Sometime in the early 1980’s there was a meeting at the USITT conference in Kansas City. During a session on rigging the future author of “Stage Rigging Handbook,” Jay Glerum, made a startling discovery about the lack of information about rigging.
According to Glerum, “There were about 200 people in this room with some architects and consultants sitting up at the table, not saying a whole lot other than, ‘We have this rigging stuff we have to deal with and it doesn’t change very much.’ Somebody put up their hand and said, ‘Where can I find some information on the standards of rigging?’ And there was embarrassed silence. And they said, ‘You can’t. There are none. There are no standards for stage rigging.’”
It was at that instant that the long process of researching, writing, and developing technical standards for the rigging industry was set in motion.
At the time of the fateful meeting, Glerum had recently gone to work at Peter Albrecht Company. After teaching Technical Theatre and Design at Seattle University and then at Marquette University, he decided that he wanted a break from academia. The owner of Peter Albrecht, Paul Birkle, had asked him if he could design the lighting for some jobs he was working on.
“At that time Peter Albrecht was doing a lot of turnkey jobs in South America and Asia. They would do the rigging, the lighting, the sound – and once, only once, the toilets. [Paul Birkle] asked me if I could design some lighting systems for these jobs that he was working on and I said, ‘Sure.’ Then he said, ‘Why don’t you come to work for me?’ So I went to work for Paul designing lighting systems in 1980.”
Shortly afterwards, the dollar jumped in value and the overseas work dried up. It happened very quickly.
“So we were not doing turnkey jobs anymore, and Paul looked at me and said, ‘Alright, you’re going to become a rigging designer.’ That’s when I started designing rigging.”
To hear Glerum tell it, he was “…in the wrong place at the wrong time” at the Kansas City USITT meeting and he ended up being put in charge of a committee to look into writing rigging standards and to write a manual of recommended rigging practices.
“The group of people that was supposed to look into standards,” said Glerum, “was made up of the top consultants in the country at the time and a number of the big manufacturers. They were all very busy, and I couldn’t get this group together in the same city, let alone in the same room. Every time I tried to get hold of them they were flying off to Riyadh, or were too busy. So that group never met.”
Eventually, a guy by the name of Paul Brady volunteered to help. Together, they started a USITT project to write recommended practices for stage machinery and stage rigging.
“Paul did most of the writing because he had the computer,” said Glerum.
In the meanwhile, Glerum jumped headlong into the project to write the manual. After meeting for three years with less than desirable results, Glerum reached a decision. “The only way that manual is ever going to get written,” he thought, “is if I do it.” So he did.
“I took out a pad of paper and I outlined this thing on the plane. I realized that I had access to all kinds of information that I never had access to as a teacher. I had a whole floor of engineers at Peter Albrecht who designed rigging and engineered it. And through the contacts at the USITT and the company I had access to a lot of stagehands in theatres around the country. I could pick up the phone and get to people and ask questions.”
And thus was born the first draft of “Stage Rigging Handbook.” The book, published by Southern Illinois University Press, has gone on to become a standard text for students of stage rigging systems.
The first edition of the book came out in April 1987. By that time Glerum tired of traveling and took a job as Technical Director at the University of Washington in Seattle.
“At the same time, just by pure dumb luck, another guy from USITT named Randy Davidson and I started teaching rigging classes, realized there was a need for this – that nobody was doing it. So we started teaching these rigging master classes around the country. And then my book hit the street and my phone started ringing. People said, ‘Can you come and inspect my rigging here?’ And I said, ‘Sure, I can do that.’ And, ‘Can you come and design a rigging system for me?’ And I said, ‘Sure, I can do this.’
So Glerum found himself very busy between teaching and designing. Eventually, he reached the point where he decided that he couldn’t effectively hold down a full-time position at the university and provide consulting services. In 1993 he resigned from U of W and went full-time into designing and consulting.
Jay O. Glerum & Associates, Inc. keeps very busy offering rigging inspections, rigging seminars, lighting design and full theatre design services. Glerum also teaches film industry classes on rigging with Harry Donovan (www.riggingseminars.com).
Thanks to Jay Glerum, there is now much more information available about stage equipment and rigging. Glerum is one of the people in our industry who are making it happen.
©PLSN 2003. Reprinted with permission.
HOME | INSTRUCTORS | CONTENT | SIGNUP TODAY | PRIVATE CLASSES
Questions? Email us at:
riggingseminars@mac.com
Rigging Seminars
2416 Third Ave. West
Seattle WA 98119
ph 206-283-4419
or Fax to: 206-282-9362
Toll-free: 888-248-8491