Author Topic: Injured during tech?  (Read 17939 times)

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sievep

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #15 on: Sep 30, 2007, 10:20 pm »
I pulled my back during tech this past summer . . .the guys in the shop had me wear a back brace, like you wear to lift heavy things, in order to keep my back straight and keep me from reinjuring it.  It worked!
"This lovely light, it lights not me" - Orson Welles

TheAlmightyAmy

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #16 on: Oct 02, 2007, 05:34 pm »
I fell off the ladder to the cat walks while coming back from readjusting a gobo, and raked my forearm against an old fernell that was sitting on the floor next to the ladder; it left a huge gash. I refused to go see if I needed stitches, and just bandaged it up as good as possible. My job wasn't really affected by it, but I do have a pretty little scar to show for it.

chops

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #17 on: Oct 02, 2007, 11:29 pm »
I once had a two ton motor mount swing into my kidneys and break a rib.  I really didn't like that lighting person after that.  And there have been far to many minor injuries to count.

Take the down time as a test of your ability to manage the crew.  Of course you won't be able to do all of the jobs yourself but you are still going to have to instruct people on how to perform thier jobs.  You may feel useless and frustrated but you can still call the show, set schedules, be a therepist, and everything else.  If you think that you are useless when you are injured just wait until you walk into a union house.  You had better know how to manage people and give direction without touching anything. 
Peace,

Chops

lilmonki in black

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #18 on: Oct 23, 2007, 07:34 pm »
Thankfully, I've never had a major injury due to theatre.  I've run techs and rehearsals while in pain.  (Fibromyalsia and a random chest/stomach thing that's still never been diagnosed.)

I do love theatre injury reports though.  I was ASM on a production of Beauty and the Beast and we had a crew member run over his foot with one of the town houses.  And that is what went on the workman's comp form.  I ended up taking him to the emergency room when his foot really started swelling up.  It took a bit of explaining to convince the nurses we weren't making it up.  We had an actor on the same show who injured their back while wearing their giant fork.  Also an amusing workman's comp form.
We have done so much for so long with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

We the willing led by the unknowing are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.

jspeaker

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #19 on: Oct 24, 2007, 04:44 pm »
My favorite accident report was just months ago.

At the hospital with the actor.  "He has hurt his thumb and cant snap.....  No you dont understand...  HES PLAYING FONZIE!!!"
Jess W. Speaker, III
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Cedes

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #20 on: Oct 24, 2007, 08:03 pm »
last semester, i was on a show with 2 other SM's..I had a huge ear infection and fever, and showed up late for tech...of course, the other two were clueless, so It was mass chaos when I got there. At my school, usually there is one or two SM's that can hold down the fort for a tech/show or two..just follow basic procedures, and they should be able to understand the process, and handle everything fine.

Jill Young

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #21 on: Oct 26, 2007, 07:31 pm »
Super embarassing story...

Last year during strike of Little Shop of Horrors, we were in the middle of taking down one of our major set pieces and our set designer started kicking one of the 2x4's that supported it to take it down, and missed, and kicked the flat into my abdomen, causing me to drop the set and double over.

I was carrying it out of the lift twenty minutes later.

SummerShakespeare

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #22 on: Nov 14, 2007, 05:00 pm »
This just happened a week ago...I was helping sew costumes for ou production of Sweeney Todd and I was talking to the director while sewing a vest and I felt the machine hit my hand and it did not hurt at the moment so I pulled my had away really fast and felt something snap and then I realized that
Oh crap
I just sewed through my finger and the bottom half of the neddle had sanpped off and  was stuck in my finger...
right through my nail....
so as this happened on halloween... my ride to the workers med place was dressed in drag as Joan Crawford....
oh it was a day....what a day :P
All on the same G.O.

bradygonsalves

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #23 on: Nov 18, 2007, 03:49 pm »
I was working on a World Premiere Musical in NJ and one of my ASMs was running a scene change just upstage of a set of sliding doors. The stage had a series of slip stages that were run from an automated winch and in the hub-bub of the change she went downstage too far and her feet went out from under her and landed on her backside. She was able to crawl offstage just behind the doors as they slid open to reveal the next scene. Not sure how we managed the sequence because she was on headset the entire time and it got a bit chaotic. The audience was none-the-wiser. The ASM never made that mistake again!
Member AEA since 1998.
Member Philadelphia Area Liaison Committee 2003-2006.

cjmassoud

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #24 on: Nov 28, 2007, 12:22 am »
I didn't really get hurt badly, but I was kinda clueless and put my hand on some freshly welded metal.  I was the first injury of the tech process!  Took my hand off before any damage occurred, but I got a pretty blister on my thumb...
-- CJ

avkid

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #25 on: Nov 28, 2007, 02:18 pm »
Ohhh..I forgot to share.

Two staples clean through my right ring finger just to the side of the nail.
I wrapped it up and got on with life.
That part of my finger is still a bit numb to pain.

Staple guns are not toys!
Philip LaDue
IATSE Local #21 Newark, NJ

smejs

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #26 on: Dec 09, 2007, 02:54 pm »
While ASMing The Secret Garden, I was also in the prop shop during the day.  Three of us went out to pick real branches, etc, to use for set dressing.  Our prop master found a "really cool vine" and threw it on top of the others.  After unloading all of the branches back out of the van, we started to realize...that vine was poison ivy, which I now had itching all over my arms.  Once it moved up into my neck and face, the doctors gave me a Cortisone shot.  Itching reduced, but now I couldn't see across the stage.  Made for a rather scary tech when you're in charge of watching how everything's progressing backstage on a very technical show, but you can't see!  The other student with poison ivy (the asst set designer) gave me an ivy plant for opening, and my mother gave me a troll doll with little red dots she'd put all over it...

Cleveland-SM_Lynn

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #27 on: Dec 09, 2007, 09:18 pm »
I was injured during tech. My toe has been broken for quiet sometime. I was Assistant Stage Managing The Phantom of the Opera and I fell down the rest of a spiral stair case in the wing stage right. I sat down for a few minutes and iced it. While I have a crew member bring me the money music box and a screwdriver so I could change its batteries. My foot was injured and it hurt to walk. As usual I iced my foot in between running around re-spiking during tech. As long as I can actually still walk I will keep going.

bsiscon

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #28 on: Dec 12, 2007, 12:10 am »
The thing is, most colleges have a procedure that they must follow if and when a student is injured. I've had my share of accidents and even though Tech rehearsal is not the best time, the TD should have called Public Safety, made a report and had you taken to see a doctor. It becomes a liability for the college if not taken care of. Like a stage hand before me at my school. He got a splinter during rehearsal, but took it out and didn't say anything. It was pretty deep, and the next day, he woke up and couldn't get out of bed. That kind of thing needs to be take care of regardless of how it effects things. Safety is the number one rule that must be obeyed after all... ;)

Joshua S.

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Re: Injured during tech?
« Reply #29 on: Dec 12, 2007, 12:59 pm »
I'm pretty appalled at reading how some of these injuries are occuring.  Some of this is the kind of neglagence that should be getting people fired.