You may have also heard the phrase “house seats” these seats are reserved by producers (the heads of house). If you’re having a problem inside the theatre, you’ll want to speak to the house manager. House The “house” can refer to a couple of things in theatre: the actual auditorium, as well as the Front of House, which includes the lobby and box office and Front of House personnel like the house manager, box office attendants, and ushers. Thus began the association of the work with failing theatres. A wildly popular play, The Scottish Play was often put on in theatres with financial troubles to attempt to reverse their fate. The superstition also extends to calling the title character the Scottish King or Scottish Lord and his wife the Scottish Lady. The Scottish Play You learned in Playbill’s “8 Rules Every Theatre Person Must Follow” never to say Macbeth inside a theatre, but to call it “The Scottish Play.” Of course, Shakespeare was a British playwright, but the euphemism refers to the Scottish setting. The day off is known as the theatre’s “dark day” for the simple fact that all the lights are off as there is no performance. It comes from the practice of playing a part without memorizing the lines, relying on the prompter in the wings or pages of text affixed to set pieces like the wing flats.ĭark Theatre or Dark Day The majority of professional productions play eight shows over six days of the week. Wing it This theatre phrase has now been incorporated into the greater colloquial lexicon, but when actors would “wing it” they were going on unprepared. Now, we continue to say that those in the limelight are the center of attention. Theatres first began using limelight in the 1830s as the first spotlight. Invented in the early 1800s, limelight was generated by heating calcium oxide with a blend of oxygen and hydrogen. In the limelight Limelight was the first gas lamp alternative for lighting theatres. In the old days, chicken was considered a delicacy by saying “chookas” you are hoping the performance will go well and make money so that the performer can afford a gourmet meal. Australians say “chookas,” which is believed to be a permutation of “chook” or chicken. “In bocca al lupo” means “in the wolf’s mouth” and the correct response is “crepi il lupo,” which means “may the wolf die”-warding off a bad omen. “Toi, toi, toi” in Germany emanates from the German/Yiddish history of spitting to ward off evil spirits and bad luck. Toi, Toi, Toi … In Bocca al Lupo … Chookas Around the world, there are yet more phrases to substitute for well wishes. The more audience members the more carriages, the more horses, the more. The origin of this tradition traces back to 19th-century Paris when attendees of the Paris Opera Ballet would pull up to the famed Palais Garnier in horse-drawn carriages. Merde Theatre performers opt for “break a leg,” but dancers commonly wish each other “merde,” which directly translates to “shit” in French. Wishing someone “break a leg” is wishing for thunderous applause. The more they stomped, the more chance there was of breaking a leg this tradition reappeared in Elizabethan England when audiences would stomp their chairs and, again, more stomping would break the leg of the chair. In Ancient Greece, audiences didn’t clap at performances, they stomped. Why do we say “merde” to wish luck to dancers? Why is staging a show called “blocking”? The answers to these and more below:īreak a Leg “It’s bad luck to say good luck on opening night,” of course, but how did we land on “break a leg”? There are a few explanations. While the list is not intended to be comprehensive, it will give you a start as to the meaning and origins of theatre staples. Playbill put together this list of crucial terms to help you better navigate the world of the stage and theatre history. But you can’t rely on Merriam-Webster to define show business colloquialisms-or let you know where they came from. The theatre truly has its own vocabulary.
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