Theater Directors Practice Rigging Safety

July 18, 2025

Participants try out the rigging system during the Counterweight Rigging Workshop with Dana Taylor

Theater educators, directors, technicians, and evaluators from Rochester, Red Wing, and the Twin Cities gathered at Eastview High School in Apple Valley on July 16 for an intensive, hands-on, half-day training in counterweight rigging. Dana Taylor, an ETCP Certified Rigger in Theatre and award-winning trainer, led the workshop, which focused on rigging safety, industry standards, common rigging practices, procedures, equipment, and design.

“Leaders in the field of technical theater like Dana have helped to create and shape training standards that work to educate students and educators alike, while simultaneously increasing the safety of everyone involved in theatrical productions,” notes Perpich’s Theater Education Specialist, Dr. Stephanie Lein Walseth. “This kind of training is invaluable for theater educators across the state, and we are so thrilled that a national convening brought Mr. Taylor to Minnesota, and that we could share his expertise with our arts educators!”

Participants were able to try many aspects of rigging firsthand, and left feeling more confident in everything from hanging lights to knowing terminology, to being able to apply tech and safety standards in their theater spaces. One participant noted, “All of it [the workshop] was great! It was all pretty ‘ah-ha’ for me!”

Special thanks goes to Eastview High School; Technical Director, JJ Miller; and District 196 Community Education for partnering with Perpich to host this workshop in their Performing Arts Center.

Participants practice tying knots during the Counterweight Rigging Workshop with Dana Taylor

Stephanie Lein Walseth, Ph.D. is a theater educator, artist, administrator, and scholar with over 25 years experience working with students and artists of all ages. She has served as an affiliate faculty member at Augsburg University since 2011, and as an instructor and curriculum developer at the University of Minnesota and Penumbra Theatre Company. In the professional theater realm, she served decade-long tenures with Full Circle Theater and Penumbra, worked in leadership roles with Theater Mu/Mu Performing Arts and Mixed Blood Theatre, and served in artistic and/or administrative roles with Sod House Theater, Playwrights’ Center, Guthrie Theater, Native Voices at the Autry, Portland Stage Company, and Oakland Theater Project, among many others. Stephanie received her Ph.D. in Theatre Historiography from the University of Minnesota, and her research focuses on African American, Asian American, and Native American theater, and the institutional politics of relationships between theaters of color and predominantly white institutions. Her writing has appeared in HowlRound, Theatre Topics, e-misférica, The Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance, and the Palgrave anthology Theater, Performance and Change. In her role at Perpich since 2018, Stephanie is pleased to support K-12 and College/University theater educators across the state, as well as all educators interested in using the tools of theater in their pedagogical practice.