technical theatre

Today we had the second lesson of technical theatre.

Rigging consist on putting the light up on the pole
De-rigging consist on taking the lights down off the pole

The fist step to do this is to check that the safety wire* is on,so that if it falls down the light won't break or hit anyone as it keeps it attached to the pole. The next step is to disconnect the electric cable and cut any seller tape around it if you are going to take all the lights off, if not unplugging it's enough. After un-tighten it the safety wire can be removed so that you can take the light down.

All this process needs to be carried out following EU health and safety standards, protective clothing must me be worn , in this case we only used heavy duty gloves.This lights can reach high temperatures only after a significant short amount of time.the lights were off so they were not hot, but we worn them to get used to them. When you put the light on back on the pole all sorts of cables have to be tied up to the pole using tape or wrapping them around the pole so that no one can get injured by tripping down.

Today we did both processes Rigging and De-rigging at the college's theatre, a very interesting job, although the lights look heavy and the whole process looks difficult is simpler when you get you hands "dirty".

On top of this we also set up the levels of the lights.These are some of the levels we used today:

+ Mids
+ Shins
+ Head

 We used the small fesnel for the Head and Mids and the bigger ones for the Mids and Shins

technical theatre

 A BEGINNERS GUIDE

At first we looked at a variety of lights among them we can find 

Fresnels

Profiles

Floods

Parcans

Follow spots 

Each of them have different functions and sizes,positions on the stage/theatre or any other place where they may be used. Lights help to create an atmosphere within the performance.

Then we walked around backstage,gallery and other sectors of the theatre to learn where the equipment is placed and how to use some of it, always following the health and safety instructions.

In the gallery we saw some of the equipment, like the sound and lighting desks, a very comfortable place to work!

We also met Ernie and Bert  the only two moving lights at the college's theatre, apparently they have behaviour disorders.

HEALTH AND SAFETY 

We looked at some of the health and safety risks at the theatre, for example how wires badly placed and used can become a hazard in general either fire or malfunction of the equipment.On addition to this we looked at the fire exits.

We also got told about the projects that are getting planned for the year, probably we are meeting Boris Johnson, Mayor of the City of London exciting times.