We hope you remember to change the library hours in your schedule. For now though let’s learn a few more theater superstitions. Flowers are always seen as being given after a performance, but its taboo before the performance. Giving a performer flowers is one of the great traditions of the theater. It’s a way of telling an actor/actress that you loved what they did on stage. Flowers should only be bestowed upon performers, directors and playwrights after a show plays in front of the audience and the artists have earned their accolades. Tradition opposes rewarding an actor for their work before they have delivered it. To do so beforehand tempts the fates to intercede and ensure a lackluster show.
Which leads us to a rather odd tradition that has faded over time – giving the director a bouquet of flowers stolen from a graveyard upon a show’s closing. When a theater production closes, it is considered good luck to give the director a bouquet of flowers stolen from a graveyard. This symbolic gesture denotes the end of a production or its death. Historically, actors did not make a lot of money, so this might have been an inexpensive way to say thank you to the director.
A person is never supposed to wish an actor “good luck”. There are many theories on the origins of ‘Break a leg’; including it was another way to say ‘take a bow’. Theater folk also believe there are mischief-making spirits of the stage who use their magic to force the opposite of what you wish to happen. Phrases like “break a leg” are meant to confuse these theatrical pixies and defeat their obstinate ways. A wish for something bad will yield something good from them.
Another theory comes from the idea that the word leg does not refer to an actor’s leg, but to the theatrical curtains that mask the backstage that are known as “legs.” “Breaking a leg” means you’ve crossed from the backstage into the playing area, the ultimate goal of an actor – entering the spotlight.
It has also been traced back to 1766 when Samuel Foote, the Manager of the London’s Little Theatre, was thrown from his horse and broke his leg. Foote had been riding with the Duke of York, who had given Foote a bad horse as a prank. The Duke of York felt so bad about the accident he granted Foote the theatre license he had spent years lobbying for. The Little Theatre became the Theatre Royal Haymarket and the saying ‘Break a leg’ came to represent achieving success out of disaster.
Other theories support that “break a leg” goes much further back, perhaps to Elizabethan England, where audiences threw money when they enjoyed a performance (fruits and vegetables for a bad one). Actors would have to bend over to collect their rewards, thus breaking the line of their leg. Money = Breaking legs = Success.
Never say Macbeth in a theatre. Even whispering the name of one of William Shakespeare’s bloodiest plays inside a theatre is a most egregious taboo. In fact, to do so will raise the ire of most theatre folk to a panic. Saying ‘Macbeth’ in the theatre is believed to curse a production, most thespians refer to it instead as ‘The Scottish Play’. Recent Macbeth disasters include an actor being struck by Kenneth Branagh’s sword during his 2013 production.
Why is saying Macbeth a theatrical no-no? There are a variety of speculations as to why saying the play’s name in a theatre is considered bad luck. One possible genesis for this superstition comes from the incantations of the three witches in Macbeth. It is believed that Shakespeare adapted these spells from actual books of black magic. This opened the play up to forces of darkness which are supposed to plague productions of what most now refer to as “The Scottish Play.”
Another theory claims that the actor playing Macbeth in the original production died in an accident, and Shakespeare, himself, had to go on in his place. It is believed that all subsequent productions are now haunted by this actor and his dismal fate.
If you do make the mistake of saying “Macbeth” in a theatre, there are some counter curses to ward off doom. One such counter curse is to go outside the theatre, spin around in a circle three times and spit. Another antidote: Recite any line from Two Gentlemen of Verona (considered a lucky play) or this line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended, that you have but slumbered here, whilst these visions did appear.”
Whistling backstage in a theatre is considered a jinx. This superstition grows out of practicality. In the good old days of theater, scenery was manually lifted into the air by men hoisting it with ropes as there weren’t advanced rigging systems to make it safer and easier. Flying set pieces began appearing in theatres In the 1600s. The first Venetian Opera House opened in 1637 and travelers reported back that they had seen “admirable change(s) of scenery, noble settings of the riches kind, machines and wonderful flying chariots”.
Seventeenth century sailors often found employment rigging and flying in theatres. As on a ship, they used to communicate with each other through whistles, different whistles meaning commands like ‘bring the set in’ and ‘all clear’. An actor who whistled backstage might accidentally cue a stagehand to lift or drop scenery, potentially putting an unaware performer at risk of being crushed by a wall or a sandbag. The best way to make sure you didn’t become a theatre ghost was to refrain from whistling altogether. The rule has stuck and become a superstition.
The idea that blue should never be worn on stage is a superstition that many have not heard of. Perhaps this myth has not survived as strongly as other superstitions because the reason behind it is no longer relevant. At one point in theater history, blue dye was the most expensive of all the fabric colorings and difficult to make.
A theatre troupe’s success was often judged by its ability to afford blue costumes. In an effort to deceive audiences into believing they were more successful than they actually were, failing troupes would spend the money they had to procure blue costumes. In order to make the distinction, successful troupes began pairing blue costumes with silver adornments, since only a flourishing troupe could afford such a luxury. Producers, in an effort to discourage the spending of money on such luxuries, started a rumor that blue costumes were unlucky. Even then, the economics of theater were a dicey risk. Today, blue is still thought of as a sign of failure and an unlucky costume color and is only acceptable when paired with silver.
A few other theatre superstitions include: Never apply make-up with a rabbit’s foot. Never say the last lines of a show before opening night. Never paint the Green Room green. Never open a show on a Friday. Never place shoes or hats on dressing room furniture. Never knit in the wings. Never wear new make-up on opening night. Never say the Theatre is closed (that could invoke the plague) instead say it’s ‘dark’. And NEVER exit the dressing room right foot first. And so we shall exit stage left on our left foot?
One more, but it’s not a superstition. You will be left in the dark if you don’t change to the Library’s winter hours on September 6th. Monday 9-1; 2-6, Tuesday 9-1; 3-5, Wednesday – Friday 2-5. So exit summer we a goin. Hope you exit right to see us in September.