You’ve probably had it happen to you, and if you haven’t, you will.  You’re watching the stage during a performance of your show, when suddenly a section of the stage gets darker.  You know you didn’t touch anything, so you start frantically checking the light board monitor to make sure you’re in the right cue and everything is on that is supposed to be.  Suddenly a sense of horror washes over you as you realize you must have blown a breaker.

Blowing a breaker during a performance is mostly avoidable.  Make sure you don’t overload any of your dimmer channels.  Test your design in real-time during a rehearsal so you know that there shouldn’t be any surprises.  Sometimes, however, someone miscalculates a load, a lamp blows and briefly draws extra current, or somebody kicks something backstage that causes an electrical fault.  If a breaker does blow, you want to be able to reset it as quickly as possible.

Find your dimmer packs long before opening night.  Hopefully they’re somewhere where you or another techie can get to them without having to go too far or sneak through the house.  If they’re near the booth, make sure the lighting operator knows where they are and how to reset them.  If they’re backstage, show the stage crew and warn them that they may get the call to reset one. If they’re in an electrical room or some area with a locking door, check to make sure that that door is unlocked before every performance.

If you’re using portable dimmer packs with onboard breakers that are hanging in the air, then things get a little less convenient.  You may have to wait until a long scene change to sneak out with a ladder.  Another option you might want to consider is having a breaker-resetting stick handy (no, that’s not a joke).

Resetting the breaker should restore the lights that are supposed to be on, but you should consider what made it blow in the first place:

• Lamps usually fail as an open, not a short, so in the rare event that a blown lamp caused the breaker to trip, you shouldn’t have any problem after it’s been reset (other than missing a lamp).
• If you’ve overloaded the dimmer, you need to figure out a way to reduce the load on that dimmer or the breaker will trip again.  About the only option you have in the middle of the show is to re-patch the dimmer at a lower percentage (so when the channel is at full the dimmer is only at 80% or so).  If you’re not sure how to do that in a pinch, just bring the Grand Master fader down to 80%.  You’ll have a dim show, but it may be a better option than completely losing a critical set of lights.
• If you have an electrical problem somewhere, then it’s most likely going to have to wait until the show is over (or maybe intermission if you know where to find it).

Whatever the case, if you reset a tripped breaker and it blows again, just leave it.  There is obviously something wrong, and those breakers are there as a safety precaution.