Theatre Superstitions

Hi everyone. I am doing an article for the school newspaper about superstitions and I was wondering if you could give me some theatre superstitions (non-theatre is okay too) ann if you know the whys and hows of these superstitions that would be great. Thanks!
Sorry if this has been done recently.

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In ballet, whistling in the theatre is considered bad luck. We also say "merde" in lieu of "good luck" or "break a leg".

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for me and the theater i take part in we dont say "break a leg"..because odd cowincidence maybe..but a few years ago one of the mothers told her daughter to break a leg..and low and behind during her energetic entrance she fell..and well..broke her leg. haha now thanks to an 80's song one of our directors was telling us about.. we all say "rock the casba" <-(spelling?)

does nyone know the ritual you are supposed to do when you say MACBETH in the theatre?

Along the lines of turn around three times, leave the dressing room (or area) and ask and then be granted permission to reenter.

The only times one is allowed to quote from The Scottish Play is onstage in rehearsal or performance. The English are quite fervent about this.

I was a big fan of knocking wood. Once I did a production of The Scottish Play with a steel set. Fortunately the floor is almost always wood.

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Jacob--that's an interesting ritual you have. Hope you're cool about it though--I did summer stock at this theater and one guy in the company, I swear, before every performance, all like, fifty of them, had to shake everyone's hand and say "have a good show." And this guy was kinda weird anyway, so you can imagine that after the first month, it got rather annoying.

ANYHOO...I'm not really a big believer in superstition anyway, so you all can do whatever you want.

There's actually a book entitled Ghost Light. I have it, but haven't read it yet. I think it's more of a right up about growing up around theatre, but it probably covers the superstition about the light. Technically, it's a saftey feature (so no one falls in the pit or trips on the stage), but I always thought that the superstition was that the ghost light was to keep ghosts out.

Also, what I've been taught about the McB superstition is another variation of the three times thing. You have to run outside (completely--not just into the lobby) and spin around three times backwards. Then you have to be given permission to re-enter the space.

What happened?

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on the "break a leg" tradition. My understanding is that it is in reference to the curtain call. The curtains on each side of the stage are called "legs." So, during the curtain call, you want to have made such an impression that the audience goes wild and continues to cheer and applaud so long that the "legs" are "broken" open again for an extra bow. if you are really good, you can break a leg several times.

i've also heard that it's in reference to an actual physical injury. this part of the superstition believes that if you wish something good for an actor then they will be jinxed for the show and something bad will happen. with this theory, actors say "break a leg" in order not to jinx them. to me, that doesn't make much sense, so I prefer the above argument.

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about the Scottis hPlay, what my Drama teacher told us we had to do was this: Spin around three times and say "may fair thoughts and happy hours attend thee," three times. We didnt have to leave or ask permission to re-enter.

Also, before each performance, my school always got in a circle and we would yell "energy, energy, energy!" while (gently) pounding the back of the person in front of us. Is that werid? =)

ok for what happened- sorry i ran away- but on the night we were being judged.. the gun didnt fire (the whole basis of the play) our dead personw as breathing and you could hear it from the mics, i got the chicken poxs (week before the play) and someone had to fillin, the cast skipped 5 pages of the dialog and didnt cover for it, and our stage manager got hit in the head with a collumn from the set. and the phone never rang. we dont talk about that play- its the play that shalt not be named.

we also do a silent "energy" thing were we pass the squeze with our arms crossed and ask albert (theater ghost) for a good show. Its a cool thing because the whole room is silent and all you feel is the engery and the nervousness and its great.

... and still another
more superstitions

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In high school, our MacDeath-negating ritual was to run around the auditorium three times. I remember once, for our last performance of "Peter Pan," a few techies decided to be smart-asses and ran around shouting the Scottish curse a zillion times before the show. Know what happened? Our backup TInkerbell burned out and we had to use a spotlight, a kid nearly fell in the pit, the window into the nursery broke during a scene change, and a girl got hit on the head with a batten. If that ain't proof of the curse, I don't know what is.

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