The Night-of Emergency Plan Every Director Should Have Written Down

By Jim Cook

Mid-pageant, halfway through the Talent segment, the fire alarm starts. Or the power dies. Or a contestant faints. Or a parent reports their daughter can't be found backstage. Everyone in the room looks at you. What do you do?

You do whatever you wrote down three months ago, when you weren't panicked. The reason directors panic in emergencies isn't lack of courage — it's lack of a plan. Write the plan in advance, and the emergency becomes just another thing to execute.

The Emergencies to Plan For

1. Fire or evacuation. Know your venue's evacuation route. Know the muster point. Brief your volunteers on who takes charge of which contestants in the event of an evacuation. Rehearse — even just verbally.
2. Medical emergency. Have a nurse or EMT on site, or at minimum know where the AED is and how to call emergency services in the venue. First-aid kit backstage.
3. AV failure. Backup audio (even a Bluetooth speaker). Flashlights. A way to announce without a microphone. Practice what "no AV" looks like so you're not scrambling.
4. Missing contestant. A check-in protocol. Every contestant signs in on arrival and stays with a designated adult. If one is missing, stage manager pauses the show silently, backstage wrangler searches, parents contacted only after ninety seconds of unsuccessful search.
5. Weather delays. A communication template ready to send to contestants and parents. Your venue's policy on rescheduling.
6. Hostile audience member. Security contact, venue staff protocol, and clear rules about when and how to remove someone. Know this before you need it.

Where the Plan Lives

One page, laminated, backstage. Every volunteer has seen it. Your phone has a photo of it. Your stage manager has a printed copy. It is not in your head.

What's at Stake

Emergencies handled well become stories. Emergencies handled poorly become reasons pageants don't run again. The plan costs you one afternoon to write. Not writing it could cost you the pageant.