ABSTRACT
Thrust and arena theatres often use winches because their placement is more flexible. The winches can be picked up and moved to new locations if necessary. They are more adaptable to fit the different needs of a thrust theatre. Proscenium stages are rectangular, and the rigging is arranged so that all the pipes are parallel with the proscenium. Thrust theatres are irregularly shaped, and a rigging system made of winches that can be arranged in different ways is more useful. The problem with winches in general is that the precise control of automated equipment can be difficult to achieve. These machines have no ability to “feel” when something is going wrong. A good flyman can slip a batten past a crowd of others in a graceful way that a machine cannot possibly mimic. The flyman gets feedback from eyes, touch, and ears that a machine does not. This is an example of how the art of theatre sometimes wins out over the science of technology.
