Shakespearean theatre superstitions

This week we learned in class that in the Elizabethan era, women were not allowed to preform on stage. This got me thinking of the superstition of it being bad luck for a woman to come onboard a ship and of superstitions like that one. I know that it is not for superstitious purposes that a woman isn’t allowed on stage but it got me wondering what other superstitions are there in the theatre business.

The Scottish play, aka Macbeth, holds one of the greatest superstitions of all. This is a superstition that has been around since the first performance of the Scottish play, when the actor playing the role of lord Macbeth was stabbed with a real dagger instead of the prop one. Apparently if an actor says the name ‘Macbeth’ or quotes a line from this famous play – preferably one of the witches incantations backstage or on stage, then the play that is being preformed will go terribly wrong for it is now cursed.

There is a fairly simple way to reverse the curse which is to leave the theatre, turn around three times, spit over your left shoulder and swear, and then knock to be allowed back in the theatre.

Another superstition is that it is in fact bad luck to wish someone good luck. This is because of the rule of a jinx. What used to happen is before every show that happened, all of the crew would get together and try to avert the bad luck by wishing the whole crew bad luck and by therefore making it in fact good . This is where the expression break a leg comes from. If someone tells another ‘good luck’ both people must leave the theatre, and do the same ritual as mentioned earlier.

The last weird superstition I’m going to talk about is whistling both onstage, in the audience, or backstage. The superstition is this: Apparently of one whistles in the theatre, it is very bad luck and someone will get fired. The reasoning behind this is it wasn’t good to whistle in the theatre because before there were walking talkies to communicate, people whistled different notes to tell other crew members what and when their cues are. If you were to whistle, a crew member might think that that is there cue and then could drop a heavy prop on someone’s head. Though this hazard has been averted thanks to Walkie talkies and other means of communication it is still considered bad luck.

My sources for this assignment are  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scottish_Play http://listverse.com/2010/08/20/top-10-theater-superstitions/