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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / SAFETY: Real weapons on stage?
« on: Mar 30, 2015, 11:36 pm »
I'm stage managing a new musical. It's set during World War I and features two Scottish brothers. One goes to fight in the war and the other is a conscientious objector. The show features a bayonet training sequence as well as several battle scenes.
The Managing Artistic Director, who also wrote the musical, has acquired six antique World War I bayonets that he is set on using in the show. I haven't seen them yet, but they're apparently fully functional guns with actual blades attached. This is a very small theatre and no one is union. I don't have anyone higher in the organization to go to with my concerns, since the writer is also the MAD.
How do I convince the MAD/writer that real guns (and blades!) on stage is a very, very, very bad idea? And if I can't, what do I do?
Edited to add topic tag- Maribeth
The Managing Artistic Director, who also wrote the musical, has acquired six antique World War I bayonets that he is set on using in the show. I haven't seen them yet, but they're apparently fully functional guns with actual blades attached. This is a very small theatre and no one is union. I don't have anyone higher in the organization to go to with my concerns, since the writer is also the MAD.
How do I convince the MAD/writer that real guns (and blades!) on stage is a very, very, very bad idea? And if I can't, what do I do?
Edited to add topic tag- Maribeth