A few weeks ago I came to the Entertainment Services and Technology Administration (ESTA) office to be greeted with a story about a person in our entertainment industry. She'd been out of work recuperating from leg surgery, and had returned to work in the theater. On her first day back, being very careful not to fall, she reached for the handrail as she walked down the steps from the stage into the house. The handrail collapsed. She fell into the orchestra pit. The handrail looked solid, but wasn't. Now she was again out of work and in pain. The carpenter installing the handrail had put it up, but not secured it, while he went to get additional supplies.
I heard this story on a day I was mulling over the parable of the sheep and the goats, Matthew 25: 31-46. The parable should be familiar. It is often used as scriptural justification for giving to the poor and homeless, and taking care of the sick and lonely. It's about seeing the Divine in other people, too. What struck me about the parable in relation to story of the worker's fall is that the “goats” on the King's left didn't see they had any responsibility to the needy people around them. Perhaps the “goats” saw the needy people, but they were like birds on the lawn—there, but not their problem. I am sure the carpenter putting up the handrail saw that there were other people around, or could at least imagine that there might be other people in the theater who'd need the railing, but he was busy. He had a handrail to put up.
I hear stories like this frequently. One of my colleagues was an expert witness on a case where people had opened a trap in the stage floor, and then turned off the lights and gone to lunch. A person, entering in the dark, fell through the trap to the floor below. I am sure neither the carpenter nor the stage crew were planning to hurt anyone. I am also sure that if it were pointed out to them that they were putting others at risk, they would see this, and if they were asked if this is what they meant to do, the answer would be, “No.” But the fundamental problem was that they didn't see the other people as needing their care until someone was injured. Those other people were the invisible needy.
Context for workplace safety
There are lots of rules for workplace safety—for example, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations on guardrails and floor openings. These are useful, but one should keep in mind that they were written primarily for regulators to help them give a pass/not pass check mark during an inspection, and do not cover all instances where a person you need to protect might be endangered. For example, recent changes to OSHA regulations for fall protection have specifically exempted “fall hazards presented by the exposed perimeters of entertainment stages ..." [29 CFR 1910.28(a)(2)(iii)]. This does not mean that it is acceptable to have your actor playing God in “The Judgment” part of the Wakefield Mystery Plays tumble from his heavenly throne. It simply means that an OSHA inspector will not expect to see a guardrail across the front of the platform during a walk-through before the show, but you still need to do something to protect the actor from falling.
Rules are useful, but they are most useful when you first stop to think about who you need to protect and from what.
Rules are useful, but they are most useful when you first stop to think about who you need to protect and from what. This is risk assessment. It can be an elaborate study involving your whole production team, and should be for a big project, such as mounting your version of the Wakefield Mystery Plays. However, it also is a useful tool for simple tasks. It’s a series of questions: What could go wrong? What hazards would that create? Who might be at risk? What can I reasonably do to make sure nothing goes wrong and that people aren't hurt? Reasonable steps do not have to be elaborate; they simply have to work. If the handrail is up, but not secured, put a sign on it that says, “Not finished! Do not use!” That's not a permanent solution—the handrail needs to be properly installed—but it's a reasonable thing to do for the few minutes it takes to get the thing you need to finish the job—and way better than doing nothing. A ring of sawhorses and leaving some light on probably would have kept the person from falling through the floor. Sawhorses do not meet the OSHA requirements for a guardrail, but they probably would have done the job of keeping the person out of the hole for the duration of the lunch break.
What could go wrong? Who might be at risk? What can I reasonably do to make sure ... that people aren't hurt? Reasonable steps do not have to be elaborate. They simply have to work.
Hazards do not present the same level of risk for all people, and risk assessment can bring that to your attention. I worked in a college scene shop that had paint frame not wide enough to fully fill the slot in the floor for it. The opening was not large enough to qualify as a “floor opening” needing protection per OSHA regulations or the local building code; it was too small for an adult to fall through. However, my three-year-old daughter was with me in the shop a few hours each day, and the hole was certainly large enough to swallow her. I built a paint can rack that covered the slot. My daughter was protected, so I didn't have to worry about her and that particular hazard, plus I made the paint area neater by getting the cans off the floor.
Resources for risk-consciousness
More detailed information about risk assessment can be found in ANSI E1.46, Standard for the Prevention of Falls from Theatrical Stages and Raised Performance Platforms. It's free to download from the ESTA website at tsp.esta.org/freestandards. It outlines how to use risk assessment to create a comprehensive fall protection plan, but the fundamental process of risk assessment and remediation is the same for all hazards. It's a creative process—really interesting and fun if you undertake it with the right spirit.
It really does not take a lot of effort to protect people from hazards, but, besides needing some imagination, the job requires seeing the people we need to care for. They are not birds on the lawn and not our problem. They are our brothers and sisters, and we need to take care of them. As it says in Matthew 25, New International Version, verse 40: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
