“Before every show, we do an “energy circle” where we start by joining hands and sending a pulse around. Then when we feel everyone is ready, someone starts a hum that we all join in on. It builds until we all open our mouths to a yell and basically let all our energy explode vocally. The purpose is to center the energy as a group instead of just individually.”

Collected from a freshman Theatre student at Santa Fe University of Art and Design. She said the students there have lots of rituals passed on to freshmen during their first year, and no one knows how they started, they just do them to make the shows better. In my experience, theatre students are very superstitious about what preparations will create a good show or not.