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.
SWAG!
Looking for My Unoriginal Thought post its, notebooks, coffee mugs? Look no farther!
Click here for awesome swag!
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.
SWAG!
Looking for My Unoriginal Thought post its, notebooks, coffee mugs? Look no farther!
Click here for awesome swag!
Oh yeah, bonus. Hello podcast family. This is your unoriginal host, afton Jay. Thanks for tuning in to our bonus clips. During this extra time together, I'll share interesting interviews and information that didn't make it into the final episodes. During the creation of each episode, there is always so much extra material and I want to share it because it's really interesting, but unfortunately sometimes we just don't have time or there wasn't a place for it in the final cut. These bonus episodes are created to help you learn and laugh a little more. I hope you enjoy the next two clips. We speak with friends that have careers in the theater. We have so much information about the theater superstitions and more. If you are interested in some incredible theater fun facts, stick around. Our first friend is a stage manager, and the second clip is the stage manager and her wife, the actress, along with her dog Max, who is enthusiastically squeaking in the background. We get an inside look into the world of theater superstition.
Speaker 2: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'm tracking. Yeah, so it's interesting. You talked about ballet dancers because that was part of the research. Do you know what that means, mary? Yeah, it means so a lot of what you do in ballet are in French, so married in French, shit. So it's kind of like a weird thing. But as far as I'm tracking, that's because of like when, like in the older days, when we had carriages and stuff, there was all that shit that would be outside the theater, so you would say married, and that was kind of in reference to that. As far as I'm tracking might be totally off base, but I thought that something to do with horses and carriages outside ballets. You are 100% not wrong.
Speaker 2:This was one of those facts that like blew my mind. I was like that's so crazy, and yeah such an old tradition and yeah still do today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's kind of like the whistling in theater and all that and you know, like not saying like we always say Mackers now, because we don't want to, we don't want to say the Scottish plays name, but yeah, it's like one of those superstitions too. So so is there anything that you specifically have a superstition about that you always 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 even want to say it like obviously I'm not saying it now. I'm on a phone call right and I have like theater friends who are just like saying it left and right and I'm like, oh, my God, please knock on something. And like we did a show where we had TV and film people on our crew and they said it and then like everything that could go wrong on the show, like we had bullhorns going off, we had all this stuff like things breaking, and I was like just confirmation bias probably, of like doing the thing. So for me that's that's kind of the big one.
Speaker 2:Obviously, we still say break a leg. I think that's more just because that's culturally what happens, rather than it's a superstition anymore, like I don't necessarily think there's anything about if you were to say good luck in a theater, but yeah, I think I think the Mackers one is the one that's kind of helped the most. True for everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that's why, especially when you're looking in dangerous environments, like people don't realize that theater is actually dangerous. I mean, if you're lifting a set piece and it's hundreds of pounds, like you don't want to drop 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 the things we do and you're trying to make things as safe as possible and I think adding in a few like bits of good luck Into that thing I think is isn't gonna hurt anything, right, you know? And I know there are people who scoff at it like, oh, I don't care about any of this, I'm gonna 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:I feel like you're just asking.
Speaker 2:You're just asking for that shit to happen in this run. You know what I mean? And I think I mean I've had run-throughs where, um, like when I was in Korea I was working, I was stage managing a show and we every show had um Lifesavers, like the soft chewy one, and we had a bag of them and we're passing around the show and we had a show where we didn't have life saver gummies and I was like, yeah, I didn't have a chance to run to the shop that and grab them. It's like okay, no problem. And like I swear to you, that show had so many things go wrong with it. Like we had the breakers blow. We had just all this crazy stuff. And everyone looked at me and I was like, you know, I'm gonna get the life saver gummies next time and every show I got those life saver gummies. We were good, right, and who knows, probably not the life saver gummies, but it felt like it during that run.
Speaker 2:Right and so it was 100% the life saver gummies statistically. Yeah, I mean, who knows, but I Not gonna get the thing. I was like, yeah, we don't need gummies, like we're getting fat, like we don't need to be fucking eating candy all the time, and then I don't have that stuff. Like all of a sudden, like you know, like nothing is working right and it's like and that's the and that's the thing with, like life theater and that's the thing with military operations and sports, right, like there's just so many things that can't go wrong, but you're like trying to make it as successful as possible, right? So like, don't say that, just like, just do the thing to make it, make it fine, you know, yeah, yeah, whatever it takes, life saver gummies or the keyword or whatever like just do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just please, just please, just get us through this thing.
Speaker 1:I don't want it.
Speaker 2:I don't want it to happen. So just for the record, cuz I should have started with this, I should have started with what you do. That way you're like more credible so like what. Like random, like theater, weirdo, that like super fan, super fan. So what do you do?
Speaker 3:in the theater.
Speaker 2: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 I was always on crew. Sometimes I had to perform, which we're not going to talk about. I'm in LA for grad school, for getting my MFA in stage management, and I'm down here and now I'm working full-time. So, yeah, and so like I think I think SM's like we're, we're like kind of technical people, but there's like an art and a science to stage management, and so I think that's also why maybe we're also a little superstitious, like we just we just don't want to tempt, tempt the things you know, mm-hmm. Yeah, you have a pivotal role in this theater production like don't tempt it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we're the ones that have to like, because, I mean, obviously there is a whole team of people making productions come to life, but we are 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 have to figure out a way to get it another actor like an understudy or a swing or a cover it in on In. Instead. If tech isn't working, we're the ones that are helping the troubleshoot and figure out the contingency plan. We also create a lot of the contingency plans. We also have assets with, you know, our technical directors and other subject matter experts back in the day. It's on us to execute.
Speaker 2:So I also am like, you know, if I'm, if I've got to be the one that's holding this bag when it all goes to shit, like I want to make sure that I'm not adding more stuff or to go wrong. You know, yeah, yeah, that's so funny, it's uh, yeah. 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 have come from the theater as well, like six period times or like.
Speaker 1:When you know all that stuff was like really, really in a payday.
Speaker 2:It's not all the research that I've done. They actually think it came from either horse-shocking or pilots. Yeah, so like the early, and it all kind of started on the 1900s I thought it would have started way earlier than that. But they cannot find either a literary or like a cultural Saying reference to break a leg until the early 1900s and that was my thought was like I feel like we assume it Shakespeare. But I was like I know a lot of theater superstitions come from the industrial age, so right.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like the horsejockey thing, like it should have an emagghting. Like hey, like the most superstitious people on the planet are horsejockey who, like they need good luck to win. And so they were. There's like a couple of different things they thought the origin was from, like one could have been. Like it's either like hey, like when you, you know, when you break a leg on the finish line, so like it's a good thing, like hey, break a leg, like I hope you win oh right, right, because of the photo, finish and all that right when the leg has to pass or whatever, right, or?
Speaker 2:or it was like when you start, I guess a lot of the times the horsejockeys would you know, try to like get as close as they could to the start line and so back in the day, when it wasn't such a big deal to like break the start line, you know, back before they have like all these like really hard rules, like you would kind of let your horse break the start line with its leg, like break a leg for good luck. So one of those two, or they think it might have come from German fighter pilots, which is weird. So apparently there's like a Yiddish saying which I will not attempt to pronounce in your presence.
Speaker 2:My terrible view for not knowing the Yiddish thing.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know if you are like, I want to like say the word and you're like after that you know, but I'm like I'm wondering, like if I call my mom and 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 just terrible at our own languages? Like I don't know. I mean maybe, like I, maybe I should just pass this to your mom you know like it's like a sniff test, like is this true or are we like making this up?
Speaker 2:But yeah, so the break a leg thing. I guess I could attempt to say the 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 say that girl, I, you know, I can't say that word like 16 years later.
Speaker 2:It's like it's still eludes me the pronunciation of the holiday, which I will not attempt at the time on a recording. Okay, so the Yiddish phrase, or Hebrew blessing, namely hot salakha, you brought up. Literally translated mean success and blessing. How close, okay, I mean, I think I think it was a, it was a good attempt. You know, hebrew is a very hard language. Yeah, I take feedback. Yeah, I'm not also going to say because now I'm going to be like, but I think we have to remember that that Hebrew is like kind of very flimmy, right, there's like a lot of ha sounds in there, and I think that is maybe the only thing you're missing, okay, so, so what do you think I was trying to say? Hot salakha, you brought up.
Speaker 2:I can't even say it, because now, like now that you're doing it, I'm like is this even a thing? How do I speak Hebrew now? Um, no, I do. I do know what you're referring to and that makes sense. I just didn't realize that that related to break a leg, like I didn't realize that there was a correlation there, you know.
Speaker 2:So this is and this is where they think the correlation may have happened. So, literally translated, that means success and blessing, it says Hebrew. Blessings often convey well wishes and positive statements, which is like super nice, right. But then at some point some German people do converted that, or they heard it, they are converted it on accident, or they heard it and they were making fun of it. Like there's no real like point where it says definitively but the German phrase is Hals Unled Röckeck, which I maybe, if I actually heard the correct pronunciation. They sound the same, but to me they don't, which might have been a phonetic accent or ironic plan words, but that translates to neck and leg break.
Speaker 2:So pilots would, before they went to go fly like the Luftwaffe. They would say neck and leg break in German to each other as like a sign of good luck that they would come back unscathed. Yeah, and to me that's still something fate, with both the jockeys and the pilots Like I'm like why am I? That'd be like us, like as pilots, 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 worse when you're in an airplane. Like it just feels so much worse when.
Speaker 2:I'm not on the ground.
Speaker 2:I hope you break your neck and crash the thing into the ground. You're like cool, Thanks bro. Well, I'm glad that you guys can stay in the theater, but we cannot say it as pilots. Like I just feel like who has a better? Like I think, if I'm worrying about statistics, like I feel like more pilots die than theater people, right, and so like I think it's just like, I think it's like more, it's more of an ironic thing in theater than it is with pilots, Like I don't know, it just feels more scary with pilots.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just like like I'd really like to know, like where it started, although you know a lot of pilot traditions or just whatever like maybe these guys were like super superstitious. So yeah, and I was like there's. I was like there's no way that's true, like you and I both are pretty big into aviation, aviation history and whatever. So I looked it up in a lot of the like German fighter pilots in their autobiographies, like this is something they said to each other I was like no way.
Speaker 1:It's so crazy Um they don't know why they lost the war.
Speaker 2:But maybe we look into why that's. One of the reasons why they lost the war is because they were so they had to stop saying it and we like gave it to the theater, like, ah, we can't use it anymore, I'm punching you. You all take it. No one's fighting more than theater. Yeah, I was like this is like it was. It was so crazy and so like I don't. It just led me down this like weird rabbit hole of like so.
Speaker 2:Now I want to ask theater people like I almost want to like go up to theater people today and be like do you know the origins of this thing? Cause, like I feel like every theater person is going to is going to have the wrong.
Speaker 3:Like I don't know.
Speaker 2:This is the point of the podcast. Oh, you know, it's a big superstition in theater that I totally bypassed. That we do to this day is the ghost light. The ghost light is a huge thing in theater Like ghost light. I've never heard of ghost light, yeah. Yeah, I thought that theaters are haunted DG Devices is kind of like the whistling thing. But there's a thought that theaters are haunted for whatever reason, and so you never leave a theater completely in the dark because you don't want the ghosts to take over. So we have what's called a ghost light and, as crew, one of our things we do at the end of every night is you put a light on stage that has like a little bit of illumination, and then you leave the theater that way, and so it's called a ghost light.
Speaker 3:And so no way.
Speaker 2:So like a big like theater tattoo that people get, or like a sticker or whatever is these ghost lights? Because it's such a huge part of theater. But that's a superstition. Because you're like, oh, I can't leave the lights off in theater, like I don't want bad things to happen, and so like I can send you 500 photos of every theater I've worked in that have ghost lights on them. Because, yeah, you leave it on stage and like you leave the thing on and like that's always what happens. There's always some sort of illumination. It's usually a very like lamp, lamp post kind of looking thing. But even sometimes you just like leave like one of the side lights on. I've seen people plug in like fairy lights kind of situation, like strip, just anything to add light to the theater, so the ghost don't take over. But it's called a ghost light and that's a big superstition too. No, I think about it. I was like I'm just one of the biggest ones. That is so cool.
Speaker 1:I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So ghost lights are a huge thing and that's like your big thing is like at the end of the night you roll it out, you make sure it's plugged in, you make sure it's on, kind of part of like the last thing you do before you lock up and then obviously when you come in in the theater, you unlock the theater, you turn on the work life, you unplug the ghost light and then you go on with your business, right, and it's like a huge part of like what we do every single day.
Speaker 2:And theater is the ghost light. Yeah, okay, and I'm telling you, I've been in theaters that I'm like is the theater haunted Like I was in a theater one and no shit. Like there were a couple times I would be getting in and out, so the SM area we call from is called the booth and I would get in and out of the booth and you kind of had to like climb into it, like I give booth, I give all the booths I work in my clever name, so I call this one the tree house because you got to like kind of shimmy your way into it. And every time I a couple of times I would get in, I feel like something kind of pushing me and I was like what is happening?
Speaker 2:And then there were times where I would turn on the lights or whatever to test them on stage, or I would turn on the sound, whatever, and then we would go to run a thing that needed the sound and all of a sudden, like all the speakers were off and I'm like I just I tested this and so like there was a few weird things, like this right when I'd be on stage, and then all of a sudden, like something would shut off on me and I'm like what is happening? Like is there like a short in the system or whatever? And then the owners, like the artistic director of the theater and stuff, were like oh yeah, we have a ghost and they had a very specific name for her, but I guess somebody was living in a room next to the theater and they heard a lot of talking and like weird stuff too, and so I don't know Everyone thinks theaters are haunted, whether it's true or not?
Speaker 2: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't know of anyone who died in a theater, right, I don't think that'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 do with the fact that these are all very, very old buildings. 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 during Shakespeare'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 a lot of history there and, yeah, it's one of those things that everyone thinks theaters are haunted, so we have ghost lights. That's so funny. Okay, we'll see.
Speaker 2:Fun fact, you can bloom in my mind and that's why I love. I love information like this, because it's always something that comes up Like someone will say something that's like very calm oh, you know where that came from. You know it's like and like it's funny because if you're learning this language, so they're called idioms where you cannot, you can't really derive the meaning of the sentence from the words themselves. You kind of have to know what the phrase is commonality to be able to understand what it is. Well yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, like in theater, we have a lot of accessibility things we do and one of them is that we put translators on stage for performances. So then that way, people who are deaf, hard of hearing get interpreted performances and so. But we but I've talked with these, with these interpreters, and they were saying that there's a huge difference between interpreting and translating right and like a lot of it comes down to, like you said, with idioms, like it's hard because you have to understand the cultural aspect of what you're translating and you can't translate word for word, Because we all know what happens when you put something through Google translate and it doesn't come out right, the right way. You have to be able to understand the cultural context and all these other things to make it make sense to somebody who doesn't have the context right.
Speaker 2:So yeah it's all super fun, it's all super fascinating. But, like in theater, when we have these translators work, we sometimes have to make agreements, like if in Hunchback of Notre Dame, like when Fifth Avenue did it, they put quasi-modo on and he was a hard of hearing actor and so they had to make like Esmeralda quasi-modo. They had to make sign language for those words, right, Instead of just spelling it out all the time.
Speaker 2:And now those are common parts, not common parts of sign language.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if everyone in you know who does ASL knows that quasi-modo is this one thing, but at least in Seattle it ended up being like a newly accepted word, right, and so it's just interesting how you can like impact things like that. Yeah, that's so crazy. I guess I never thought about it. Like if you had the term break a leg in a performance, instead of saying break a leg, the translator would have to hear that and be like good luck If they wanted it to translate correctly to the audience, which you wouldn't think about. It's just something that is very common in our language and so I that's why I don't know. I'm really hoping that I can like 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're translated, they come over to America or they're created here, but I think in different seasons it would be very interesting to do other languages and their translations of idioms that we don't normally hear here in America.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for instance like if you think about even just how much English is deepened to Christian culture, right, but there are cultures that like don't have hell, right, so we say go to hell, and that's a very common meaning. But then what do you do with a culture that doesn't have hell, right? And there are other ways in which that same meaning is infused, but they don't say go to hell, like, obviously, jewish people don't technically say go to hell, it's not like a thing. So, yeah, so it just depends on the things and like it's interesting how it also changes when you have different languages thrown into the mix. So yeah, yeah, so I'm like, ah, I really want to do this.
Speaker 1:I love it, so we'll see I love you.
Speaker 2:I hope you have an amazing week. Awesome thanks, girl, you're the best. Give everyone hugs for me. Do you work in theater and what are you doing theater? Yes, I work in theater.
Speaker 3:I am a director, playwright, actor and theater teacher.
Speaker 2:Great, and where do you think the original origin of the saying break a leg comes from?
Speaker 3:Actually, it's a very contested origin story. The most common one, and one of the ones I learned, dates back to early stages, in which there was a rake or an angle to the stage and when actors would get into their performance and move slowly, slowly down towards closer to the audience. They would. There was a space between where the stage and the audience was and they would fall because they were so into their performance. Hence, breaking a leg meant you're really into your performance, You're doing supposedly really well.
Speaker 2:Oh, I had never actually heard that. That's fascinating and that's because in London all the stages are super rakes, right, I suppose?
Speaker 3: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, and so actually what we consider a theater space is also a little bit contested.
Speaker 2:Do you have any personal superstitions and do you have any theater-specific superstitions?
Speaker 3:Ooh, yes, you don't say. The Scottish plays real name on stage.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, I said the same thing. I was like Mackers. I don't even say it outside the theater, nope.
Speaker 3:Well, if I'm in a theater space, a performance space, that's usually when I make sure not to say it. I don't even say it in our house.
Speaker 2:I don't want to invite that in.
Speaker 3:It's also make sure a ghost light always goes on. And what is the ghost light? Ok, so a ghost light is typically usually just some sort of lamp or really kind of like any light that must stay on even after everyone has left the space, because one of the superstitions that's related to it is that there are theater ghosts. So, again, different origin stories, but, you know, like ghosts of past performers who have been in that space or who died in that space, I don't actually know. But the idea is that the theater ghosts need light and that it is good luck to keep those lights on.
Speaker 2:And we don't say good luck, we say Brick-a-Lake, right, you say Brick-a-Lake.
Speaker 3: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 word equivalent. I thought it was the S word equivalent. Oh, I don't know. Babe, you speak French. I know it in a theater context.
Speaker 2:And what is?
Speaker 3:the point of it, though? The point of it is again to avoid saying good luck and it's like you know, have a great performance, get really into it, right, it's so good. You're like swear word, it's so good. Oh, wrestling in a theater space, that's considered bad luck. Again. Origins of before fancy automation whoever is operating these flies would communicate via whistles. So if you accidentally give that signal that it's not supposed to be dropped, then it will, drop it will drop, you will die.
Speaker 2:Supposedly, that is the thing, Any other theater superstitions, Do you have any specific ones Like I was talking about?
Speaker 3:like even two-dose, right, Two-show day, we say two-dose, oh yeah yeah, I personally don't ever say, oh, wow, it's going to be a good house 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:Oh, that's smart. I haven't thought of that, but that's true. You want to be like because you'll say have a good show, but you're not like it's going to be a blank, it's going to be a good show, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, theater superstition Less superstition, I think, but I guess maybe the ritual Do not. I do not read reviews on the day they come out. I usually wait until after the show.
Speaker 2:So you're one of those that doesn't like to know about the reviews while the show is running.
Speaker 3:Absolutely not. I don't like to know if there are press in the audience, or famous people.
Speaker 3:Or famous people, I don't care about that. My personal superstition is that there just has to be a very specific few warm-up exercises that I must do. It depends on the show and on the character, but it usually involves some sort of vocal and physical warm-up and I always want to greet the space, because, going back to the ghost, light and theater ghosts or if there are resident spirits in your space, I always try to make good friends with them, so you always greet them. Hello and goodbye. That's my biggest theater superstition. Yeah, thank you Max. Thank you, max, so much, all right, all right.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap for today. I'll leave you here with these intellectual snacks to think about, and you can tell me what you think by leaving us a comment on the podcast or sending us an email to myunoriginalthoughtpodcast at gmailcom. I want to hear from you and, as always, like and subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss a new episode. We'll see you next time and, as always, keep being inquisitive. Thank you.