[HANASHIR:8832] RE: choir riser

[Adrian Durlester <durleste...>]

Rachelle:

Do NOT use stepstools. This is a dangerous and unsafe practice. I am
surprised to learn that Wenger does not manufacture something to meet your
needs. Sounds like what you need is a "seated choral riser" and Wenger has
always made those. They are generally about 30" deep-enough room for a chair
and space to stand in front ot it. I have used units like this in all of the
performance venues I managed over the 25 years I was in the theatre business
before switching to the equally low paying fields of Jewish education and
Jewish music.

In my experience, "home-made" units usually suffer from one of two defects:
they are overbuilt, and therefore cumbersome and ridiculously heavy, or they
are underbuilt and unsafe-the usual mistake being a failure to compensate
for the fact that the load on staging is not always static, but
dynamic-singers and musicians walk, bounce, jump, stand, sit, etc. all these
actions produce stress on the staging.

A well built riser of staging unit will be a light as possible yet with
great strength. The use of stress-skin materials is the key to making them
lightweight. Simple plywood or dense particle board is never as light as
stress-skin material.

Don't skimp on the legging. Look carefully at the design of Wenger, SICO or
StageRight staging before attempting to build any of your own. Consult not a
carpenter or someone in house construction, but rather an experienced
theatrical technical director, who will know how to design a safe,
economical, lightweight yet strong piece of portable staging.

Adrian

Adrian A. Durlester. M.T.S.
http://members.home.net/durleste/
Judaic/Ivrit and Music Teacher-Akiva School, Nashville, TN
Music & Choir Director, Congregation Micah, Nashville, TN
Editor, Bim Bam, Torah Aura Productions, Los Angeles, CA
Evening Program Chair, CAJE 26, Aug 5-9, 2001, Colorado state University.

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org [mailto:owner-hanashir (at) 
shamash(dot)org]On
Behalf Of H & R Shubert
  Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2001 7:27 AM
  To: Hanashir
  Subject: [HANASHIR:8831] choir riser


  This will only be of interest to choir people.

  I am trying to design one second row choir riser for our synagogue
maintenance staff to build.  It would either be deep enough to hold a
chorister standing in front of a chair, or be a group of stepstools to step
up on to when the choir stands.  Wenger doesn't seem to have the right stuff
for our space.  I'm a little leary of the stepstool idea, although it is
economical and light.  Does anyone have some experience, good or bad, with
this idea?

  Thanks,
  Rachelle Shubert