on a batten pipe. There are other couplers and sleeves on the market.

I’m thinking the fly system was condemned not because of the pipe that was dropped, instead it was the fly system itself. At lest the inspector had the guts to condemn the place, and it will be fixed in any case. I could only wish more theaters could have similar inspections when they need them, and the inspector had the guts to close down the place. Not many have the training to say more than boo about rigging systems, much less would give more than paper warnings. Been to another similar aged theater where they had not worked at all on their fly system probably in the last 20 years. We are talking about more than just rust and bronze sash cord in this hemp house. Instead of doing something about it, they left their fly system up to the renters in the option of using it, but no liability for it’s use. Most renters work around the fly system in using their own either free standing or hoist system. Those that don’t obviously don’t know about rigging when using it. For that the inspector plays a key role beyond the six inches of water in the 1926 also dimmer room. I was seriously not impressed with this classic theater where you could not even get to some of the dressing rooms due to the flooding in them, yet they were still doing shows. Much less as ME for the rental production I worked at it. I made the production rent a generator because I would not be the one doing the tie into house power while standing on a pallet to keep dry. It’s been a long time but I believe it was Dave Matthews band in being a band that sucked but at the time a second string touring band. Such a shame this classic old theater suffering the life of a mash pit type rock touring house. Much less in lack of care for it, in this place that has antiques and classic design, it had received so little care even in a minimum way. Where the orchestra pit might have been, your feet stuck to the floor with all the movie theater like soda on it, and the place stunk like a beer hall. This theater’s ghosts must have been really ashamed and it’s a wonder the place had never been closed down. Must have been some large payoffs to the local inspector in just keeping the doors open for such that they are trained to inspect. Such a shame.

On the rental, you will probably be able to hire someone to rig chain hoists to the grid in keeping the contract without too much a loss in profit to you or especially the company doing the rental.


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## ccfan213

the one thing i dont like about renatals is when they are to groups who dont know anything and dont have one person in charge, i have found this alot with indian cultural groups (no offense to anyone, its just an observation), they send 3 people to the booth to yell at us and tell us what to do and they all say different things! but if all goes well it is some easy cash.


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## propmonkey

well we had the inspection today. we need the entire fly-system replaced..... he said "its where you want to start and where you want to stop."


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## techieman33

that sucks, that won't be cheap at all, with a new grid it could run over $500,000 that's what we were told as far as replacing ours.


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## __WWW__

wow! you need a new grid!!! thats terrible and sooo expensive! I hope your school finds the money to replace it!

We dont have any of these problums... yet lol. Our school was built in 2000-2001, and for the other 2 high schools in our district they were both "refurbished" at the same time and got new auditiorums. well except one didnt even have an auditiorium before! anyway im rambeling on and on


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## propmonkey

good news we're aloud to use the stage just as long as everything is dead hung. they're currently working on the funds. if we can get enough were gonna try to get more lights. i like our board(is a good board and is only 4 years old) just not the instruments, dimmers, and locations.

lets hope the renters like our curtian placements because we cant really move 'em....and lets hope the lights are focuses seen how last time i did it blind....


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## techieman33

what does seating or a lighting system have to do with this thread, sorry to be rude, but there are other threads for that.


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## propmonkey

i was replying to the post before mine about a complete renovation and "an outdated strand system mind you."


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## techieman33

sorry i was refering to "the guest" above you, you posted right before i did.


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## ccfan213

the thread is about replacements in theatres because of age, old bad equipment that needs replacing fits in to the topic relatively well, that is to say we have gotten much more irrelevant in other posts!


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## The_Guest

techieman33 said:


> what does seating or a lighting system have to do with this thread, sorry to be rude, but there are other threads for that.



Twas only sarcastic humor my friend. She goes to another school in my district. She has a beautiful school and auditorium, there is nothing wrong with it. I obviously quoted her so it was in referance to her, not the thread. It was a short message, maybe next time (for the sake of not offending anyone) I'll send a PM. No need to get hostile.


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## propmonkey

well we had the school board meeting last night. on the agenda they had it listed as a "cpmplete removal without replacement" my director gave a good presentation. he presented a 5 year plan of replacement. we have the president of the baord on our side. they voted to give us $5,000 now to go with our $5,700. we will have all but the 3 electrics, main curtain and scrim removed. and we will leave what is left dead hung. any one know where we could get about $100,000 to rebuild our rigging?


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## avkid

Find generous senior citizens that will put your program in their will, or corporate sponsors!


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## koncept

please do not take this seriously, it is meant to be funny.
i like your thinking avkid. find someone who is on the edge of their rocker get them to put you in thier will then ask someone else to push them off thier rocker.......lol


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## propmonkey

http://www.sdb.k12.wi.us/memorial/theatre/riggingreport.htm

theres the report from the inspection


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## Thranduil

Wow...your system looks similar to ours in our litte theater. Its from about the 50s as well. I do know a few of the problems arent there, but i doubt ours is safe. I assume the one in our large theater is better because while it has something like 80 pipes and a few of them are smaller pipes, the system isnt used as much.


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## Foxinabox10

Man I wish that we had a fly system. Our school didn't raise the roof above the stage when they redid the whole school ($30 million), so I doubt they ever will, so we're forced to hang all the lights by going up to them and we don't have any cycs or drops that we can raise and lower.


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## MHSTech

ship said:


> Heck, I was working in a 1926 theater that was still using it’s original pipe. Pipe is pipe.


 That's the same boat I'm in, except our school is slightly older. However, we're working on building a new school and we're moving in this winter.


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## Radman

propmonkey said:


> well we had the inspection today. we need the entire fly-system replaced..... he said "its where you want to start and where you want to stop."



There was an article in PLSN about a new type of fly system that uses chain hoists that can be placed anywhere above the stage and they are all controlled by computer. It turns out that that method is cheaper and faster to set up than a conventional system, in addition to its other obvious advantages. Plus it is a system you could add hoists to when you get the money, so the cost can be somewhat spread out. I would bring that up in a meeting.


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## Radman

http://plsn.net/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/657108291/m/952104595

There's a link to the article.


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## ship

Radman said:


> propmonkey said:
> 
> 
> 
> well we had the inspection today. we need the entire fly-system replaced..... he said "its where you want to start and where you want to stop."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There was an article in PLSN about a new type of fly system that uses chain hoists that can be placed anywhere above the stage and they are all controlled by computer. It turns out that that method is cheaper and faster to set up than a conventional system, in addition to its other obvious advantages. Plus it is a system you could add hoists to when you get the money, so the cost can be somewhat spread out. I would bring that up in a meeting.
Click to expand...


Such a system has been for the past couple of years also while respected, also thoroughly trashed on stagecraft for good reasons.

No matter the system, there is advantages and problems with them. Nothing is so far perfect.


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## propmonkey

The dismantelment has begun. They have been here since 9am, they have all but 4 pipes down(out of 30) and when i just checked they have 7 arbors out. I hear they will be done by friday. they are replacing the 3 electrics and dead hanging the main act curtian and back drop. we going with a 5 year plan of replacement. ill post some pictures tomorrow.


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## AVGuyAndy

Good to hear you are getting new stuff, even if it's just pipes. I have someone coming to our auditorium tomorrow to see what can be done in terms of new lighting control. I want to have out 1971 dimmers controlled by DMX. The technology to do that exists, but he thinks he can do something better for cheaper.


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## ricc0luke

Hey... its better than having something fall on your heads... the local high school's auditorium really needs to be inspected... but not because of the rigging, thats about the only thing in the place thats safe... well... actually... all the rigging excpet the fire curtain...

here are some pics i took and posted quite a while ago... the captions are out dated...

http://shsauditorium.blogspot.com


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## propmonkey

http://photobucket.com/albums/a280/stageman06/

here are the picture my stage manager has taken so far.


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## AVGuyAndy

> its better than having something fall on your heads.



Sometimes, that's not neccesarily a bad thing...


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## propmonkey

http://photobucket.com/albums/v248/coobie52088/fly system/

there are the pictures i took today


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## Radman

doesn't work, need password


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## propmonkey

whoops....all fixed forgot to make it public


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## Radman

Cool! Do you know, are they putting in that hemp rope for handline, or is that what they took out?


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## propmonkey

it will be new synthetic. it was in the box. right now we have to find a way to get weights. all of ours currently dont fit. i talked to the school machinist he said h will be able too. but we need atleast 45 by friday. we also found a place that will water cut them for free but we dont knwo how fast they can do it.


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## Radman

Water cutting might go pretty fast, though if not you could have the school do some and the water jet do the rest.


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