Hi all
FWIW, I often suggest taking a slightly different mindset when dealing with this issue. A theatre space is a place for telling a story, and fog, smoke, and haze is often part of that storytelling exercise. All theatres should be equipped with heat detectors (or other fire detection systems which are not triggered by atmospheric effects). That a performance space was NOT equipped with the proper equipment is not the fault of the director, producer, or tech team, so it is not up to us to go to the administration, hat in hand, to request their permission and/or be billed for additional expenses that it may cost to use the space as intended. That being said, I also advise not to bully the admins because that will often result in a hard no followed by an invitation to leave the office :-).
At my university, our new facility was not equipped with the right equipment, even though we raised the issue numerous times during the design and construction process. Now, we simply advise the physical plant when we will be using atmospheric effects, and then we use them. The onus is now on them to disable and/or reroute sensors, bring in a fire watch, notify the FD, or whatever they do. If they forget to make the appropriate adjustments or if the fire alarm is triggered, we point back to the informative email and let them deal with the fallout.
I realize that this may not be the ideal solution for many due to bureaucratic structuring within your organization, but its worth giving some thinky thinky time on how to shift the responsibility to the ones who made the bad decisions in the first place and make it their problem to solve. We are not firefighters, engineers, or fire alarm specialists - we are storytellers telling stories in our storytelling space.
Hope this helps :-)
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Tracy Nunnally
NIU - Professor/TD/Area Head (
tnunnally@niu.edu)
Vertigo - Owner/System Designer (
tracy@getvertigo.com)
ETCP Certified Rigger/Trainer/Employer
I.A.T.S.E.
DeKalb, Illinois
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-09-2022 18:04
From: Kelly Thomas
Subject: Smoke Machine/fire warden
That's what we would have to do in Texas. It is expensive and a real hassle to do, so we basically just avoid it. If it is a very small amount of "smoke" you are looking for, try dry ice and water. That will give you some smoke. If you want to go ahead with it, we would have to get principal permission, then district permission, then contact the fire chief and hire a couple of fireman to be on hand as well as extra policemen from the police deptment SROs.
Those are the things we would have to do in my district. Sounds like you too would have to do these steps. Again, if it is worth the production, get the ball moving.
Break a leg and may all your theatre seats be filled.
Original Message:
Sent: 10/7/2022 7:44:00 AM
From: Joan Jubett
Subject: Smoke Machine/fire warden
Hi,
I'm based in NYC and we don't have a tech director at our school. We want to use a smoke machine for our upcoming production but I'm pretty sure we need a fire warden to disable the fire alarm and be present for the production and then reenable the fire alarm panel once clear.
Anyone know about this and/or where I locate protocol / rules? Also we may need to hire someone to do this.
Thanks
Joan
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Joan Jubett
HS Play Director / High School Drama Teacher
Advisor for Class of 2024