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We were directing a group of non-actors the other week who had bravely been "volunteered" by their boss to put on one of our pantomimes. We decided to start the rehearsal by getting them familiar with the stage and the directions written in the script i.e. stage left, down stage, front of tabs etc which of course we all take for granted but were complete gobbledegook for them! It got us thinking, what other weird and wacky things do us theatre people do or say?! So here's 8 Weird and Wacky Theatre sayings to which you may or may not know the origin!
Do people really wish their fellow actors actual bodily harm during a theatre performance? No, of course not – (unless they’re being a complete diva obviously!) but it is believed to be very ‘bad’ luck to say “good luck” in the theatre. In the earliest forms of theatre in Ancient Greece, audiences didn’t clap or applaud a performance they enjoyed, they stamped their feet instead. The actors knew they had done a truly great job if someone in the audience stomped so vigorously that legs were broken! Is this true? Who knows?...but it makes a good story! Other, less gruesome suggestions for the origin of the phrase are that in Elizabethan theatre, appreciative audiences would bang their chair on the floor and the production would be deemed a great success if chair legs were broken as a result.
During the 1600s, rigging was a popular way to ‘fly’ scenery and props – and presumably Peter Pan - into theatres. This system was very similar to the rigging on sailing ships so it wasn’t long before sailors started to be part of the theatre crew. They brought with them a way of communication through a series of whistles that had been used on ships. Different combinations of whistles meant the signal to raise or lower scenery. This meant that anyone idly walking across the stage below, whistling to themselves could be in danger of being walloped by scenery. So why is this still a ‘thing’ in modern theatre, when headsets are used to communicate backstage? Why? – tradition dahling!!
Nowadays we think of someone who is constantly in the public eye as being in the spotlight – never shying away from the limelight, (or probably more truthfully “well, they’ve obviously got an album, film, book to promote, they’re on everything!”) In the early 1800s an alternative to gas lighting was needed in theatres to create enough light to illuminate the stage. This was found after studying the lighting used on ships travelling along dark coastal routes. By heating calcium oxide with a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen ‘limelight’ was created. Theatres began to use this mixture as lighting in the 1830s as the first form of spotlights – hence, someone being in the spotlight…the limelight…is the centre of attention.
We now use this phrase as an indication of being unprepared for a situation – “I’ll just wing it and see what happens!” Strangely, this is exactly what it means in the theatre. An actor who is unprepared – and most certainly hasn’t followed our previous blog advice on how to learn your lines! – will find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to rely on the prompt sitting in the wings. Not only does this provide a disappointing experience for the audience, it doesn’t help the other actors or the director’s blood pressure! Some unprepared actors have been known on occasion to stick a page of text in the wings as an aide de memoir! (Who me? Guilty M’Lud)
You should never, ever say “Macbeth” inside a theatre but always refer to it as “the Scottish play”. In the same way the title character and his wife should be called “the Scottish lord and lady”. But why? Well, like most things, it all comes down to money. Due to this play being a great crowd pleaser, and therefore seat filler, Shakespeare’s play was often performed when a theatre was having financial difficulties and began to be associated with failure. Anyone saying “Macbeth” inside a theatre could be responsible for bringing financial ruin to the company.
We use the word slapstick – especially in farce and pantomime, to denote prat falls, custard pies and general organised mayhem! The word originally comes from a prop used in Italian theatre…the batacchio… 2 thin slats of wood that bang together, causing a ‘slapping’ noise – literally a slap stick! Actors could repeatedly hit each other with it without causing physical damage, all to great hilarity from the audience.
As an audience member, you may not have even noticed but actors in pantomime have very defined sides of the stage to enter and exit. As an actor stands on the stage, the entrance to the left is called “stage left” – even though to the audience perspective it is right! The good fairy will always use the ‘stage right’ entrance but the baddies (BOO! – sorry, habit!) in your production should always enter and exit from this ‘stage left’ – why?... The Italian word for left is “sinistra” – or sinister, in English. A somewhat ‘hidden’ meaning behind the reason, but tradition is tradition!
Traditionally the final lines of a pantomime are in rhyming couples, summing up the storyline in just a few sentences. Telling us the fate of the baddie and the happily ever after of the rest of the cast. These lines are NEVER said during rehearsals and should be first uttered at the end of opening night. Why? We have absolutely no idea! Please get in touch and let us know if you have the answer!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Sarah and Helen 🎅🏻
