2. • According to D .Ionazz, rigging comes from rig which is to setup or prepare .
• Rigging is the equipment such as wire rope, turnbuckles, clevis , jacks used
with cranes and other lifting equipment.
• This is a term generally describing how equipment on stage is suspended or
moved.
• Rigging can be dead hung, manually operated, or motorized and serves
many purposes.
• In dead hung facility , the rigging is used to suspend equipment and does
not move. If the rigging can move , its primary purpose is to move scenery,
stage light or curtains in the backstage area.
3. • Act Curtain
A curtain (sometimes designed for a specific show) that is opened to signal the
beginning of a performance. The Front Curtain is often used for this purpose.
• Arbor
A carriage or rack that contains weights, usually flame cut steel or cast iron, in
sufficient quantity to balance a load.
• Audience
The area of the theater where visitors sit to view a performance.
• Auditorium
A hall or seating area within the hall where the audience views a performance.
• Austrian Curtain
A curtain that is raised (opened) with bailed lifting lines and is sewn with both vertical
and horizontal
4. • Batten A bar, usually made
from steel pipe, from which scenery,
lights and curtains are hung.
• Beam Clamp A device from which a
load is hung, attached to the flange of a
steel beam without altering the beam in
any way.
• Belaying Pin A wood or steel rod,
inserted into a hole in a pin rail, that
secures ropes attached to a load.
• Border Curtain A curtain used to
define the top limit of the stage and to
mask or hide lights and unused scenery
and curtains.
• Brail Curtain A curtain that is
raised (opened) with Brail type lift lines
and is sewn flat or has horizontal
fullness.
• Brail Lines Lifting lines that pass
through a row of rings sewn to the back
of the curtain and attach at the curtain
bottom. The curtain folds up when the
lines are pulled.
• Cable Roller A roller assembly
designed to prevent moving cables
from contacting any part of a building or
adjacent rigging. Not intended to
change cable direction or carry loads.
• Capstan Winch A winch, usually
portable, with an un-grooved drum
designed to assist in moving heavy
loads. An operator wraps a rope around
the drum and pulls to tighten the rope
on the drum. Friction causes the rope
to travel with the rotating drum.
5. • Clew Device that connects several
ropes or cables to one, usually
stronger, rope or cable.
• Compensating Line A system of
light and heavy chains or cables that
balances lift line weight as it transfers
from the batten to the arbor side of a
moving counterweight set.
• Contour Curtain A Brail or
Austrian curtain rigged so that each lift
line may be operated separately to
form different shaped openings.
• Counterweight (n) Weights, usually
flame cut steel or cast iron, that are
placed in counterweight arbors to
balance the weight of loads hung on
battens. (v) The act of adding or
removing weight from a set in order
to achieve a balanced system.
• Cyclorama (1) Curtain at the
rear of the performance area used to
represent the sky or distant areas.
(2) Set of borders, legs, and drops
used to define the limits of a
performance area.
• Dash Pot An adjustable,
hydraulic ram that smoothly slows
and stops a moving object.
6. • Dead End The end of a rope or
part of a device that is not active or
load carrying.
• Dead Haul Pulling a load that is
not counterbalanced.
• Dead Load The permanent or
non-removable part of a system load
(i.e. the weight of a batten versus the
load hung from it).
• Double Purchase A rope or
cable that passes from a lifting device
(arbor, winch, or person) over a block,
to a block attached to the load, and tied
off at the previous block, is double
purchased. The system allows twice as
much load to be raised for a given
effort, but the rope or cable must be
pulled twice as far, so the total work
done remains the same.
• Down Stage The area of the stage
that is closest to the audience. See
"Raked Stage."
• Drum Winch A winch with a drum for
wrapping up cable as it is taken up.
• Equal Pitch All grooves on a
sheave have the same pitch diameter
regardless of the diameter of the cables or
ropes.
• Fire Safety Curtain A curtain
that closes automatically in event of a fire
to prevent heat, smoke and flames on the
stage from reaching the audience.
• Fireline Fire lines are installed
around the perimeter of a stage-
proscenium arch to hold the fire safety
curtain open. Fire lines connect the
curtain to all manual electrical and heat
activated devices that release the safety
curtain.
7. • Gridiron (Grid) An open floor, usually
made from light steel channels or
grating, that is located near the roof
steel. It provides mounting locations for
rigging equipment and access to that
equipment for inspection and
maintenance.
• Hand Line A line, usually rope,
that is pulled by hand to lift or control
the movement of a load.
• Head Block A pulley mounted to
support steel that changes the direction
of lift and operating lines between the
loft blocks and an arbor or winch.
• Head Block Beams Structural
steel designed to support the head
blocks and carry vertical and horizontal
loads.
• Hemp (Rope or Spotline) Rigging A
rigging system that employs ropes and
sandbags instead of counterweight
arbors or other devices. Usually used for
temporary rigging.
• Idler A pulley designed to support one
or more cables but not to make direction
changes.
• Incremental Block A multi-
grooved pulley that supports and
changes the direction of cables between
the load and the head block and that
supports other, more distant, lines in the
set.
8. • Loft Block A pulley mounted to
the gridiron or support steel that
supports and changes the direction of a
lift line cable between the load and the
head block.
• Masking A set of curtains or
scenic elements used to define the
visual limits of a performance area.
• Mouse To wrap the end of a
rope, cable or turnbuckle to prevent it
from unwinding.
• Mule Block A pulley that supports
and changes the direction of one or
more cables traveling between loft
blocks and head block.
• Single Purchase A rope or
cable passing from a lifting device
(arbor, winch, or person) over a block,
or series of blocks, to a load is single
purchased. Force must be exerted
equal to the load to be held or raised.
• Sheave A component with a
groove around its circumference to
support and contain a rope or cable
and a bearing at its center to permit
rotation about a shaft.
• Sandbag A fabric bag that can
be filled with sand and attached to rope
rigging as a counterbalance to the load
hung from the set.
9. • Traction Drive Winch Winch with
a v-grooved drum that uses friction
between cables and the sides of the
grooves to engage the pulling cables.
Increasing the cable tension causes the
cables to jam tighter in the v-grooves.
• Well An open slot in a gridiron,
usually framed with upright channels,
that supports loft blocks and permits
cables to be dropped through the grid
to a batten or other load.
• Wall Knee Bracket that attaches
a wall batten to the building structure.
• Wings The portion of the
stage area located to either side of the
acting area.
• Wire Grid An open floor that
supports lights or provides access to
theatrical equipment. It is formed of
woven cables attached to, and
supported by, a structural frame.
10. • Knots are the basis of rigging.
• The essential knots to rigging are:
i. Overhand knot
ii. Square knot/ Reef knot
iii. Bowline
iv. Clove hitch
v. Belaying
vi. Coiling
11. • Carver (2009) notes that ,this is the simplest knot of them all.
• Hold the rope with both hands parallel to the ground; cross it over to form a loop; wrap
the right-hand end through the loop and pull.
13. • This is one of important knots to know.
• If properly tied it will not slip and can be used to secure things or lift people.
14. • Used as a traditional hitch that is securing one end .
• It requires load attached in each direction in order to be effective , and since it’s a load
bearing knot it should not be tied with thin or very slippery rope.
• It can work itself loose especially under a swing rotating load and Is useful I situations where
the length of the rope end needs to be adjustable.
• It can also be used to join two pieces of pipe or wood together.
15. • Belaying is not technically a knot, but it does have to do with all of our rigging. In order to
belay, you will need a cleat or pin. The goal is to secure a rope by winding it in a figure-eight
pattern around the cleat. To secure the belay, the final figure-eight wrap gets a 180-degree
twist before being put on the cleat. Pull down on the working end of the rope to tighten.
16.
17.
18. 1. Hemp house
2. Single purchase
3. Motorised or automated
4. Double purchase system
19. • A hemp house or rope house is defined as such since
the lift lines from the battens are rope, organic or
synthetic, not wire.
• A hemp system is counterweighted with sandbags tied
onto the lines.
• A counterweight is used t offset the weight of what you
are trying to lift.
• The locking device to make sure nothing falls down
unexpectedly is a pin rail .
• Belaying, which we just learned, is done using the
working end of the rope and the pin rail.
20. The next step in the rigging progression is to add weight to the working line
before belaying to the pin rail. This is the counterweight that helps to
balance the weight on the other end of the rope. Sandbags are just what
they sound like: a bag filled with sand. They come in a variety of shapes and
sizes. The difference in the sizes changes the amount of sand and therefore
the weight of the filled bag. The goal is to add enough sandbags to the
working end of the rope to equal the weight on the other end.
21.
22. Hemp rigging is the simplest of all the rigging systems. Let’s get some
vocabulary out of the way. A sheave is basically a pulley. It has a groove
around its circumference to support and contain a rope and a bearing at its
center to permit rotation. A block is an assembly that consists of one or more
sheaves in a housing. According to D. Ionazz a spot block is designed for a
temporary and easily movable connection to a gridiron or other theatre
structure. A head block is a pulley mounted to overhead steel above
23. • This is the workhorse of the rigging world. Based on the
simple understanding that if you have 200 pounds of
stage equipment you need 200 pounds of counterweight
to balance the load. The term single purchase indicates
that it is a one-to-one system, not only in the weight as
described above, but in its movement – if you pull the
rope one foot, the load (scenery, for example) moves one
foot.
24. • This is another example of the workhorse of the rigging world.
It is different from the single purchase in that its design
incorporates a pulley at the top and bottom of the arbor. The
counterbalancing of the load changes, so that if you have 200
pounds of stage equipment you need 400 pounds of
counterweight to balance the load. The term double purchase
indicates that it is a two-to-one system, not only in the weight
as described above, but in its movement – if you pull the rope
one foot, the load (scenery, for example) moves two feet.
Since this system is located above the stage, it saves valuable
off-stage space, and offers a the distinct advantage for the
flyman who can see onto the stage area from this elevated
vantage point. Its simplicity and durability also means it is very
affordable compared to other rigging systems
25. • Another example of a workhorse in the rigging world. This
simple system can be used to hoist stage curtains, scenery
and lighting. Imagine being able to lift thousands of pounds of
equipment with a push of a button, with no counterweights,
rope splinters, or large crews This design eliminates the need
for counterweight adjustments, pulling of ropes, and will not
use valuable back stage space as necessary in counterweight
systems. By eliminating head pulleys, special steel beams on
one side of the stage are not necessary. The entire system
can span existing beams, thus distributing the vertical load
evenly. Line shafts have been installed in professional
theatres, schools, churches, stages with existing
counterweight sets, and above seating areas for hard to reach
lighting positions. These can be just the answer for facilities
that have limited side stage space, limited steel beams above,
or simply don’t want to use counterweight rigging systems to
lift their heaviest loads – stage lighting, orchestra ceilings.
26.
27. • Carver R, (2009) Stagecraft Fundamentals a guide and
reference to Theatrical Productions.
• Ionazz D,(2001) The Stagecraft Handbook .New York.
• Wilson E, (2002).Theatre the Lively Art) McGraw Hill.
