Re: I was yelled at
I said to an actor I know "good luck" and some other actor comes up to me and goes "you *****hole" you dont say good luck to an actor you have to say break a
leg. As a techie i say to all the techies in my school good luck and never once thought it would be that big of a deal. Is there a very special "code" of the actors i should know about or does it not matter if a techie says good luck instead of Break a
leg?
Actors are weird like that. I assume you are familiar with the M****** word.
To some people it does not matter. However, I have found that most if not all of the time actors will get rather angry with you if you do not follow
theatre tradition (or superstition). Crew members as well.
Among them are:
-
Never say "good luck" instead always say "break a leg." I used to know the origin of this but have forgotten.
- Never say "Macbeth." Always refer to it as "that Scottish
play." Actors are very superstitious over this one. I was running sound for a production of "Lion in Winter." Before we opened the
house one evening, an actor was rehearsing his lines on
stage. He stepped up on a
platform, held out a dagger in front of himself, and said "Macbeth." All eight or nine people (techies, actors,
etc.) in the
house turned in
unison said, "What?" Well, that night, the lead went up skipping two pages in act one, a major prop broke, we had a lamp burn out in act two,
etc.
-
Never whistle on stage unless it is part of the play. The reason for this is that most theatres were in sea ports. They were hemp houses, and they employed sailors ashore to run the rigging. The sailors would whistle commands to each other. So, whistling on
stage was an open invitation to have a
batten or
sandbag fall on your head.
However, as I am the flyman at my
venue and I was in the Navy, I whistle on
stage from time to time (except when I'm within ear shot of certain crew members as they really don't like it. I figure I can be a self-centered jerk or I can be polite. I choose polite).
- Always leave one lamp on
stage on at all times. This is the
ghost light.
-
Don't break the fourth wall. This means never go from the
stage to the
house, or vice versa, by going through the invisible wall that would be there if the curtain was solid and the
stage was a separate room from the
house. Always go through a door backstage that leads into the
house or a hallway that goes to the
house. At one
venue where I work, this means going out the back (
stage) door and around to the front of the
theatre (and yes, I do it, every time
).
