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RE: DandD13: What's in your Myth Stack?
There are so many superstitions in the theatre community, but how many of them are myths?
I think the lesson of many of them is, "whether you believe or not, best to let those who believe carry on. It hurts no one and gives us all a sense of community." I mean of course, reference to The Scottish Play, whistling in the theatre, breaking a leg, and, of course, the idea of theatre ghosts. A little belief in whimsy helps smooth things over in stressful times. If I can blame a ghost instead of the lighting board op, I think we'll all be a lot happier.
:) that's true.
The myths we ended up talking about were actually more like dressing-room gossip - y'know "when I was just starting out, I worked with Dickie Attenborough and he used to tell this great story about..." connecting with the oral history of stagecraft as well as establishing person reputation through association with the greats. Now a lot of those stories get trotted out on chat shows, and some get turned into plays or movies themselves but you want to hold some back to maintain that sense of community and belonging. Thanks for the thoughts.
Oh, interesting! I suppose I've heard those over the years, but never examined their mythology.