Jenny Simpson

Director, National Folk Festival
Yeah – you have to hold a button when you see an ambulance otherwise you’ll be the next one in it! This one came from my mother and had me wondering as a child that, if , no button could be found, my belly button might suffice. Personally I don’t subscribe to this particular superstition anymore, although I still think about it every time I see an ambulance!
Regards
Jenny

Gerry Sont

You are bound to get lots of the same here;

• Never say "macbeth" in the theatre as its bad luck.
• If you do say macbeth then go outside and turn around three times >
• Never say good luck - say break a leg
• There is a ghost in the Princess Theatre named Federichi an opera singer who died coming out of the trap door during a performance in 1930? and now appears during tech rehearsals but he also haunts the corridors. Bert Newton says he has seen him
• Never peep out between curtains to audience as this is bad luck and unprofessional ie never check the house as that sets your performance level
  You never put Glass on stage as actors will always drop that glass and smash it.
• Sensible producers always provide hard plastic.
• Things tend to go wrong in three's - as per normal life. eg La Cage aux Folles - Her Majesty's 1987- the big entrance for John Ewing Act 2 the door was originally slightly jammed by Keith Michell, at John entrance it - came right off its hinges (audience in hysterics) and finally a platter of finger food went into the Orchestra pit...everyone will have similar experiences
• If you have had a miserable final dress tech then the omens are good for a great opening night. Conversely, - if your final dress tech has gone smoothly, you can bet your bottom dollar that something will go drastically wrong on opening night
• Second nights are always shockers after the buzz of opening nights.
• If you want to get work - book a holiday. Jobs always seem to come up as soon as you book a holiday to go away.
• Jobs come in three's - yep, 2 years without work and you get three jobs at once and have to turn 2 down. That kills you!!
• And finally, There is something really special about sitting on the stage in a darkened theatre. Either before the crew have arrived or late when everyone has left . You sit or stand centre stage with just the workers on (lights)and peer out into the dimly lit auditorium. And if you sit quietly....just watching the seats, the colours, the shape of the theatre, you start to feel the souls of the thousands of audience members who have, over the years, sat in those seats and filled the theatre. And if you listen close, you can sometimes hear the echoes of their laughter and tears as they were amused and moved by the great actors who trod the boards before you. And for a moment, an actor feels they are where they belong and that, perhaps, their life has meaning.

Eddie Perfect

www.eddieperfect.com
Hey Warren,
I got your email, and while I am completely non-superstitious and have pretty much zero ritual, I thought I'd drop you a line anyway. I don't where your research and information will take you, but I thought it may be worth investigating and researching the link between theatre, ritual, superstition and obsessive compulsive disorders. I know a couple of actors/ performers who have quite intense systems of physical gestures, rituals, practices etc that are the direct result of a disorder. If they don't perform this system of tasks and gestures in certain quantities (usually even numbers) then they have an overwhelming fear that something bad might happen to them.
Anyway, I know your project is probably dealing more with the idea of a ritual, superstition that is not actually attached to a disorder... but I thought it would be worth bringing it to your attention, as I don't believe anyone's really explored this in-depth.