Mastication and Fire Curtain

Eww, mastication. In public. Sometimes I have to watch, sometimes I can avoid watching. Sadly, I can't turn my ears off. Sigh.

My friend asked me to talk a bit more about he fire curtain - or as it is called, a safety curtain. In larger theatres that have proscenium arches, there used to be a large fire hazard on stage. Gas lighting, and then early electric lighting was fraught with possibilities for starting a blaze. A curtain was rigged to close off the stage from the auditorium in case of a fire breaking out - allowing the patrons to escape. In the old days, these were often made of asbestos, because they were flame retardant. The curtain was sort of like a wall, only made of fabric.

In The Smith's case, our fire curtain was deteriorating. We had to have it replaced. The modern safety curtain that we have is made of Zetex - apparently made from fiberglass. It was a huge job. The new curtain weighs almost twice as much as the old one. It is run electronically - so motors and winches had to be installed. The old smoke pockets weren't large enough to easily accommodate the track into which the curtain was to be set, so they had to be removed - large pieces of steel reaching from the stage to the grid - about 60 feet worth! Then new ones had to be installed! Add to this all the wiring that had to be done. And a manual release system, so that people on either side of the proscenium (Backstage - not front of stage) could pull a handle and have the curtain lower. Not a small job!

I just got a call saying they were done. Yippee! I am heading down there in a few minutes to lock up and will get training tomorrow. Even cooler, in my book, is that I found out that it is ok to paint on the fabric, as long as we use fire retardant paint. Huzzuh!