17 Fire/Evacuation
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in U.S. Supreme Court opinion (Schenck v. U.S.) (often misquoted)
Do not allow your dreams to go up in smoke. Practice fire safety.
—Anonymous
• The first day you step into a theatre as stage manager, check out the fire prevention/control equipment—extinguisher, sprinkler system, phone— because every day after that, you are the first line of defense against fire—on stage and backstage.
It happened within the last ten minutes of a production of You Can’t Take It with You, in the round. From the booth I could not see the grid. I noticed that the audience was looking up ...
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