Circus and Acrobatic Arts Editing and Proofreading Services

A venue technical manager has ninety minutes to decide whether an aerial act can hang from their roof. They are not a rigger, they have a structural report from 1998 in a drawer, and the company has sent a poster. What they need is a load figure, a point count, a method, and the name of the person who will be responsible when the rope goes up.

We edit what circus companies, aerialists and physical performers produce — rigging method statements and risk assessments, technical specifications and venue liaison documents, load and point requirements, insurance and certification summaries, touring and get-in schedules, funding applications and touring proposals, education and workshop documentation, and the show descriptions that go to programmers. Our editors work on documents that decide whether a show can happen in a building.

The rigging method statement is the document that gets a company into a venue, and its failure is a description of the act where a description of the loads should be. A technical manager cannot approve enthusiasm. We work through these so the requirement is stated as points, positions and loads, with the static and dynamic figures separated, since a mass hanging still and the same mass in a drop are different numbers and it is the second one that matters; so the equipment is specified by type and rating with certification dates, because a manager checking one thing will check this; so the method is written as a sequence with who does what and in what order, given that the rigging call is where injuries happen and an unwritten sequence is improvised; so the competent person is named with their qualification and the limit of their authority, as "our rigger" is not a person until they have a name; so the inspection regime is stated — pre-show checks, who signs, what stops the show — since this is the part venues most often find missing; so the emergency procedure covers rescue from height with the equipment and the time it takes, given that a plan that ends at "call for help" is not a plan; so alternatives are offered where a venue cannot meet the ideal, because a company that can present a floor-based version keeps the booking; and so the whole document is short enough to be read in the ninety minutes available. Statements written this way get shows into buildings.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including technical documents, risk assessments and incident material. We are editors rather than riggers, engineers or safety practitioners, and we offer no view on rigging, loads, equipment or safety. What we can do is put the venue's questions in the order they will be asked.