November 10, 2023 • 27 mins
During Break A Leg we talked about different professions and their superstitions. We did not have enough time to get to the full interview with our Stage Manager so we wanted to bring you the full discussion in the bonus material!
Ever wonder why you don't whistle backstage? Or why you don't EVER mention the Scottish play's name during a show? Have you ever heard of a Ghost Light? In this first clip we talk to a professional Stage Manager who gives us information about all of this and more!
Our second clip is an interview between the Stage Manager and her wife the Actress/Director. They give us more fun facts and fascinating answers about the theater and their careers.
So, settle in theater fans and thespians, as we journey into our Bonus Clips!
Interact with us at myunoriginalthoughtpodcast@gmail.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Oh yeah, bonus.
Hello podcast family.
This is your unoriginal host,afton Jay.
Thanks for tuning in to ourbonus clips.
(00:40):
During this extra time together, I'll share interesting
interviews and information thatdidn't make it into the final
episodes.
During the creation of eachepisode, there is always so much
extra material and I want toshare it because it's really
interesting, but unfortunatelysometimes we just don't have
time or there wasn't a place forit in the final cut.
These bonus episodes arecreated to help you learn and
(01:03):
laugh a little more.
I hope you enjoy the next twoclips.
We speak with friends that havecareers in the theater.
We have so much informationabout the theater superstitions
and more.
If you are interested in someincredible theater fun facts,
stick around.
Our first friend is a stagemanager, and the second clip is
the stage manager and her wife,the actress, along with her dog
(01:26):
Max, who is enthusiasticallysqueaking in the background.
We get an inside look into theworld of theater superstition.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So there's a lot of superstitions around theater and
saying good luck is one of them, and it's been replaced by
break a leg, as far as I'mtracking.
Yeah, so it's interesting.
You talked about ballet dancersbecause that was part of the
research.
Do you know what that means,mary?
Yeah, it means so a lot of whatyou do in ballet are in French,
so married in French, shit.
(01:57):
So it's kind of like a weirdthing.
But as far as I'm tracking,that's because of like when,
like in the older days, when wehad carriages and stuff, there
was all that shit that would beoutside the theater, so you
would say married, and that waskind of in reference to that.
As far as I'm tracking might betotally off base, but I thought
that something to do withhorses and carriages outside
ballets.
You are 100% not wrong.
(02:20):
This was one of those facts thatlike blew my mind.
I was like that's so crazy, andyeah such an old tradition and
yeah still do today.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's kind oflike the whistling in theater
and all that and you know, likenot saying like we always say
Mackers now, because we don'twant to, we don't want to say
the Scottish plays name, butyeah, it's like one of those
superstitions too.
(02:40):
So so is there anything thatyou specifically have a
superstition about that youalways follow for good luck?
Oh God, the Mackers one is big,like I don't even care for in a
theater, or Jason, I don't evenwant to say it like obviously
I'm not saying it now.
I'm on a phone call right and Ihave like theater friends who
are just like saying it left andright and I'm like, oh, my God,
(03:01):
please knock on something.
And like we did a show where wehad TV and film people on our
crew and they said it and thenlike everything that could go
wrong on the show, like we hadbullhorns going off, we had all
this stuff like things breaking,and I was like just
confirmation bias probably, oflike doing the thing.
So for me that's that's kind ofthe big one.
(03:22):
Obviously, we still say break aleg.
I think that's more justbecause that's culturally what
happens, rather than it's asuperstition anymore, like I
don't necessarily think there'sanything about if you were to
say good luck in a theater, butyeah, I think I think the
Mackers one is the one that'skind of helped the most.
True for everybody.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like yeah.
And I think that's why,especially when you're looking
in dangerous environments, likepeople don't realize that
(03:44):
theater is actually dangerous.
I mean, if you're lifting a setpiece and it's hundreds of
pounds, like you don't want todrop it on somebody, and so I
think it makes sense, though,like no whistling thing.
It makes sense that you're like, let's say, break a leg because
you know all of these things,and it's just, it is.
It is weirdly Dangerous thethings we do and you're trying
to make things as safe aspossible and I think adding in a
few like bits of good luck Intothat thing I think is isn't
(04:08):
gonna hurt anything, right, youknow?
And I know there are people whoscoff at it like, oh, I don't
care about any of this, I'mgonna say good luck 500 times in
the theater and we'll be fine,and I'm like I feel like you're
just tempting fate.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I feel like you're just asking.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
You're just asking for that shit to happen in this
run.
You know what I mean?
And I think I mean I've hadrun-throughs where, um, like
when I was in Korea I wasworking, I was stage managing a
show and we every show had umLifesavers, like the soft chewy
one, and we had a bag of themand we're passing around the
show and we had a show where wedidn't have life saver gummies
and I was like, yeah, I didn'thave a chance to run to the shop
(04:39):
that and grab them.
It's like okay, no problem.
And like I swear to you, thatshow had so many things go wrong
with it.
Like we had the breakers blow.
We had just all this crazystuff.
And everyone looked at me and Iwas like, you know, I'm gonna
get the life saver gummies nexttime and every show I got those
life saver gummies.
We were good, right, and whoknows, probably not the life
saver gummies, but it felt likeit during that run.
Right and so it was 100% thelife saver gummies statistically
(05:02):
.
Yeah, I mean, who knows, but INot gonna get the thing.
I was like, yeah, we don't needgummies, like we're getting fat
, like we don't need to befucking eating candy all the
time, and then I don't have thatstuff.
Like all of a sudden, like youknow, like nothing is working
right and it's like and that'sthe and that's the thing with,
like life theater and that's thething with military operations
and sports, right, like there'sjust so many things that can't
(05:24):
go wrong, but you're like tryingto make it as successful as
possible, right?
So like, don't say that, justlike, just do the thing to make
it, make it fine, you know, yeah, yeah, whatever it takes, life
saver gummies or the keyword orwhatever like just do it.
Yeah, just please, just please,just get us through this thing.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I don't want it.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I don't want it to happen.
So just for the record, cuz Ishould have started with this, I
should have started with whatyou do.
That way you're like morecredible so like what.
Like random, like theater,weirdo, that like super fan,
super fan.
So what do you do?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
in the theater.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yes, so I'm a professional stage manager.
I have had the huge honor like,growing up in LA, I always did
theater, some fashion, and so Iwas always on crew.
Sometimes I had to perform,which we're not going to talk
about.
I'm in LA for grad school, forgetting my MFA in stage
management, and I'm down hereand now I'm working full-time.
So, yeah, and so like I think Ithink SM's like we're, we're
(06:26):
like kind of technical people,but there's like an art and a
science to stage management, andso I think that's also why
maybe we're also a littlesuperstitious, like we just we
just don't want to tempt, temptthe things you know, mm-hmm.
Yeah, you have a pivotal rolein this theater production like
don't tempt it.
Yeah, because we're the onesthat have to like, because, I
mean, obviously there is a wholeteam of people making
(06:47):
productions come to life, but weare the ones that are In charge
of making the final call.
So if we have to hold a show,that's on us.
If an actor goes down, we haveto figure out a way to get it
another actor like an understudyor a swing or a cover it in on
In.
Instead.
If tech isn't working, we'rethe ones that are helping the
troubleshoot and figure out thecontingency plan.
We also create a lot of thecontingency plans.
(07:08):
We also have assets with, youknow, our technical directors
and other subject matter expertsback in the day.
It's on us to execute.
So I also am like, you know, ifI'm, if I've got to be the one
that's holding this bag when itall goes to shit, like I want to
make sure that I'm not addingmore stuff or to go wrong.
You know, yeah, yeah, that's sofunny, it's uh, yeah.
(07:29):
So you're talking about, like,where does it come from?
Right, and I did see.
I thought it came from.
I would assume it would havecome from the theater as well,
like six period times or like.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
When you know all that stuff was like really,
really in a payday.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It's not all the research that I've done.
They actually think it camefrom either horse-shocking or
pilots.
Yeah, so like the early, and itall kind of started on the
1900s I thought it would havestarted way earlier than that.
But they cannot find either aliterary or like a cultural
(08:02):
Saying reference to break a leguntil the early 1900s and that
was my thought was like I feellike we assume it Shakespeare.
But I was like I know a lot oftheater superstitions come from
the industrial age, so right.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's like the horsejockeything, like it should have an
emagghting.
Like hey, like the mostsuperstitious people on the
planet are horsejockey who, likethey need good luck to win.
And so they were.
There's like a couple ofdifferent things they thought
the origin was from, like onecould have been.
Like it's either like hey, likewhen you, you know, when you
(08:38):
break a leg on the finish line,so like it's a good thing, like
hey, break a leg, like I hopeyou win oh right, right, because
of the photo, finish and allthat right when the leg has to
pass or whatever, right, or?
or it was like when you start, Iguess a lot of the times the
horsejockeys would you know, tryto like get as close as they
could to the start line and soback in the day, when it wasn't
(08:59):
such a big deal to like breakthe start line, you know, back
before they have like all theselike really hard rules, like you
would kind of let your horsebreak the start line with its
leg, like break a leg for goodluck.
So one of those two, or theythink it might have come from
German fighter pilots, which isweird.
So apparently there's like aYiddish saying which I will not
attempt to pronounce in yourpresence.
(09:22):
My terrible view for not knowingthe Yiddish thing.
I don't know, I don't know ifyou are like, I want to like say
the word and you're like afterthat you know, but I'm like I'm
wondering, like if I call my momand I'm like did you know,
break a leg, come from Yiddish,and my mom's going to be like oh
yeah, totally.
Or she's going to be like what?
Like you know what I mean?
Like I'm like, are we justterrible at our own languages?
Like I don't know.
I mean maybe, like I, maybe Ishould just pass this to your
(09:42):
mom you know like it's like asniff test, like is this true or
are we like making this up?
But yeah, so the break a legthing.
I guess I could attempt to saythe word to you, although it's
I'm probably going to like 100%not say it right, but it means
okay, it might just gotta saythat girl, I, you know, I can't
(10:04):
say that word like 16 yearslater.
It's like it's still eludes methe pronunciation of the holiday
, which I will not attempt atthe time on a recording.
Okay, so the Yiddish phrase, orHebrew blessing, namely hot
salakha, you brought up.
(10:24):
Literally translated meansuccess and blessing.
How close, okay, I mean, Ithink I think it was a, it was a
good attempt.
You know, hebrew is a very hardlanguage.
Yeah, I take feedback.
Yeah, I'm not also going to saybecause now I'm going to be
(10:46):
like, but I think we have toremember that that Hebrew is
like kind of very flimmy, right,there's like a lot of ha sounds
in there, and I think that ismaybe the only thing you're
missing, okay, so, so what doyou think I was trying to say?
Hot salakha, you brought up.
I can't even say it, because now, like now that you're doing it,
(11:07):
I'm like is this even a thing?
How do I speak Hebrew now?
Um, no, I do.
I do know what you're referringto and that makes sense.
I just didn't realize that thatrelated to break a leg, like I
didn't realize that there was acorrelation there, you know.
So this is and this is wherethey think the correlation may
have happened.
So, literally translated, thatmeans success and blessing, it
(11:29):
says Hebrew.
Blessings often convey wellwishes and positive statements,
which is like super nice, right.
But then at some point someGerman people do converted that,
or they heard it, they areconverted it on accident, or
they heard it and they weremaking fun of it.
Like there's no real like pointwhere it says definitively but
the German phrase is Hals UnledRöckeck, which I maybe, if I
(11:54):
actually heard the correctpronunciation.
They sound the same, but to methey don't, which might have
been a phonetic accent or ironicplan words, but that translates
to neck and leg break.
So pilots would, before theywent to go fly like the
Luftwaffe.
They would say neck and legbreak in German to each other as
like a sign of good luck thatthey would come back unscathed.
(12:16):
Yeah, and to me that's stillsomething fate, with both the
jockeys and the pilots Like I'mlike why am I?
That'd be like us, like aspilots, wishing each other like
hope you crash.
You're like thanks, well, yeah,but you tell people in the
theater to break a leg.
I know, but it just feels worsewhen you're in an airplane.
Like it just feels so muchworse when.
I'm not on the ground.
(12:38):
I hope you break your neck andcrash the thing into the ground.
You're like cool, Thanks bro.
Well, I'm glad that you guyscan stay in the theater, but we
cannot say it as pilots.
Like I just feel like who has abetter?
Like I think, if I'm worryingabout statistics, like I feel
like more pilots die thantheater people, right, and so
like I think it's just like, Ithink it's like more, it's more
(12:59):
of an ironic thing in theaterthan it is with pilots, Like I
don't know, it just feels morescary with pilots.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, I'm just like like I'd really like to know,
like where it started, althoughyou know a lot of pilot
traditions or just whatever likemaybe these guys were like
super superstitious.
So yeah, and I was like there's.
I was like there's no waythat's true, like you and I both
are pretty big into aviation,aviation history and whatever.
So I looked it up in a lot ofthe like German fighter pilots
(13:27):
in their autobiographies, likethis is something they said to
each other I was like no way.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
It's so crazy Um they don't know why they lost the
war.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
But maybe we look into why that's.
One of the reasons why theylost the war is because they
were so they had to stop sayingit and we like gave it to the
theater, like, ah, we can't useit anymore, I'm punching you.
You all take it.
No one's fighting more thantheater.
Yeah, I was like this is likeit was.
It was so crazy and so like Idon't.
(13:58):
It just led me down this likeweird rabbit hole of like so.
Now I want to ask theater peoplelike I almost want to like go
up to theater people today andbe like do you know the origins
of this thing?
Cause, like I feel like everytheater person is going to is
going to have the wrong.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
This is the point of the podcast.
Oh, you know, it's a bigsuperstition in theater that I
totally bypassed.
That we do to this day is theghost light.
The ghost light is a huge thingin theater Like ghost light.
I've never heard of ghost light, yeah.
Yeah, I thought that theatersare haunted DG Devices is kind
of like the whistling thing.
(14:32):
But there's a thought thattheaters are haunted for
whatever reason, and so younever leave a theater completely
in the dark because you don'twant the ghosts to take over.
So we have what's called aghost light and, as crew, one of
our things we do at the end ofevery night is you put a light
on stage that has like a littlebit of illumination, and then
you leave the theater that way,and so it's called a ghost light
(14:54):
.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And so no way.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So like a big like theater tattoo that people get,
or like a sticker or whatever isthese ghost lights?
Because it's such a huge partof theater.
But that's a superstition.
Because you're like, oh, Ican't leave the lights off in
theater, like I don't want badthings to happen, and so like I
can send you 500 photos of everytheater I've worked in that
have ghost lights on them.
Because, yeah, you leave it onstage and like you leave the
(15:19):
thing on and like that's alwayswhat happens.
There's always some sort ofillumination.
It's usually a very like lamp,lamp post kind of looking thing.
But even sometimes you justlike leave like one of the side
lights on.
I've seen people plug in likefairy lights kind of situation,
like strip, just anything to addlight to the theater, so the
ghost don't take over.
But it's called a ghost lightand that's a big superstition
too.
No, I think about it.
(15:39):
I was like I'm just one of thebiggest ones.
That is so cool.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So ghost lights are a hugething and that's like your big
thing is like at the end of thenight you roll it out, you make
sure it's plugged in, you makesure it's on, kind of part of
like the last thing you dobefore you lock up and then
obviously when you come in inthe theater, you unlock the
theater, you turn on the worklife, you unplug the ghost light
and then you go on with yourbusiness, right, and it's like a
huge part of like what we doevery single day.
And theater is the ghost light.
Yeah, okay, and I'm telling you, I've been in theaters that I'm
(16:09):
like is the theater hauntedLike I was in a theater one and
no shit.
Like there were a couple timesI would be getting in and out,
so the SM area we call from iscalled the booth and I would get
in and out of the booth and youkind of had to like climb into
it, like I give booth, I giveall the booths I work in my
clever name, so I call this onethe tree house because you got
to like kind of shimmy your wayinto it.
And every time I a couple oftimes I would get in, I feel
(16:32):
like something kind of pushingme and I was like what is
happening?
And then there were times whereI would turn on the lights or
whatever to test them on stage,or I would turn on the sound,
whatever, and then we would goto run a thing that needed the
sound and all of a sudden, likeall the speakers were off and
I'm like I just I tested thisand so like there was a few
weird things, like this rightwhen I'd be on stage, and then
all of a sudden, like somethingwould shut off on me and I'm
(16:53):
like what is happening?
Like is there like a short inthe system or whatever?
And then the owners, like theartistic director of the theater
and stuff, were like oh yeah,we have a ghost and they had a
very specific name for her, butI guess somebody was living in a
room next to the theater andthey heard a lot of talking and
like weird stuff too, and so Idon't know Everyone thinks
theaters are haunted, whetherit's true or not?
(17:14):
But, is that because, like,people are like dying in
theaters or because, like ghosts, just like the theater.
I mean, I think, there, I don'tknow of anyone who died in a
theater, right, I don't thinkthat's the thing that happens
per se.
I mean, I'm sure it has, like,at some point somebody has
probably died in a theater,unfortunately.
But yeah, I think it has to dowith the fact that these are all
very, very old buildings.
(17:35):
Like most theaters are very,very old, like they are from
like the 1920s they're, you know, or even older.
If you're in England, obviously, the globe is still a theater
and that was around duringShakespeare's age, and so I
think, because they are so old,I think there's just a sense of
you know, like I thought that,and ghosts migrate towards them.
You know that there's just alot of history there and, yeah,
(17:57):
it's one of those things thateveryone thinks theaters are
haunted, so we have ghost lights.
That's so funny.
Okay, we'll see.
Fun fact, you can bloom in mymind and that's why I love.
I love information like this,because it's always something
that comes up Like someone willsay something that's like very
calm oh, you know where thatcame from.
You know it's like and likeit's funny because if you're
learning this language, sothey're called idioms where you
(18:18):
cannot, you can't really derivethe meaning of the sentence from
the words themselves.
You kind of have to know whatthe phrase is commonality to be
able to understand what it is.
Well yeah.
And so, like in theater, we havea lot of accessibility things
we do and one of them is that weput translators on stage for
performances.
So then that way, people whoare deaf, hard of hearing get
(18:40):
interpreted performances and so.
But we but I've talked withthese, with these interpreters,
and they were saying thatthere's a huge difference
between interpreting andtranslating right and like a lot
of it comes down to, like yousaid, with idioms, like it's
hard because you have tounderstand the cultural aspect
of what you're translating andyou can't translate word for
word, Because we all know whathappens when you put something
through Google translate and itdoesn't come out right, the
(19:02):
right way.
You have to be able tounderstand the cultural context
and all these other things tomake it make sense to somebody
who doesn't have the contextright.
So yeah it's all super fun, it'sall super fascinating.
But, like in theater, when wehave these translators work, we
sometimes have to makeagreements, like if in Hunchback
of Notre Dame, like when FifthAvenue did it, they put
quasi-modo on and he was a hardof hearing actor and so they had
(19:24):
to make like Esmeraldaquasi-modo.
They had to make sign languagefor those words, right, Instead
of just spelling it out all thetime.
And now those are common parts,not common parts of sign
language.
I'm not sure if everyone in youknow who does ASL knows that
quasi-modo is this one thing,but at least in Seattle it ended
up being like a newly acceptedword, right, and so it's just
interesting how you can likeimpact things like that.
(19:45):
Yeah, that's so crazy.
I guess I never thought aboutit.
Like if you had the term breaka leg in a performance, instead
of saying break a leg, thetranslator would have to hear
that and be like good luck Ifthey wanted it to translate
correctly to the audience, whichyou wouldn't think about.
It's just something that isvery common in our language and
(20:06):
so I that's why I don't know.
I'm really hoping that I canlike find the time and the
passion to really do this,because I love these ones, which
a lot of them come from English, like the English, like old
English, and then they'retranslated, they come over to
America or they're created here,but I think in different
seasons it would be veryinteresting to do other
languages and their translationsof idioms that we don't
(20:29):
normally hear here in America.
Yeah, for instance like if youthink about even just how much
English is deepened to Christianculture, right, but there are
cultures that like don't havehell, right, so we say go to
hell, and that's a very commonmeaning.
But then what do you do with aculture that doesn't have hell,
right?
And there are other ways inwhich that same meaning is
infused, but they don't say goto hell, like, obviously, jewish
(20:50):
people don't technically say goto hell, it's not like a thing.
So, yeah, so it just depends onthe things and like it's
interesting how it also changeswhen you have different
languages thrown into the mix.
So yeah, yeah, so I'm like, ah,I really want to do this.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I love it, so we'll see I love you.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I hope you have an amazing week.
Awesome thanks, girl, you'rethe best.
Give everyone hugs for me.
Do you work in theater and whatare you doing theater?
Yes, I work in theater.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I am a director, playwright, actor and theater
teacher.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Great, and where do you think the original origin of
the saying break a leg comesfrom?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Actually, it's a very contested origin story.
The most common one, and one ofthe ones I learned, dates back
to early stages, in which therewas a rake or an angle to the
stage and when actors would getinto their performance and move
(21:59):
slowly, slowly down towardscloser to the audience.
They would.
There was a space between wherethe stage and the audience was
and they would fall because theywere so into their performance.
Hence, breaking a leg meantyou're really into your
performance, You're doingsupposedly really well.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Oh, I had never actually heard that.
That's fascinating and that'sbecause in London all the stages
are super rakes, right, Isuppose?
Speaker 3 (22:25):
so Because also, we have to remember, theater was
not just a European thing, Like,theater started as a religious
ritual for the Greeks right, andso actually what we consider a
theater space is also a littlebit contested.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Do you have any personal superstitions and do
you have any theater-specificsuperstitions?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Ooh, yes, you don't say.
The Scottish plays real name onstage.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Oh my god, I said the same thing.
I was like Mackers.
I don't even say it outside thetheater, nope.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Well, if I'm in a theater space, a performance
space, that's usually when Imake sure not to say it.
I don't even say it in ourhouse.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I don't want to invite that in.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
It's also make sure a ghost light always goes on.
And what is the ghost light?
Ok, so a ghost light istypically usually just some sort
of lamp or really kind of likeany light that must stay on even
(23:33):
after everyone has left thespace, because one of the
superstitions that's related toit is that there are theater
ghosts.
So, again, different originstories, but, you know, like
ghosts of past performers whohave been in that space or who
died in that space, I don'tactually know.
But the idea is that thetheater ghosts need light and
(23:57):
that it is good luck to keepthose lights on.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
And we don't say good luck, we say Brick-a-Lake,
right, you say Brick-a-Lake.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
You say Merred, which is more ballet, right In French
.
What does Merred stand for?
It's a swear.
I'm pretty sure it's the F wordequivalent.
I thought it was the S wordequivalent.
Oh, I don't know.
Babe, you speak French.
I know it in a theater context.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
And what is?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
the point of it, though?
The point of it is again toavoid saying good luck and it's
like you know, have a greatperformance, get really into it,
right, it's so good.
You're like swear word, it's sogood.
Oh, wrestling in a theaterspace, that's considered bad
luck.
Again.
Origins of before fancyautomation whoever is operating
(24:53):
these flies would communicatevia whistles.
So if you accidentally givethat signal that it's not
supposed to be dropped, then itwill, drop it will drop, you
will die.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Supposedly, that is the thing, Any other theater
superstitions, Do you have anyspecific ones Like I was talking
about?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
like even two-dose, right, Two-show day, we say
two-dose, oh yeah yeah, Ipersonally don't ever say, oh,
wow, it's going to be a goodhouse tonight, or oh, it's going
to be a small audience tonight,or it's going to be an easy
show.
Like.
I avoid that.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Oh, that's smart.
I haven't thought of that, butthat's true.
You want to be like becauseyou'll say have a good show, but
you're not like it's going tobe a blank, it's going to be a
good show, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Oh, theater superstition Less superstition,
I think, but I guess maybe theritual Do not.
I do not read reviews on theday they come out.
I usually wait until after theshow.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
So you're one of those that doesn't like to know
about the reviews while the showis running.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Absolutely not.
I don't like to know if thereare press in the audience, or
famous people.
Or famous people, I don't careabout that.
My personal superstition isthat there just has to be a very
specific few warm-up exercisesthat I must do.
It depends on the show and onthe character, but it usually
(26:19):
involves some sort of vocal andphysical warm-up and I always
want to greet the space, because, going back to the ghost, light
and theater ghosts or if thereare resident spirits in your
space, I always try to make goodfriends with them, so you
(26:39):
always greet them.
Hello and goodbye.
That's my biggest theatersuperstition.
Yeah, thank you Max.
Thank you, max, so much, allright, all right.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
That's a wrap for today.
I'll leave you here with theseintellectual snacks to think
about, and you can tell me whatyou think by leaving us a
comment on the podcast orsending us an email to
myunoriginalthoughtpodcast atgmailcom.
I want to hear from you and, asalways, like and subscribe to
the podcast so you'll never missa new episode.
We'll see you next time and, asalways, keep being inquisitive.
(27:13):
Thank you.
Oh yeah, bonus.
Hello podcast family.
This is your unoriginal host,afton Jay.
Thanks for tuning in to ourbonus clips.
(00:40):
During this extra time together, I'll share interesting
interviews and information thatdidn't make it into the final
episodes.
During the creation of eachepisode, there is always so much
extra material and I want toshare it because it's really
interesting, but unfortunatelysometimes we just don't have
time or there wasn't a place forit in the final cut.
These bonus episodes arecreated to help you learn and
(01:03):
laugh a little more.
I hope you enjoy the next twoclips.
We speak with friends that havecareers in the theater.
We have so much informationabout the theater superstitions
and more.
If you are interested in someincredible theater fun facts,
stick around.
Our first friend is a stagemanager, and the second clip is
the stage manager and her wife,the actress, along with her dog
(01:26):
Max, who is enthusiasticallysqueaking in the background.
We get an inside look into theworld of theater superstition.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So there's a lot of superstitions around theater and
saying good luck is one of them, and it's been replaced by
break a leg, as far as I'mtracking.
Yeah, so it's interesting.
You talked about ballet dancersbecause that was part of the
research.
Do you know what that means,mary?
Yeah, it means so a lot of whatyou do in ballet are in French,
so married in French, shit.
(01:57):
So it's kind of like a weirdthing.
But as far as I'm tracking,that's because of like when,
like in the older days, when wehad carriages and stuff, there
was all that shit that would beoutside the theater, so you
would say married, and that waskind of in reference to that.
As far as I'm tracking might betotally off base, but I thought
that something to do withhorses and carriages outside
ballets.
You are 100% not wrong.
(02:20):
This was one of those facts thatlike blew my mind.
I was like that's so crazy, andyeah such an old tradition and
yeah still do today.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's kind oflike the whistling in theater
and all that and you know, likenot saying like we always say
Mackers now, because we don'twant to, we don't want to say
the Scottish plays name, butyeah, it's like one of those
superstitions too.
(02:40):
So so is there anything thatyou specifically have a
superstition about that youalways follow for good luck?
Oh God, the Mackers one is big,like I don't even care for in a
theater, or Jason, I don't evenwant to say it like obviously
I'm not saying it now.
I'm on a phone call right and Ihave like theater friends who
are just like saying it left andright and I'm like, oh, my God,
(03:01):
please knock on something.
And like we did a show where wehad TV and film people on our
crew and they said it and thenlike everything that could go
wrong on the show, like we hadbullhorns going off, we had all
this stuff like things breaking,and I was like just
confirmation bias probably, oflike doing the thing.
So for me that's that's kind ofthe big one.
(03:22):
Obviously, we still say break aleg.
I think that's more justbecause that's culturally what
happens, rather than it's asuperstition anymore, like I
don't necessarily think there'sanything about if you were to
say good luck in a theater, butyeah, I think I think the
Mackers one is the one that'skind of helped the most.
True for everybody.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like yeah.
And I think that's why,especially when you're looking
in dangerous environments, likepeople don't realize that
(03:44):
theater is actually dangerous.
I mean, if you're lifting a setpiece and it's hundreds of
pounds, like you don't want todrop it on somebody, and so I
think it makes sense, though,like no whistling thing.
It makes sense that you're like, let's say, break a leg because
you know all of these things,and it's just, it is.
It is weirdly Dangerous thethings we do and you're trying
to make things as safe aspossible and I think adding in a
few like bits of good luck Intothat thing I think is isn't
(04:08):
gonna hurt anything, right, youknow?
And I know there are people whoscoff at it like, oh, I don't
care about any of this, I'mgonna say good luck 500 times in
the theater and we'll be fine,and I'm like I feel like you're
just tempting fate.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I feel like you're just asking.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
You're just asking for that shit to happen in this
run.
You know what I mean?
And I think I mean I've hadrun-throughs where, um, like
when I was in Korea I wasworking, I was stage managing a
show and we every show had umLifesavers, like the soft chewy
one, and we had a bag of themand we're passing around the
show and we had a show where wedidn't have life saver gummies
and I was like, yeah, I didn'thave a chance to run to the shop
(04:39):
that and grab them.
It's like okay, no problem.
And like I swear to you, thatshow had so many things go wrong
with it.
Like we had the breakers blow.
We had just all this crazystuff.
And everyone looked at me and Iwas like, you know, I'm gonna
get the life saver gummies nexttime and every show I got those
life saver gummies.
We were good, right, and whoknows, probably not the life
saver gummies, but it felt likeit during that run.
Right and so it was 100% thelife saver gummies statistically
(05:02):
.
Yeah, I mean, who knows, but INot gonna get the thing.
I was like, yeah, we don't needgummies, like we're getting fat
, like we don't need to befucking eating candy all the
time, and then I don't have thatstuff.
Like all of a sudden, like youknow, like nothing is working
right and it's like and that'sthe and that's the thing with,
like life theater and that's thething with military operations
and sports, right, like there'sjust so many things that can't
(05:24):
go wrong, but you're like tryingto make it as successful as
possible, right?
So like, don't say that, justlike, just do the thing to make
it, make it fine, you know, yeah, yeah, whatever it takes, life
saver gummies or the keyword orwhatever like just do it.
Yeah, just please, just please,just get us through this thing.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I don't want it.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I don't want it to happen.
So just for the record, cuz Ishould have started with this, I
should have started with whatyou do.
That way you're like morecredible so like what.
Like random, like theater,weirdo, that like super fan,
super fan.
So what do you do?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
in the theater.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yes, so I'm a professional stage manager.
I have had the huge honor like,growing up in LA, I always did
theater, some fashion, and so Iwas always on crew.
Sometimes I had to perform,which we're not going to talk
about.
I'm in LA for grad school, forgetting my MFA in stage
management, and I'm down hereand now I'm working full-time.
So, yeah, and so like I think Ithink SM's like we're, we're
(06:26):
like kind of technical people,but there's like an art and a
science to stage management, andso I think that's also why
maybe we're also a littlesuperstitious, like we just we
just don't want to tempt, temptthe things you know, mm-hmm.
Yeah, you have a pivotal rolein this theater production like
don't tempt it.
Yeah, because we're the onesthat have to like, because, I
mean, obviously there is a wholeteam of people making
(06:47):
productions come to life, but weare the ones that are In charge
of making the final call.
So if we have to hold a show,that's on us.
If an actor goes down, we haveto figure out a way to get it
another actor like an understudyor a swing or a cover it in on
In.
Instead.
If tech isn't working, we'rethe ones that are helping the
troubleshoot and figure out thecontingency plan.
We also create a lot of thecontingency plans.
(07:08):
We also have assets with, youknow, our technical directors
and other subject matter expertsback in the day.
It's on us to execute.
So I also am like, you know, ifI'm, if I've got to be the one
that's holding this bag when itall goes to shit, like I want to
make sure that I'm not addingmore stuff or to go wrong.
You know, yeah, yeah, that's sofunny, it's uh, yeah.
(07:29):
So you're talking about, like,where does it come from?
Right, and I did see.
I thought it came from.
I would assume it would havecome from the theater as well,
like six period times or like.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
When you know all that stuff was like really,
really in a payday.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It's not all the research that I've done.
They actually think it camefrom either horse-shocking or
pilots.
Yeah, so like the early, and itall kind of started on the
1900s I thought it would havestarted way earlier than that.
But they cannot find either aliterary or like a cultural
(08:02):
Saying reference to break a leguntil the early 1900s and that
was my thought was like I feellike we assume it Shakespeare.
But I was like I know a lot oftheater superstitions come from
the industrial age, so right.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's like the horsejockeything, like it should have an
emagghting.
Like hey, like the mostsuperstitious people on the
planet are horsejockey who, likethey need good luck to win.
And so they were.
There's like a couple ofdifferent things they thought
the origin was from, like onecould have been.
Like it's either like hey, likewhen you, you know, when you
(08:38):
break a leg on the finish line,so like it's a good thing, like
hey, break a leg, like I hopeyou win oh right, right, because
of the photo, finish and allthat right when the leg has to
pass or whatever, right, or?
or it was like when you start, Iguess a lot of the times the
horsejockeys would you know, tryto like get as close as they
could to the start line and soback in the day, when it wasn't
(08:59):
such a big deal to like breakthe start line, you know, back
before they have like all theselike really hard rules, like you
would kind of let your horsebreak the start line with its
leg, like break a leg for goodluck.
So one of those two, or theythink it might have come from
German fighter pilots, which isweird.
So apparently there's like aYiddish saying which I will not
attempt to pronounce in yourpresence.
(09:22):
My terrible view for not knowingthe Yiddish thing.
I don't know, I don't know ifyou are like, I want to like say
the word and you're like afterthat you know, but I'm like I'm
wondering, like if I call my momand I'm like did you know,
break a leg, come from Yiddish,and my mom's going to be like oh
yeah, totally.
Or she's going to be like what?
Like you know what I mean?
Like I'm like, are we justterrible at our own languages?
Like I don't know.
I mean maybe, like I, maybe Ishould just pass this to your
(09:42):
mom you know like it's like asniff test, like is this true or
are we like making this up?
But yeah, so the break a legthing.
I guess I could attempt to saythe word to you, although it's
I'm probably going to like 100%not say it right, but it means
okay, it might just gotta saythat girl, I, you know, I can't
(10:04):
say that word like 16 yearslater.
It's like it's still eludes methe pronunciation of the holiday
, which I will not attempt atthe time on a recording.
Okay, so the Yiddish phrase, orHebrew blessing, namely hot
salakha, you brought up.
(10:24):
Literally translated meansuccess and blessing.
How close, okay, I mean, Ithink I think it was a, it was a
good attempt.
You know, hebrew is a very hardlanguage.
Yeah, I take feedback.
Yeah, I'm not also going to saybecause now I'm going to be
(10:46):
like, but I think we have toremember that that Hebrew is
like kind of very flimmy, right,there's like a lot of ha sounds
in there, and I think that ismaybe the only thing you're
missing, okay, so, so what doyou think I was trying to say?
Hot salakha, you brought up.
I can't even say it, because now, like now that you're doing it,
(11:07):
I'm like is this even a thing?
How do I speak Hebrew now?
Um, no, I do.
I do know what you're referringto and that makes sense.
I just didn't realize that thatrelated to break a leg, like I
didn't realize that there was acorrelation there, you know.
So this is and this is wherethey think the correlation may
have happened.
So, literally translated, thatmeans success and blessing, it
(11:29):
says Hebrew.
Blessings often convey wellwishes and positive statements,
which is like super nice, right.
But then at some point someGerman people do converted that,
or they heard it, they areconverted it on accident, or
they heard it and they weremaking fun of it.
Like there's no real like pointwhere it says definitively but
the German phrase is Hals UnledRöckeck, which I maybe, if I
(11:54):
actually heard the correctpronunciation.
They sound the same, but to methey don't, which might have
been a phonetic accent or ironicplan words, but that translates
to neck and leg break.
So pilots would, before theywent to go fly like the
Luftwaffe.
They would say neck and legbreak in German to each other as
like a sign of good luck thatthey would come back unscathed.
(12:16):
Yeah, and to me that's stillsomething fate, with both the
jockeys and the pilots Like I'mlike why am I?
That'd be like us, like aspilots, wishing each other like
hope you crash.
You're like thanks, well, yeah,but you tell people in the
theater to break a leg.
I know, but it just feels worsewhen you're in an airplane.
Like it just feels so muchworse when.
I'm not on the ground.
(12:38):
I hope you break your neck andcrash the thing into the ground.
You're like cool, Thanks bro.
Well, I'm glad that you guyscan stay in the theater, but we
cannot say it as pilots.
Like I just feel like who has abetter?
Like I think, if I'm worryingabout statistics, like I feel
like more pilots die thantheater people, right, and so
like I think it's just like, Ithink it's like more, it's more
(12:59):
of an ironic thing in theaterthan it is with pilots, Like I
don't know, it just feels morescary with pilots.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, I'm just like like I'd really like to know,
like where it started, althoughyou know a lot of pilot
traditions or just whatever likemaybe these guys were like
super superstitious.
So yeah, and I was like there's.
I was like there's no waythat's true, like you and I both
are pretty big into aviation,aviation history and whatever.
So I looked it up in a lot ofthe like German fighter pilots
(13:27):
in their autobiographies, likethis is something they said to
each other I was like no way.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
It's so crazy Um they don't know why they lost the
war.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
But maybe we look into why that's.
One of the reasons why theylost the war is because they
were so they had to stop sayingit and we like gave it to the
theater, like, ah, we can't useit anymore, I'm punching you.
You all take it.
No one's fighting more thantheater.
Yeah, I was like this is likeit was.
It was so crazy and so like Idon't.
(13:58):
It just led me down this likeweird rabbit hole of like so.
Now I want to ask theater peoplelike I almost want to like go
up to theater people today andbe like do you know the origins
of this thing?
Cause, like I feel like everytheater person is going to is
going to have the wrong.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
This is the point of the podcast.
Oh, you know, it's a bigsuperstition in theater that I
totally bypassed.
That we do to this day is theghost light.
The ghost light is a huge thingin theater Like ghost light.
I've never heard of ghost light, yeah.
Yeah, I thought that theatersare haunted DG Devices is kind
of like the whistling thing.
(14:32):
But there's a thought thattheaters are haunted for
whatever reason, and so younever leave a theater completely
in the dark because you don'twant the ghosts to take over.
So we have what's called aghost light and, as crew, one of
our things we do at the end ofevery night is you put a light
on stage that has like a littlebit of illumination, and then
you leave the theater that way,and so it's called a ghost light
(14:54):
.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And so no way.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So like a big like theater tattoo that people get,
or like a sticker or whatever isthese ghost lights?
Because it's such a huge partof theater.
But that's a superstition.
Because you're like, oh, Ican't leave the lights off in
theater, like I don't want badthings to happen, and so like I
can send you 500 photos of everytheater I've worked in that
have ghost lights on them.
Because, yeah, you leave it onstage and like you leave the
(15:19):
thing on and like that's alwayswhat happens.
There's always some sort ofillumination.
It's usually a very like lamp,lamp post kind of looking thing.
But even sometimes you justlike leave like one of the side
lights on.
I've seen people plug in likefairy lights kind of situation,
like strip, just anything to addlight to the theater, so the
ghost don't take over.
But it's called a ghost lightand that's a big superstition
too.
No, I think about it.
(15:39):
I was like I'm just one of thebiggest ones.
That is so cool.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So ghost lights are a hugething and that's like your big
thing is like at the end of thenight you roll it out, you make
sure it's plugged in, you makesure it's on, kind of part of
like the last thing you dobefore you lock up and then
obviously when you come in inthe theater, you unlock the
theater, you turn on the worklife, you unplug the ghost light
and then you go on with yourbusiness, right, and it's like a
huge part of like what we doevery single day.
And theater is the ghost light.
Yeah, okay, and I'm telling you, I've been in theaters that I'm
(16:09):
like is the theater hauntedLike I was in a theater one and
no shit.
Like there were a couple timesI would be getting in and out,
so the SM area we call from iscalled the booth and I would get
in and out of the booth and youkind of had to like climb into
it, like I give booth, I giveall the booths I work in my
clever name, so I call this onethe tree house because you got
to like kind of shimmy your wayinto it.
And every time I a couple oftimes I would get in, I feel
(16:32):
like something kind of pushingme and I was like what is
happening?
And then there were times whereI would turn on the lights or
whatever to test them on stage,or I would turn on the sound,
whatever, and then we would goto run a thing that needed the
sound and all of a sudden, likeall the speakers were off and
I'm like I just I tested thisand so like there was a few
weird things, like this rightwhen I'd be on stage, and then
all of a sudden, like somethingwould shut off on me and I'm
(16:53):
like what is happening?
Like is there like a short inthe system or whatever?
And then the owners, like theartistic director of the theater
and stuff, were like oh yeah,we have a ghost and they had a
very specific name for her, butI guess somebody was living in a
room next to the theater andthey heard a lot of talking and
like weird stuff too, and so Idon't know Everyone thinks
theaters are haunted, whetherit's true or not?
(17:14):
But, is that because, like,people are like dying in
theaters or because, like ghosts, just like the theater.
I mean, I think, there, I don'tknow of anyone who died in a
theater, right, I don't thinkthat's the thing that happens
per se.
I mean, I'm sure it has, like,at some point somebody has
probably died in a theater,unfortunately.
But yeah, I think it has to dowith the fact that these are all
very, very old buildings.
(17:35):
Like most theaters are very,very old, like they are from
like the 1920s they're, you know, or even older.
If you're in England, obviously, the globe is still a theater
and that was around duringShakespeare's age, and so I
think, because they are so old,I think there's just a sense of
you know, like I thought that,and ghosts migrate towards them.
You know that there's just alot of history there and, yeah,
(17:57):
it's one of those things thateveryone thinks theaters are
haunted, so we have ghost lights.
That's so funny.
Okay, we'll see.
Fun fact, you can bloom in mymind and that's why I love.
I love information like this,because it's always something
that comes up Like someone willsay something that's like very
calm oh, you know where thatcame from.
You know it's like and likeit's funny because if you're
learning this language, sothey're called idioms where you
(18:18):
cannot, you can't really derivethe meaning of the sentence from
the words themselves.
You kind of have to know whatthe phrase is commonality to be
able to understand what it is.
Well yeah.
And so, like in theater, we havea lot of accessibility things
we do and one of them is that weput translators on stage for
performances.
So then that way, people whoare deaf, hard of hearing get
(18:40):
interpreted performances and so.
But we but I've talked withthese, with these interpreters,
and they were saying thatthere's a huge difference
between interpreting andtranslating right and like a lot
of it comes down to, like yousaid, with idioms, like it's
hard because you have tounderstand the cultural aspect
of what you're translating andyou can't translate word for
word, Because we all know whathappens when you put something
through Google translate and itdoesn't come out right, the
(19:02):
right way.
You have to be able tounderstand the cultural context
and all these other things tomake it make sense to somebody
who doesn't have the contextright.
So yeah it's all super fun, it'sall super fascinating.
But, like in theater, when wehave these translators work, we
sometimes have to makeagreements, like if in Hunchback
of Notre Dame, like when FifthAvenue did it, they put
quasi-modo on and he was a hardof hearing actor and so they had
(19:24):
to make like Esmeraldaquasi-modo.
They had to make sign languagefor those words, right, Instead
of just spelling it out all thetime.
And now those are common parts,not common parts of sign
language.
I'm not sure if everyone in youknow who does ASL knows that
quasi-modo is this one thing,but at least in Seattle it ended
up being like a newly acceptedword, right, and so it's just
interesting how you can likeimpact things like that.
(19:45):
Yeah, that's so crazy.
I guess I never thought aboutit.
Like if you had the term breaka leg in a performance, instead
of saying break a leg, thetranslator would have to hear
that and be like good luck Ifthey wanted it to translate
correctly to the audience, whichyou wouldn't think about.
It's just something that isvery common in our language and
(20:06):
so I that's why I don't know.
I'm really hoping that I canlike find the time and the
passion to really do this,because I love these ones, which
a lot of them come from English, like the English, like old
English, and then they'retranslated, they come over to
America or they're created here,but I think in different
seasons it would be veryinteresting to do other
languages and their translationsof idioms that we don't
(20:29):
normally hear here in America.
Yeah, for instance like if youthink about even just how much
English is deepened to Christianculture, right, but there are
cultures that like don't havehell, right, so we say go to
hell, and that's a very commonmeaning.
But then what do you do with aculture that doesn't have hell,
right?
And there are other ways inwhich that same meaning is
infused, but they don't say goto hell, like, obviously, jewish
(20:50):
people don't technically say goto hell, it's not like a thing.
So, yeah, so it just depends onthe things and like it's
interesting how it also changeswhen you have different
languages thrown into the mix.
So yeah, yeah, so I'm like, ah,I really want to do this.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I love it, so we'll see I love you.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I hope you have an amazing week.
Awesome thanks, girl, you'rethe best.
Give everyone hugs for me.
Do you work in theater and whatare you doing theater?
Yes, I work in theater.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I am a director, playwright, actor and theater
teacher.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Great, and where do you think the original origin of
the saying break a leg comesfrom?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Actually, it's a very contested origin story.
The most common one, and one ofthe ones I learned, dates back
to early stages, in which therewas a rake or an angle to the
stage and when actors would getinto their performance and move
(21:59):
slowly, slowly down towardscloser to the audience.
They would.
There was a space between wherethe stage and the audience was
and they would fall because theywere so into their performance.
Hence, breaking a leg meantyou're really into your
performance, You're doingsupposedly really well.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Oh, I had never actually heard that.
That's fascinating and that'sbecause in London all the stages
are super rakes, right, Isuppose?
Speaker 3 (22:25):
so Because also, we have to remember, theater was
not just a European thing, Like,theater started as a religious
ritual for the Greeks right, andso actually what we consider a
theater space is also a littlebit contested.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Do you have any personal superstitions and do
you have any theater-specificsuperstitions?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Ooh, yes, you don't say.
The Scottish plays real name onstage.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Oh my god, I said the same thing.
I was like Mackers.
I don't even say it outside thetheater, nope.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Well, if I'm in a theater space, a performance
space, that's usually when Imake sure not to say it.
I don't even say it in ourhouse.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I don't want to invite that in.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
It's also make sure a ghost light always goes on.
And what is the ghost light?
Ok, so a ghost light istypically usually just some sort
of lamp or really kind of likeany light that must stay on even
(23:33):
after everyone has left thespace, because one of the
superstitions that's related toit is that there are theater
ghosts.
So, again, different originstories, but, you know, like
ghosts of past performers whohave been in that space or who
died in that space, I don'tactually know.
But the idea is that thetheater ghosts need light and
(23:57):
that it is good luck to keepthose lights on.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
And we don't say good luck, we say Brick-a-Lake,
right, you say Brick-a-Lake.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
You say Merred, which is more ballet, right In French
.
What does Merred stand for?
It's a swear.
I'm pretty sure it's the F wordequivalent.
I thought it was the S wordequivalent.
Oh, I don't know.
Babe, you speak French.
I know it in a theater context.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
And what is?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
the point of it, though?
The point of it is again toavoid saying good luck and it's
like you know, have a greatperformance, get really into it,
right, it's so good.
You're like swear word, it's sogood.
Oh, wrestling in a theaterspace, that's considered bad
luck.
Again.
Origins of before fancyautomation whoever is operating
(24:53):
these flies would communicatevia whistles.
So if you accidentally givethat signal that it's not
supposed to be dropped, then itwill, drop it will drop, you
will die.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Supposedly, that is the thing, Any other theater
superstitions, Do you have anyspecific ones Like I was talking
about?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
like even two-dose, right, Two-show day, we say
two-dose, oh yeah yeah, Ipersonally don't ever say, oh,
wow, it's going to be a goodhouse tonight, or oh, it's going
to be a small audience tonight,or it's going to be an easy
show.
Like.
I avoid that.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Oh, that's smart.
I haven't thought of that, butthat's true.
You want to be like becauseyou'll say have a good show, but
you're not like it's going tobe a blank, it's going to be a
good show, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Oh, theater superstition Less superstition,
I think, but I guess maybe theritual Do not.
I do not read reviews on theday they come out.
I usually wait until after theshow.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
So you're one of those that doesn't like to know
about the reviews while the showis running.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Absolutely not.
I don't like to know if thereare press in the audience, or
famous people.
Or famous people, I don't careabout that.
My personal superstition isthat there just has to be a very
specific few warm-up exercisesthat I must do.
It depends on the show and onthe character, but it usually
(26:19):
involves some sort of vocal andphysical warm-up and I always
want to greet the space, because, going back to the ghost, light
and theater ghosts or if thereare resident spirits in your
space, I always try to make goodfriends with them, so you
(26:39):
always greet them.
Hello and goodbye.
That's my biggest theatersuperstition.
Yeah, thank you Max.
Thank you, max, so much, allright, all right.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
That's a wrap for today.
I'll leave you here with theseintellectual snacks to think
about, and you can tell me whatyou think by leaving us a
comment on the podcast orsending us an email to
myunoriginalthoughtpodcast atgmailcom.
I want to hear from you and, asalways, like and subscribe to
the podcast so you'll never missa new episode.
We'll see you next time and, asalways, keep being inquisitive.
(27:13):
Thank you.
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