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Night Light for Poltergeists

A “ghost light” is a single bulb on a post left shining onstage. It is always present when no one is at the theatre. It is said that the blub is left burning for the ghosts that reside in the theatre. Without it, the ghosts will become angry for being left in the dark and will cause accidents to occur during the next performance. A practical use of the light is to have it already lit it when entering a dark theatre. This way, you will not stumble backstage and hurt yourself.

“Good Luck” is Bad Luck

Instead of wishing an actor, “Good luck,” one should always tell him or her to, “Break a leg!” There are many theories where this term comes from; here are a couple: When bowing, one leg is placed behind the other and the knee is bent, thus “breaking” the leg. To wish this means to wish that the actor’s performance is so well done that they may bow multiple times. Wooden boards called legs were once swen into curtains so they would not billow up. Therefore wishing someone to break a leg would wish them to have the audience clapping so long that they demand multiple bows.

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Moment of Reflection

Mirrors onstage are bad luck in a performance. Since ancient times, mirrors have said to be windows into the soul. With all of the chaos backstage during the run of a show, it is likely that something so fragile could easily be broken and bring the common theory of 7 years of bad luck. The main reason mirrors are avioded is because of the intense lighting that comes with performances. No one wants to be blinded by the reflection off of the mirror.

Power of Flowers

There are many superstitions about flowers in theatre. For instance, giving flowers before a performance is bad luck because the actors have not earned them yet. Secondly, no live flowers should be used onstage for a performance. The practicality behind this superstition is that the heat from the stage lights will make the flowers wilt every peformance. The oddest superstition is that it is considered good luck to give the leading lady or director flowers stolen from a graveyard after the closing performance. This symbolizes the death of the performance and that it can now be put to rest.

Title Trouble

Saying “Macbeth” will bring extreme bad luck to a performance. There are witches within this show and it is said that when Shakespeare first had it performed, real witches of his time were less than flattered and cursed the show. Some people believe that because there is more swordplay in this show than any other Shakesperian work, there is more chance for error and therefore already a risk of bad luck in the show. The show itself is often refered to as “the Scottish play.”

Paw-sitive Impact

Black cats that cross your path are omens for bad luck, correct? This is not the case for thespians. Black cats bring exceedingly good luck to actors. The “black cat experience” has said to have brought many actors to perform their best shows. There is no logical reason for this superstition, but whoever said that theatre folks always had to make sense?

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