Tag Archives: theater ritual

Theater Macbeth Superstition

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“Ok so I’ve been doing theater since I was a little kid. And I remember the first time I heard of this superstition, I was like, 7 I think. I was in my first musical and someone started talking about the M word. And I was like, “what’s the M word?” And they refused to tell me and I didn’t know why, and I thought they were like, talking about McDonalds or something. Cause we were backstage in the dressing room of the theater. So they tell me it’s a word we can’t say in the theater because it’s cursed and will make the play go bad, and that someone said it last year during the music and an actress fell of the stage and broke her leg. And when we get outside the theater when we leave, they tell me the word is Macbeth. And from then on I knew you weren’t supposed to say it. I was in a theater camp a few years later and I remember our teacher taught us about the curse. And one of the kids actually said Macbeth, and we all got so mad, and our teacher actually made him go outside to reverse it. He had to go outside the theater, spit over his left shoulder, and turn around three times. We all like followed him outside to watch him do it. Then I remember when I was in middle school I was in the musical, and someone said it. And we swear that’s why any mistake in the show happened. Like one of our lead actors was sick during the show, and we said it was because someone said the cursed word, we call it the Scottish Play while in the theater. So it’s a big superstition in theater, everyone knows about it. I feel like it became less important when I got older, but I still like actually believe in it. I’m not super superstitious or anything, but that’s the one that I’m really serious about. I don’t tell stories about it as much anymore, it’s not as sensational anymore, but I’m dead serious when people threaten to say it during a musical. I fully will not say it in a theater, even if it’s stupid. It’s kind of like a badge of being a real theater actor, like you’re really one of us because you won’t say it.” 

Context

B is an 18-year-old college student who lives in the Bay Area in California. She has been doing theater for almost all her life, and still considers it a big part of her identity. She relays the superstition with a bit of conflict, because while she sometimes thinks it’s a little silly and doesn’t really believe a single word can be cursed in a certain location, she still reveres the superstition and won’t actually say it. This is a theater superstition that has been around for a long time, and she’s heard it in theaters across many states in the US. 

Analysis

This is a magic superstition, where the belief is that if you do a particular thing, it will lead to bad luck. It is also combined with a conversion superstition, with the description of the actions that must be done to get rid of the bad luck. Superstitions like these are common in careers like theater, because live theater has so many elements that are out of people’s control. Once the show has begun, anything could go wrong and the actors have no way to control it. They could blank on a line, there could be a tech malfunction, there is a lot of anxiety surrounding life theater no matter how well they prepare. This means that there are a lot of superstitions, because it gives people an illusion of control that could act as a placebo effect. They can think “This show will go great, no one has said the Scottish Play yet!” It’s also an example of cognitive dissonance. When things go wrong in live theater and people don’t really know why, they like to have something to blame to give an explanation to the unexplainable. “Why did I forget the line I’ve had memorized and perfect for weeks? Oh, because someone said Macbeth!” This superstition is also a form of ritual that creates identity, like in Van Genup’s Rites of Passage. When she was in her first musical, she wasn’t really part of the group because she didn’t know the superstition about Macbeth. Now that she’s older and more experienced, she takes it as a sign of her identity. She underwent the rite of passage of learning about the Macbeth superstition, so now it creates her identity as a thespian. Her maintained belief in the superstition shows how even when things aren’t necessarily scientific, people can still believe them despite their rational mind telling them it doesn’t make sense. Belief works even against rationality. And just because it hasn’t been scientifically proven doesn’t mean the superstition isn’t true. Maybe there is a correlation between someone say Macbeth and a show going wrong.

Musical Theater Pre-Show Ritual: Linking Pinkies and Biting Your Thumb

Text:

MA: “A pre-show ritual we would do at my high school, if you were sticking your thumb and your pinky out, you would link your pinky with someone else’s and then bite your thumbs in front of each other’s faces. It’s kind of like a kiss, but you’re not actually kissing.”

Context:

The informant is a 20-year-old college student from Orange County, California, who did musical theater throughout her childhood and attended a performing arts high school. She and her castmates in high school would do this ritual before the beginning of a performance. MA described how the gesture allowed performers to be calm in the high anxiety moments before a show. The intimacy of this act, which she compared to a kiss since “you’re literally a hand’s length away from each other’s faces,” fosters a sense camaraderie between members of a cast which can boost performers’ confidence.

Analysis:

This ritual, like many if not all pre-show rituals, evokes a sense of solidarity between performers. Because performers spend so much time together rehearsing, members of a cast tend to bond with each other. This is important since live theater relies on each individual’s performance as well as the interactions between performers, so fostering a sense of community promotes the success of the actors and of the show. The medium demands vulnerability from performers, who must put themselves on display and maintain their dramatic personas while fielding the immediate, unfiltered reactions of the audience. Thus, a show’s success relies on the cast’s ability to trust one another. This intimate musical theater ritual both reflects and promotes the closeness of the cast, conveying that the performers’ trust and believe in each other. This sense of support and community can build confidence and lessen stress, enabling better performance. It can also be interpreted as a good luck ritual or even a superstition.

Theater Ghost Spotlight Ritual

Here is a transcription of my (CB) interview with my informant (AH).

CB: “Can you tell me about that ritual for theater ghosts?”

AH: “Uh so have you ever heard of the ghost light?”

CB: “No”

AH: “So its tradition in theater that when you shut down at the end of the night that you leave a single light, its gotta have leads on it traditionally, and it even goes back to shakespearean times, you know they would leave a candle out or a lantern out so that the ghosts wouldn’t burn down the stage, but then, you know, sometimes the candle would burn down the stage.  But you leave a light out in the middle of the stage, and so the rest of the theater is completely black except for that light in the middle of the stage. And so the tradition is that you leave a spotlight out in the middle of the stage so that ghosts of theater past are able to perform for their audience.” 

CB: “That’s really interesting. Where did you first hear about that?”

AH: “I heard about it in theater at my high school. My theater technician teacher taught us that one”

CB: “And so, why do you think that people share it?”

AH: “It’s a very important tradition. Rumor has it that if you don’t leave a light out, its bad luck and your theater will be doomed to never have a successful show again.”

CB: “What does the ritual mean to you?”

AH: “Um, it’s more just something that I do because it was something that I was taught to do and less because it means anything to me. I think that it’s important to the theater community as a whole to put the ghost light out. It’s a superstition, and it kinda calms a certain type of feeling. And I find, but I’m not this way, but theater people in general tend to be more superstitious than your average individual.” 

Background:

My informant has spent many years actively involved in theater programs, and attended a high school with a very active program. There are tons of stories of theater ghosts, and the tradition can be seen going back to ancient times. With the stories come different rituals to appease the ghosts and protect their theaters. My informant has shared with me varying different stories about theater ghosts which she believed in to different degrees. She expressed that she didn’t completely believe in this ritual, but that she often partook in it out of respect for the community and the sentiments associated with it.

Context:

My informant called me with stories prepared after hearing that I had been interviewing other members of our family for folklore. We had a fun and casual conversation, exchanging versions of stories that we had heard growing up.

Thoughts:

I believe that many people within the theater community are attracted to superstitions because success in the arts can be very unpredictable. By working to appease the ghosts and performing traditional rituals, the theater community is able to reclaim a sense of agency over their success. The ritual also provides a scapegoat in case that a show doesn’t go well. The members would be able to avoid criticism of their personal performance, and instead blame a ghost. Theater is an incredibly old profession, and because of that traditions that have died out elsewhere are still passed down within theater communities. My informant cited the ritual as going back as far as Shakespearan times. I believe the ritual was likely a part of a larger theme of beliefs in ghosts, hauntings, and traditions that can appease them that are no longer popular. 

For another variation of a ghost spotlight see Andy Wright’s article “The Story Behind the Ritual that Still Haunts Broadway” published on Atlas Obsurca. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-story-behind-the-ritual-that-still-haunts-broadway