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The Master Plan: Safety First
From trips and falls, to emergency preparedness and audience control, is your theatre a safe haven or a disaster waiting to happen?
Tom Andrews recalls a Broadway production that was touring
the United States a number of years ago. During lunchtime one day, a work
light suddenly exploded, sending flames and molten glass across a nearby backdrop.
Thankfully, though, something brought this disaster-in-the-making to an abrupt
halt: the backdrop was flame-retardant. “The drape burned in the area
where it was exposed to the flame and molten glass,” recalls Andrews,
“but the fire didn’t spread any further than that. If the drop hadn’t
been treated to withstand the flame, it would have caught fire, spread to
other drops and burned the theatre down.”
For Andrews, this story hits close to home: he’s the president of Turning
Star, Inc., of Brooklyn, N.Y., which offers retardant products and services
to a variety of clients, including major theatres across the country. Safety
is his business. “People need to remember that 90 percent of fighting
a fire is preventing it,” says Andrews.
Whether due to electrical problems, malfunctioning props or pyrotechnics,
chemical leaks, or simple mistakes, theatres are always at risk for accidents.
A thorough safety program can save your theatre time, energy, and money in
the long run.
Top safety concerns in the theatre
During this past year a number of theatres wrestled with major safety issues
during their productions. The new musical version of “Lord of the Rings”
in London’s West End was put on hold for safety tests when the mechanical
stage swallowed part of an actor’s costume, dragging him down and mangling
his leg. In Aspen, Colo., an actor playing Brutus in a production of Shakespeare’s
“Julius Caesar” accidentally cut himself with a real knife during
the murder of the title character. The Telfair Peet Theatre at Auburn University
shut its doors for nearly two days after cast and crew stumbled over a toxic
chemical spill near some mechanical equipment.
Operating a safe theatre means putting the well being of your staff and the
audience first. The safety manual for theatre students at the University of
Wisconsin Oshkosh offers a useful perspective on the subject: “A theatre
space, especially the stage area, is essentially a large machine for producing
plays. It contains many hazards, especially to those unfamiliar with the mechanical
and physical aspects of a theatre.” Avoiding those hazards—and preparing
for potential accidents—is at the heart of every safety plan.
At The Old Creamery Theatre in Amana, Iowa, producing artistic director David
Kilpatrick heads the state’s oldest professional theatre company in a
300-seat facility. As part of his safety preparations Kilpatrick also wrestles
with a climate issue: the possibility of tornadoes. When necessary, “we
move our audience into the area underneath the seating, where there are braces
and supports, as it is the most secure point in the building,” he explains.
During a recent show, the state issued a tornado warning just before curtain
call, and Kilpatrick and his staff quickly ushered the audience to safety,
with some of them squirreled away in the bathrooms.
“The audience should remain our biggest concern,” says Bob Bertrand,
general manager of Rose Brand in New York. Bertrand praises the state of today’s
safety awareness and enforcement, which have greatly decreased the risk to
audiences in standard venues. However, he cautions that this type of vigilance
extends to the staff as well: “Given the constant presence of the staff
in venues beyond performance time and the temptation to relax safety procedures
when the audience is absent, staff members are exposed to more opportunity
to suffer injuries day in and day out.” These include “the same
kind of concerns you’d find at any construction site,” including
items falling from overhead (lights, tools, and rigging) and misuse of ladders
and scaffolds.
Getting Started
Where can you hunt for information with which to build a safety program? The
federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides basic
guidelines. In addition, creating a safety committee for your theatre not
only allows for effective cross-communication among departments. “A committee
should consist of representatives from all areas of a facility and should
have at least one person from senior management,” recommends Bertrand.
“Each regularly scheduled meeting needs to start with a report and review
of any incidents since the last meeting—including near-misses,”
he adds. “Each member is responsible to educate his or her co-workers
in their respective area as well as solicit their safety concerns.”
Creating an emergency plan for your theatre is another critical facet of any
good safety program. According to Andrews, the plan should include fire prevention
as well as emergency response procedures. “The production or theatre
staff can devise a plan, and then ask the local fire marshal to review it
with them,” he says. For additional information, Bertrand recommends
that supervisors review the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 101
Life Safety Code document, which prescribes safety regulations for buildings
and other potential hazardous areas.
If writing a safety plan sounds daunting, don’t worry: the document doesn’t
need to be long or complex, and you can ask other theatres for copies of their
plans in order to get you started. The Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago,
Ill., built a 23-page Emergency Action Plan that outlines procedures for responding
to medical emergencies, gas leaks, bomb threats, malfunctioning elevators,
suspicious mail and robberies. “Our first priority is always personal
safety,” says Jay Kelly, director of marketing and publication relations.
“Our house manager acts as our emergency coordinator.” During an
emergency, the box office becomes a command post where the coordinator can
manage the theatre’s incident response and communicate with the rest
of the staff.
Several pages of the Victory Gardens’ emergency plan are dedicated to
evacuation procedures which split the building into five zones and explain
how to move the audience and staff out smoothly. According to Bob Bertrand,
proper egress is critical, especially in nontraditional venues like clubs,
community and small regional theatres, off-off Broadway, and “event environments”
like haunted houses and murder mystery stagings. “These venues need clear
and well-marked points of egress to be used in any type of emergency,”
he says.
Arming Yourself with the Right Gear and Training
Proper training and equipment will ensure that your staff knows what to do
when the ball drops. For example, the Victory Gardens Theater stashes away
the following items in its emergency kit: area maps, building maps and blueprints,
a staff list with phone numbers, a list of emergency services and telephone
numbers, phone lines, flashlights, bullhorns, first aid kits (with ice packs),
and fire extinguishers. All of these items are strategically placed throughout
the facility in locations like the main stage, administrative office, and
concession stand.
Theatre staffs need to be familiar with the fire safety equipment that’s
required by law—“fire extinguishers, fire alarm systems, sprinkler
systems,” says Bertrand, who consults with fire marshals across the country
every day. In addition, Bertrand urges that stagehands familiarize themselves
with any local requirements for stage scenery in addition to NFPA Code 701,
which details the fire resistance of temporary decorations in public spaces.
NFPA 705 provides a field test that can verify the flame-resistance of a fabric.
At Turning Star, Andrews urges theatres to store scenery and paint supplies
carefully and properly; ensure that scenery, drapes and related soft goods,
set dressing and costumes are appropriately flame retardant; and double-check
that electrical and lighting systems are safe for use. During an emergency,
the theatre staff must coordinate smoothly with each other. “Chain of
command and communication are key so that staff members do not take it upon
themselves to make conflicting decisions and statements,” he adds. Andrews
recommends that theatre staff rehearse their fire emergency procedures, with
volunteers playing the audience.
Chemicals and Other Hazards
Have you checked your shops lately? A quick inspection can prevent money-burning
delays in your production schedule. When Auburn University closed its Telfair
Peet Theatre last September due to a chemical spill, officials from the school’s
department of risk management and safety quickly ran an inspection and determined
that the substance was mercury, which is extremely toxic when inhaled or absorbed
through the skin. Fortunately the mysterious spill was tiny and posed little
threat to the cast and crew, but because of the cleanup the production came
to a standstill just two weeks before opening night.
To prevent incidents like this one, it’s critical that any chemicals
present on the job are properly labeled and handled. If you need assistance,
a number of organizations will inspect your facility for you. Monona Rossol
is president and founder of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety, Inc., a New York-based
nonprofit corporation that provides health and safety services to arts organizations.
As part of her menu of services, Rossol offers inspections to check compliance
with OSHA standards regarding, among other things, chemical storage and disposal,
personal and respiratory protection, proper ventilation, sanitation, and sources
of toxic building materials such as lead paint and asbestos.
In addition, ACTS publishes over 60 data sheets on subjects like proper handling
of ceramics and dyes and methods for detecting carbon monoxide. Data sheets
like Rossol’s are a useful supplement to the Material Safety Data Sheets
(MSDS) required by federal law as part of a workplace Hazardous Communication
Program. MSDS typically contain information about the safe use and hazards
associated with a particular chemical. In addition to OSHA, the Environmental
Protection Agency, state and local agencies also establish their own requirements,
so be vigilant in navigating your way through the requirements for your theatre.
By integrating a safety program into your day-to-day operations, your staff
will be ready whenever an emergency occurs. At the Old Creamery Theatre, David
Kilpatrick has one basic rule for his staff: protect the audience. “Appear
like we know what we are doing and the audience will feel safe,” he says.
“They are trusting us—so let’s be worthy of that trust.”
To keep the conversation on safety going, visit the DramaBiz Magazine
forums at www.dramabiz.com/forum.
