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Special SFX Section
Assistant head of carpentry Cody
O’Dell and a crew of trained stagehands
meet him backstage,.
“Wold walks offstage and stands next
to a Kevlar blanket,” says O’Dell. “He drops
the newspaper, he drops his hat and he
drops his chair into some very saturated
plain old towels full of water.” The water
extinguishes the fire on these items.
Ray lies on the Kevlar blanket, and the
team wraps him up “like a big burrito.”
“Rather than try to put out the fire,
or extinguish the fire, we go the opposite
direction and remove the oxygen
from the area. When he’s wrapped up
in the Kevlar blanket, the fire has no
more oxygen,” says O’Dell.
This is an effect that requires more
specialized training than others and
certainly isn’t recommended for anyone
who hasn’t been doing it for years.
“These artists are specialized,”
warns O’Dell. “It would be the best
option to hire
someone who
has been doing
this for most of
their life.”
But even with
those artists, your
crew needs to be
highly aware of
the danger and
trained in the
appropriate safety
protocols.
Ray Wold lights himself on fire in “O.” Ray has done over 4,000 performances
and never missed a show.
“If you’re going to have this kind of presentation,
it’s vastly important that everyone
knows they’re putting this person’s
life in jeopardy,” O’Dell continues. He recommends
that you make sure you have
someone — preferably multiple someones
— who are licensed by the state you’re
performing in to operate pyro effects, and
that as much of the crew as possible has
been trained by a state agency — the
National Fire Protection Agency, OSHA,
a local fire department — and not just a
contractor. These agencies will be up-todate
on all rules and regulations.
All effects take work, and are a
step out of the norm for a play, but
with the right training and safety
measures, you can put a charge into
your play no matter what the size of
your theatre.
34 September 2007 • www.stage-directions.com