Focal Press Book: Mechanical Design for the Stage by Alan Hendrickson

In Mechanical Design for the Stage, author and Yale professor Alan Hendrickson provides basic engineering formulas needed to predict the force, torque, speed, and power required for various theatrical effects.  This softcover book gives technicians design processes to follow which will direct their work from being generally conceptual to specifically detailed, showing many examples of stage machines along the way.

Scenic theatrical effects involve rotating turntables, tracking stage wagons, and other machines.  Driving these could be small pneumatic cylinders pushing loads of a few pounds an inch or 40 horsepower winches running scenery weighing many tons at speeds greater than 6'/second.  This book serves as a reference work to specifically address the issues involved in the theatre.

Author Alan Hendrickson is an adjunct Professor of Technical Design and Production at the Yale School of Drama, and an independent consultant in scenery mechanization and control since 1984. Classes taught at Yale include Physics of Stage Machinery, Automation Control, Pneumatics and Hydraulics, and Mechanical Design for Theatre Applications. His outside consultant work includes hydraulic, control, and mechanical design for effects running on Broadway, national tour, and regional theatre shows..