For Immediate
Release
New Theatre Health and Safety Website Launched by Theatre
Ontario
With financial support from The Ontario Trillium Foundation
over three years (2001-2004), Theatre Ontario created
a bold new initiative called To Act in Safety that delivers
health and safety training to people at every stage
of their theatre career and offers practical and accessible
tools, and best practices that can be freely shared
in cultural organizations all over Ontario.
Theatre Ontario’s new health and safety website
offers all of these resources free of charge at www.theatresafety.ca.
Resources available on the website include: Suggested
Health and Safety Commitment Policy; Theatre Manager's
Guide to the Ontario Building Code; Accident Reports;
Emergency Evacuation Planning For Your Theatre; Best
Practices for Lighting, Sound and various Shops; Using
Pyrotechnics On Stage; WHMIS training tools; and a number
of resources suitable for high school teachers.
Also, through the To Act In Safety program, Theatre
Ontario has:
Completed extensive surveys examining the health and
safety practices and policies of theatres all over Ontario
- professional theatres, amateur theatres, municipal
theatres, theatre training institutions and touring
facilities.
Delivered first aid training to over 380 theatre volunteers
and theatre workers in 20 communities around Ontario.
Worked with a team of health and safety theatre consultants
to visit over 100 theatres in over 50 cities and towns
in Ontario to deliver training and help create and implement
health and safety policies and procedures specific to
their theatre’s needs.
Worked with over 800 people in one-on-one health and
safety audits and health and safety policy development
at theatres around Ontario and offered specialized training
in WHMIS, fall protection, operation of lifts or firearms/pyrotechnics
use.
Collected a library of resources in health and safety
specific to theatre that is available to the general
public at Theatre Ontario’s Toronto offices.
Developed new health and safety resources which are
available free of charge from their new health and safety
website www.theatresafety.ca.
Created new health and safety training resources that
offer an easy-to-understand summary of a theatre’s
liability and risk issues, best practices and checklists
that make health and safety practices easy to implement.
Worked with Humber College’s Arts Administration/Cultural
Management program to develop a new continuing education
course, Health and Safety in the Arts.
Organized a network of theatres with knowledgeable leaders
and consultants available to work with theatres on health
and safety issues in the future.
Theatres all over Ontario have been generous in sharing
their best practices and excellent resources in order
to help other theatres improve their health and safety
practices. Special thanks to Brock Centre for the Arts,
Centrepointe Theatre, Canadian Actors’ Equity
Association, CAPACOA, CCI - Ontario’s Presenting
Network, CITT, Drayton Entertainment, Markham Theatre
for Performing Arts, National Arts Centre, Newmarket
Theatre, Odyssey Theatre, ORSAC, Ontario Service Safety
Alliance, Professional Association of Canadian Theatres,
Port Stanley Festival Theatre, Shaw Festival, Stratford
Festival and Toronto Theatre Alliance for sharing their
resources and offering training opportunities for their
members.
Theatre Ontario gratefully acknowledges the financial
support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency
of the Ministry of Culture, receives annually $100 million
of government funding generated through Ontario's charity
casino initiative. The Foundation provides grants to
eligible charitable and not-for-profit organizations
in the arts, culture, sports, recreation, environment
and social service sectors.
Special thanks to our steering committee for their
guidance throughout the project: Theatre Ontario’s
Community Theatre Committee, Josephine Hall at St. John
Ambulance, Association of Summer Theatres ‘Round
Ontario (ASTRO), Ontario Service Safety Alliance, Ontario
Advisory Committee for Health and Safety in Live Performance,
and Janet Sellery, Health and Safety Manager at the
Stratford Festival.
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John Watson
Communications and
Membership Coordinator
_______________________
Theatre Ontario
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 210
Toronto ON M5T 2C7
phone: 416-408-4556
fax: 416-408-3402
www.theatreontario.org
[email protected]
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