Tale #9: I Found A Chunk Of Tooth

There is a very important rule in technical theatre that everybody likes to break. That rule is: do not duck under the pipes.

In a theater with a fly space, there are pipes that run horizontally above the stage. These pipes are what you would use to hang a backdrop, lights, a sign, etc. They are brought up and down by the rope system on the side of the stage.

When you are doing your set up and take down, you need to bring these pipes all the way down so that you can hang stuff or take stuff off of them at a height you can reach. This puts the pipe about 4-5 feet off the stage.

Often times there are multiple pipes down at once, which is why there is a rule about ducking under pipes. You might duck under one only to rise up and hit your head on another. Or worse, your mouth.

The show was West Side Story and I was the twenty-three year old Director. We were nearing the end of our strike after a successful weekend of performances. There were a handful of teenagers still helping Dale and Steve (sound and lights) with taking lights off of the pipes. I was walking around the backstage area doing a final check of the space to make sure we had cleared out all of our stuff and left everything clean.

There were about five pipes hanging low on the stage so that our lighting designer could reconfigure the light hang back to what the High School PAC manager needed for the upcoming band concerts.

I was finishing my final checks in the dressing room when all of a sudden I heard “ALYSSA!” shriek out from the mouth of one of our teenagers.

I rushed out to find the hollering kid. She informed me that one of our teenagers had ducked under a pipe and smacked her mouth on the next pipe down and her mouth and nose were bleeding.

I rushed to the bathroom to find the teen and help her get cleaned up. Her nose and mouth were extremely bloody. It was highly unsettling. We were finally able to get the blood cleaned up enough for me to realize that her two front teeth had been smashed and parts of her teeth were gone.

Now, luckily, the teen’s dad was helping that day and had just run over to the VACT building with my uncle and the teen’s boyfriend to drop off some stuff. We got him on the phone right away and had them rush back to the high school.

The bloody-mouthed teen was extremely apologetic for breaking the rule. I assured her it was just a freak accident and that there was nothing to be sorry about. I felt horrible. She looked like she was in so much pain.

My uncle, her dad, and her boyfriend arrived back at the high school and quickly rushed in to help. Now, before we continue, let me tell you a little bit about her dad.

Her dad is not only ex-military but ex-pentagon. He is a fairly big dude and very intimidating.

I immediately went through everything that happened and explained that she hit her mouth on the pipe and broke her teeth.

He then asked me a question that I was very much not expecting.

“Well, do you have the teeth pieces?”

I stuttered, “um no they were smashed and crumbled. She told me she spit them out onto the floor.”

He got very serious and stoic before saying in a deeply terrifying voice, “well somebody better find them.”

Next thing I knew, myself, Steve, and Alex (set construction manager) are crawling around on our hands and feet on the dirty stage floor looking for pieces of her broken teeth.

Grossest part: I actually managed to find one.

As I continued to survey the floor like a dog sniffing a lawn, I thought to myself, “what on earth does he need these pieces for? Are they going to try to glue the teeth back together like a broken vase?”

Now Dale had known there was an injury but he had been in the back loading up his sound equipment when her father had returned, so he had missed that entire interaction. Therefore, he was rather confused when he walked back into the theater to find the three other adults present crawling around on the stage like confused toddlers.

He asked, “what on earth are you guys doing?” I frantically replied in a scared whisper, “we are looking for teeth pieces ok!”

Eventually, the dad had his daughter’s boyfriend use his car to rush her to an emergency dentist as her dad’s own car was still at our rehearsal space and he needed a ride to get it.

Unfortunately, all of our tools were in her boyfriend’s car and went to the emergency dentist as well.

Luckily she was able to get veneers in quickly and her smile is as beautiful as ever.

So to all participants of VACT young and old: if you’ve ever been offended that someone snapped at you for ducking under a pipe, hopefully this will help you understand why it is so very important to follow the cardinal rule. Do not duck under the pipes!