UC San Diego Student Injured in Fall at Theater

The San Diego Fire Department rescued a 33-year-old student who tumbled 20 feet into a pit at Mandel Weiss Theatre Friday. The rescue operation took almost two hours.

Katie Papp fell into the pit, in the back of the theater’s scene shop at UC San Diego, said Michael Kizzee, a campus police officer.

Papp had been painting a canvas to be used as a backdrop. When she moved back to take a look at her work, she inadvertently stepped on a plastic tarp that covered the pit and fell in, Kizzee said.

Styrofoam at the bottom of the pit cushioned her fall. Papp was listed in satisfactory condition at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla with a fractured spine and fractured left heel, said Dave Freeman, a hospital spokesman.

Firemen hoisted Papp from the 30- by 40-foot pit with ropes and pulleys, Kizzee said. At one point, she had to be turned on her side in order to get her through the narrow entrance to the pit.

Papp remained conscious during the whole ordeal although she was shaken by the fall, Kizzee said.

University officials will investigate why the student was painting on top of the stage, rather than inside the pit, Kizzee said. They will also investigate why the pit was not clearly marked and was covered only with a flimsy plastic tarp.