The orchestra pit

California · United States · Theatre

An elderly woman was standing on the stage while the theatre was being built and stepped backwards into the pit.

While this theatre at Lancaster, California was under construction, an elderly woman was standing on the stage.

She stepped back into the orchestra pit, landed on her head, and was killed instantly.

Actors who have performed here say they have seen her downstairs.

An orchestra pit is a hole in the floor at the front of a stage, and during construction it is an unguarded drop of eight or ten feet with nothing to mark it. Anybody who has walked a bare stage before the edge protection goes up knows exactly how this happens.

What is unusual is who it happened to. She was not a workman. She was an elderly woman standing on a stage, presumably looking at what the town was building.

Lancaster is in the Antelope Valley, and the theatre was part of an effort to give a fast growing desert city a centre.

The theatre is open.

FAQ

Where is The orchestra pit located?

The orchestra pit is in California, United States.