A Midsummer Night's Explosion

[PSMKay]

(submitted by Brandon)

     

I'm currently SMing a production of "A Midsummer Night's
      Dream" at my high school. We have a pretty tight budget but do get
      some state funding so we are able to get pretty decent gadgets. We just
      got 4 new Rosco Gobo Slide Projectors. They are actually really amazing
      and they work really well, if you have never seen one. They just slip
      right into the can where a normal gobo would go and your set. Well, these
      new "perfect" gobos have given me and my staff hell. In the
      middle of last night's show, I'm sitting in the booth calling cues, etc.
      and I see our moon gobo start to form cracks... it was burning up right
      before our eyes. Wow, did that create a problem. The ASMs, in their
      annoyance, were screaming over the headsets that something was wrong,
      something was wrong, and they wouldn't shut up. We were having quite a
      hard time concentrating, so I took my headset mic and held it up to a
      speaker (which means tons of feedback over the cans); that made them shut
      up. The can started to
      smoke and the board wasn't responding when we tried to cut out that
      circuit. Finally we had someone run down to the orchestra pit below the
      stage and pull the circuit manually. I'm not sure if this is a horror
      story, or a tip. To be careful with those slide gobos, and how to get your
      noisy ASMs to shut up.

[GNS BOXY]

This is actually my worst nightmare. Did you assess the fire hazard per protocol and shouldnt the ASMs have been better trained? Out of all the things in the theater that can cause fires bad gobos are up there with pyrotechnics and real oil lanterns.

[Joshua S.]

A)  The original post is approaching 10 years old.
B)  I wouldn't expect it to be a high school students job to assess fire hazards.
C)  I wouldn't expect high school ASM's to be well trained.

[RuthNY]

This post may be almost 10 years old, but nonetheless, I'd like GNS BOXY to expand on their recent quote below, "Did you assess the fire hazard per protocol?"

What do you specifically mean? To what specific protocol are you referring?  Do YOU as a Stage Manager do regular official assessments of fire hazards, and what do those assessments consist of? Do you work in the US or in another country?

Thanks in advance for any clarification you can give.

This is actually my worst nightmare. Did you assess the fire hazard per protocol and shouldnt the ASMs have been better trained? Out of all the things in the theater that can cause fires bad gobos are up there with pyrotechnics and real oil lanterns.