Sunday, February 25, 2007
That Night You Opened, and There You Are
New York Times: "THE theater is rich with superstitions. Consider how many actors refuse to call Shakespeare’s Scottish play by its actual title, or those who can’t abide hearing “good luck” instead of “break a leg.” And just as there are things one cannot do in the theater, there are also things one must do: knock on wood, pray, do a headstand. Hey, whatever it takes to calm jittery nerves and ward off bad luck, especially before the most anxiety-filled performance of all: the opening."
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2 comments:
I keep up a lot of the standard superstitions. Not necessarily because I'm superstitious myself, but I really enjoy traditions. The only superstition that I can't seem to abide by is not whistling in the theater. It's too much of a habit for me. There's also noone here scolding me about it, so I just forget.
Theatre superstitions are if nothing else a tradition. Now I'm not necessarily superstitious, but I wouldn't dare risk saying the name of the Scottish Play in a theatre or whistling backstage - I just wouldn't do it. I have heard far to many stories of shows gone horribly wrong or even injuries and death from not heeding these long time superstitions. I heard of a time my mother (before she knew about it) was whistling back stage, and that night of the performance some rigging got all messed up and tangled and something with sandbags and just an overall mess - no one was hurt - but it was a bad situation. So I tend to believe the old theatre superstitions. You can't be too careful.
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