Technical Design Solutions for Theatre

Mario Tooch

A Modular Aluminum Drop Rig

For an industrial in Puerto Rico an 80′-wide × 20′-tall muslin drop needed to go away in the blink of an eye. The solution, a variation on the design featured in “A Quick Release for Drops,” was developed by Ben Thoron and Peter Ballenger for the Old Globe Theater. The concept of the rig is simple. Each module consists of two lengths of aluminum angle hinged together as shown in Figure 1. Each module is hung from a batten or truss by three lighting C-clamps bolted to a fixed angle, and the modules are interlocked to form a single rig by ¼″-diameter bolts passed through the connector sleeves. Three release pins joined to a common linkage hold the swinging angle and the fixed angle back to back until ...