Theatre Australia

your portal for australian theatre

Risk Analysis and Risk reduction

Thu, 24 July 2008, 10:10 am
Don Allen42 posts in thread
How many risks are you aware of when working in a theatre or even being in a theatre onstage or backstage. Electrocution Cuts Broken Bones Eye damage Hearing damage Community theatres have a responsability under the WA Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 and WA OSH Regulations 1996 to provide a safe working environment. There may also be additional responsabilities imposed by local councils. As an individual you have the same responsabilities. These following links will provide usefull and productive information: Why productive ? if you maintain your venue and its equipment to a safe standard, you greatly reduce the setup times for shows and remove a lot of the glitches that may affect a performance. I did not use the work "accident" as I do not beleieve there is such a thing as an accident, anything that goes wrong is as a direct result of someone being incompetent or using unsafe work practices.! WA Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileStore.nsf/Documents/MRDocument:7379P/$FILE/OccupSftyAndHealthAct1984_05-g0-00.pdf?OpenElement WA OSH Regulations 1996 http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileStore.nsf/Documents/MRDocument:7552P/$FILE/OccupSftyAndHealthRegs1996_06-b0-00.pdf?OpenElement Risk Assessment (UK) http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/fivesteps.htm The backsateg Information Guide - Bath University http://people.bath.ac.uk/su2bc/infoguides/index.shtml ABTT Theatre Essentials http://www.abtt.org.uk/PDFs/Theatre_Essentials.pdf Guidelines on the Application of the Health (Public Buildings) Regulations 1992 http://www.population.health.wa.gov.au/environmental/resources/Public%20Buildings%20Guidelines%20Final.pdf Safety Guidelines For The Entertainment Industry (Australian) http://www.entservices.com.au/pdfs/theatrereqs/AustnEntertainmentIndustrySafetyGuidelines.pdf In the absence of any formal training for amateur theatre technicians, then self education is the way to go. I suggest you download any of these documents that allow you to, as it is an excellent start to a library and sometimes web resources tend to dissappear. I always notify actors who walk under ladders when someone is working above them, that it would be a pity to waste all of their rehearsal time, only to miss out on performing because they have been injured during a tech rehearsal, so keep clear and be aware of their surroundings.

I remember

Fri, 25 July 2008, 11:44 pm
Doing the famous Les Mis a few years back (onstage). At the end of the famous barricade we had to vacate the stage in complete darkness. The stairs I had to walk down were completely black, with no markings of any kind. Of course, they were rendered invisible by the blackout. I raised it several times with SM's, with no result. Until in onf the final dress rehearsals when I actually missed one of the steps in the dark and slipped down. Fortunately I 'only' twisted an ankle slightly, and despite a sore ankle for a week or so, was pretty much OK. The white reflective tape was on the stairs by the time we started the next rehearsal. My question at the time was why I'd been ignored so many times by the SM crew, and only an accident created action... No accidents- spot on! Nev It's the simple things stupid...

Thread (42 posts)

← Back to Tech Talk