“A Proper Cup of Coffee…” Tongue Twister

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kirkland, WA
Performance Date: 4/30/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: My favorite tongue twister… I learned it in England recently, actually. It’s a teacup one. “All I want is a proper cup of coffee, made in a proper copper coffee pot. I may be off my dot, but I want a cup of coffee from a proper coffee pot. Tin coffee pots and iron coffee pots, they’re no good to me. If I can’t have a cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot, I’ll have a cup of tea. A nice cup of tea.” Where that comes from? I don’t know. But a nice British lady taught it to me!

Background: 
My informant is a 20-year-old college student, majoring in theatre, who recently returned from a study-abroad semester in London, England. She’s been doing theatre for twelve years now in various parts of the country, so she’s heard many versions of theatre legends, tales, superstitions, and other pieces of theatre folklore.

Thoughts:
I’d never heard this tongue twister before! I thought it was really fun because my informant learned it in England, where she recently spent a few months studying abroad. It was cool to hear a tongue twister that was so specific to another culture – none of the American tongue twisters I know talk about coffee or tea, and those are both big parts of British culture. Also the use of the word “proper” over and over again, which is a word that doesn’t pop up in America nearly as often as it does in England.

The Ghost Light

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kirkland, WA
Performance Date: 4/30/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: A big theatre thing is the ghost light. So, typically, every theatre I’ve ever been to has some sort of ghost, that all the techs and actors swear exists in said space. So before we leave the theatre for the night, we always put a ghost light, which is literally just a light on a stick, in the middle of the stage. And realistically, it’s there because if you don’t put it there, someone will fall off the end of the stage and that will lead to a lawsuit. But! The legend behind the ghost light is that it helps to appease the ghost of said theatre, keep them friendly, guide their way. That, or alternatively, it wards off evil ghosts in said theatre. 

Background: 
My informant is a 20-year-old college student, majoring in theatre, who recently returned from a study-abroad semester in London, England. She’s been doing theatre for twelve years now in various parts of the country, so she’s heard many versions of theatre legends, tales, superstitions, and other pieces of theatre folklore.

Thoughts:
I thought this was very interesting, because I’ve done theatre with this informant for six years, at the same theatre, and we’ve heard very different stories on how the ghost light originated. What I was told was that you put the ghost light out at night so you had a beacon in the dark theatre, so anyone who ventures into the theatre after hours wouldn’t be afraid and there would be less places for ghosts to hide. My informants version works just as well, and we’re both in agreement that the practical reason for it, and probably the reason it’s stuck around so long, is to keep people safe in the dark. It just happens to have a name with a legend behind it.

“Good Luck” v “Break a Leg”

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kirkland, WA
Performance Date: 4/30/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: So, actors are very superstitious. We don’t know why we are, but we are. It’s probably because we spend a lot of time backstage in the dark, and there’s a lot of things that could go wrong. There are things flying over our heads, there’s moving parts and moving people and it’s easy enough to forget a line as it is, let alone when something is falling on you. So, usually it’s bad luck to say “Good luck” to an actor before going onstage, so you say “Break a leg.” I think this originally originated for a couple of reasons. I’ve heard that originally you used to stomp instead of clap, so “break a leg” was like the audience appreciating whatever you did. As well as the legs on the side of the stage – to enter you have to physically break through them, so it was like “have a good entrance…”? And I think there was one more, along the lines of – I don’t know. Every actor you’ll talk to will have a different answer of why we have these rules, which is confusing as to why we have them at all then. But it’s something you start to think about as you’re getting ready, because if someone says “good luck,” you know how the show’s gonna go… I don’t know if that’s because we psych ourselves out or whatever.

Background: 
My informant is a 20-year-old college student, majoring in theatre, who recently returned from a study-abroad semester in London, England. She’s been doing theatre for twelve years now in various parts of the country, so she’s heard many versions of theatre legends, tales, superstitions, and other pieces of theatre folklore.

Thoughts:
I personally don’t believe in this particular theatre superstition. I’ve never had an experience where saying “good luck” actually resulted in bad luck onstage. I’ve found that many people seem to forget it happened if it’s said backstage, whereas no one forgets if you say Macbeth, which is one of the other biggest theatre legends. Out of respect for tradition and those who do believe in this superstition, I try to avoid saying it.

“The Scottish Play,” Or, Why You Don’t Say Macbeth in the Theatre

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kirkland, WA
Performance Date: 4/30/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: One of the biggest is the myth surrounding saying the… “Scottish Play” name, or… Macbeth, which I typically don’t like saying, because – I used to not be as superstitious about this as I am, but… anyway. Originally, I believe, it came from the fact that there are witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and they’re showing magic onstage, and I’m sure to a bunch of villagers seeing Shakespeare, that would’ve probably provoked a different reaction than it would today, hence leading to the idea that the name “Macbeth” is associated with an evil curse. 

So typically, the way this manifests in theatres, if someone says “Macbeth” backstage of a show that is currently running or in rehearsal – first of all, they will immediately be shunned by all of their friends. Second of all, they would have to perform some sort of ritual to break the curse. Now I’ve seen multiple versions. Some are like, spin around three times, spit, and swear. There’s another where you have to physically leave the theatre and wait for someone to let you back in. I don’t know what these are supposed to do besides help me feel better, but it does definitely prevent people from saying it, besides the fact that there is generally bad luck associated within the production itself. It’s supposed to cause some sort of tragedy onstage – which, in my experience, has actually happened, so now I don’t mess with that. 

Me: What happened?

Informant: So, on three separate occasions, when someone said it during a run of a show, a lead has had an injury onstage. Something – I mean, arbitrarily minor. In one, we had this old rusty stove – I was the lead in this production, which is why I remember it the most – and I ended up slamming my finger into it, and causing, like, gushing blood onstage, and they thought I’d need to get a tetanus shot. So that was fun. Now I don’t mess with it, and I will make you spin around three times and spit and say – oh! Or say your favorite Shakespeare show, or favorite line from a Shakespeare show. I don’t know what that’s supposed to do besides, like, appease the Shakespeare gods, but whatever.

Background: 
My informant is a 20-year-old college student, majoring in theatre, who recently returned from a study-abroad semester in London, England. She’s been doing theatre for twelve years now in various parts of the country, so she’s heard many versions of theatre legends, tales, superstitions, and other pieces of theatre folklore.

Thoughts:
I’ve also heard many versions of the Macbeth legend, but the one that I’ve heard most often is actually a different version: I’ve heard that the lines the witches say are actually real witches spells, and the witches he took the spells from were angry (like an early copyright problem!) and put a curse on the play. All of the antidotes though are familiar, and I’m certain there’s more out there that neither me nor my informant had heard before. While I’ve never had a direct interaction with the Macbeth curse, I’ve heard many stories of those who have, enough that I believe in the curse too. At the very least, I try to avoid saying Macbeth in a theatre out of respect for tradition, and out of respect for those who do believe in the curse.

Saci-pererê

Nationality: American/Brazilian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Woodinville, WA
Performance Date: 4/30/20
Primary Language: English
Language: Portuguese

Informant: This is kinda like a… guardian spirit type of thing? Some people interpret him as evil, though never in my lifetime was he interpreted as evil in anything anyone ever told me ever? I’ve only seen this character as a good creature, but I’ve heard some people see him differently. I don’t know. Anyway, it’s a character called – ugh, this is stupidly named, so I’ll have to say it in Portuguese. Saci-pererê. And he’s a black young boy who wears red shorts and no shirt and a red hood, like a pointy hood that just falls down. Like Santa Clause without the pom poms. And he only has one leg, so he just hops around. He’s essentially just like a trickster, and he’ll mess with people. He’ll make them trip or, like… I don’t know, steal their blanket. When I was growing up I was told he was a friendly… friend. Who would do stupid shit. Nothing serious. I think some people thought he would do so many goofy things that he’d eventually do something serious, like… burn your house down or beat you while laughing. But I think most of Brazilian culture interprets him as nice! It’s just some people… Yeah. Tough crowd. 

Background:
My informant is a 19-year-old college student at a small liberal arts college in Washington state. She was born in Brazil, and grew up there, moving to Florida in late elementary school, back to Brazil for a few years, then finally settling outside of Seattle in our last two years of high school. Her father’s American, and her mom’s Brazilian. Portugese was her first language, and she still speaks Portugese at home with her mom. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this piece was collected via an interview that took place over FaceTime. 

Thoughts:
I find it really interesting that even within Brazil, people have different interpretations of the character. I thought that opinions on characters only differed when the character exists in multiple different cultures, because they would be seen in different contexts and would probably have slightly different versions of the stories surrounding the character. This one, however, is within Brazil, where I assume the details of the character stay the same. It makes me wonder what the difference of opinion says about Brazil, if their opinions vary drastically across the country.