Bremerton Community Theater
A small community theatre located in Bremerton, Washington
Bremerton Community Theater, a small community theatre located in Bremerton, Washington, needed to replace their aging and dangerous counterweight system with a new, modern system and add more line sets. The old fly system was a conglomeration of antiquated hardware, some of which was meant to be used with hemp rope instead of the steel cables they were using. Their T-wall, and arbors, were running on 4” centers and using lead counterweights, which speaks to how antiquated the system was. In addition, their stage drapes were old enough to have lost their fire retardancy and were looking ragged.
Type of Work: Manual Counterweight Rigging, Stage Curtains
Our solution? PNTA worked closely with PLA’s Robert R. Smulling to ensure the new manual counterweight rigging system was designed and installed according to PLA’s specification. We upgraded the theater to a system with conventional 6” centers with all new hardware, from tension blocks, lock rail, head blocks, loft blocks, to the battens. In order to facilitate the extra 2” per line set, we had to move the catwalk access ladder, and the stage entrance doors. The system went in on time and within budget with no callouts from the theatrical consultant.
PNTA provided a new grand and valance in eggplant (to match the seating in the house), three borders to mask the new counterweight fly system, and six pairs of legs. All of the masking drapes were constructed of 25oz black inherently fire retardant (IFR) velour, to better dampen backstage noise and control sound.