Comments on: 7 Times Someone Said ‘Macbeth’ And Things Went Wrong

By: Hanna

Hanna — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 17:38:24 +0000

In reply to Aqua. I was in the audience watching my older sister perform in the play "Little Shop Of Horrors." Once the play was finished, my parents and I left the auditorium and met my sister in the hall. She ended up telling us this weird story about some dude known to be a trouble maker start talking about 'The m-word.' Turns out, some irresponsible dunce on stage crew decided it'd be funny to lean into the actors that were about to go onstage and said it more than once! The kids about to go on stage couldn't do anything about it because they were performing in, like, ten seconds, so they waited out the part to see if anything bad would happen. At some point, the dude who said the m-word tripped and fell and hit his knee on the metal staircase that led to the top of the stage. According to the kids backstage, his knee began to bleed violently and the stage crew had to take the boy to the nurse to bandage it! Honestly, I did feel kind of sorry for him, but that should teach him to think twice before messing around.

By: kim

kim — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 17:04:07 +0000

I just closed up a production of hairspray last night and luckily our closing night was fine, but the Friday between the Thursday matinee and closing Saturday was a disaster. we believed friday was going to be good since 1. It was being recorded, 2. It was a night show so there would be more preparation, 3. It was closing for some people who were double cast like me, 4. Our matinee was naturally lack-luster due to the small audience and the stressful rush immediately after school. We thought our “bad performance” was already over with. However, we were so wrong. Apparently one of the techs who wasn’t working the show that day was watching the show in the audience and thought it would be a funny idea to say the name of Scottish play. Additionally, many MANY people were saying “good luck” to each other instead of “break a leg.” Well it was BAD. During “mama I’m a big girl now” I (playing amber Von tussle) somehow missed singing my ENTIRE “once upon a time I used to play with toys…” verse without even realizing. It was super creepy too, it was almost as if I blanked out or my mind went on autopilot because I thought I was singing, but I wasn’t. Apparently something similar happened to our penny and she also said she jumped in too early for one of her solo lines. Both me and the girl playing penny ended up crying backstage afterwards. After that I heard countless stories of people blanking out, missing their lines/cues, etc. one of the biggest incidents of that night was that during “run and tell that” our little Inez cracked twice during her solo and then ultimately blanked out, and she ran off stage early and started having a mental breakdown. The ironic thing was that right before that she was telling ME not to cry after my mess up in mama I’m a big girl now. She was so upset that she almost didn’t go on for the rest of the show and she would have her double go on for her. Luckily she pulled through and came on at the end despite missing some record hop scenes. once act 1 was over, one of the jail cells for “the big dollhouse” somehow fell into the pit. During “the big dollhouse” luckily nothing terrible happened but I did feel that my wig was loose and i could feel it bouncing during the dance breaks. It didn’t fall off but it was very uncomfortable. I’m not sure what exactly happened during the rest of act 2 since I wasn’t onstage until “it’s hairspray,” but the guy who played link told me that unintentional mistakes just kept on happening. To add the cherry on top to this whole mess, even though the entire miss hairspray sequence from “its hairspray” to “cooties” to “you can’t stop the beat” went fine, there was a girl in the audience crying. And she was crying LOUD. I felt bad because I think the girl had a disability but it was extremely disruptive to the performance and her father was asked to take her outside multiple times but he refused. It was overall a very disappointing way to end my run as amber, and the worst part was, the entire performance was filmed. We were supposed to film the last Friday and closing night, but even though closing went amazing, it wasn’t filmed because the filmographer’s parents wouldn’t let her come to the show that night. We only found out at the Denny’s afterparty and people were MAD. So now the only recording we have of our production of hairspray is a recording of the night someone said the m-word.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 14:58:35 +0000

We performed The Scottish Play when I was a senior in high school. To this day, I’m convinced that the department was cursed the rest of the year because of this show. Our shop flooded every opening night. We had sound issues during our musical. And closing night of the Scottish play, there was a major thunderstorm that caused the power to go out at the end of the show. The emergency lights came on at the back of the house and we got a pity standing ovation??

By: Veronika

Veronika — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 20:30:06 +0000

The offender has to leave auditorium/theatre (depending om whom you ask), knock, wait until someone from inside invites him/her back, run to the stage, turn round three times counterclockwise and say a curse word. At least that’s how I’ve been taught it.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Tue, 15 May 2018 18:20:12 +0000

I have never said the dreaded word, but I have done school and community theatre since age 10. I have many gems to contribute.
1. My first role in school theatre was a Frog in Sleeping Beauty Kids. We had 3 Frogs. All of us shared a line. One of them didn’t show up, the other one’s mic wasn’t working. I said the line for her! I technically saved the show, right?
2. We did Winnie the Pooh Kids when i was in 5th grade. I played a Bird in the Animal Chorus. The rest of the Animal Chorus was 4th graders. We missed a cue in “The Backson Song”
3. I played a reindeer in my 5th grade Christmas chorus show. The reindeer sang “Mister Santa.” We had mic stands instead of body mics. I stood too close to the mic and had feedback. I’m pretty sure that was on tape.
4. For an Arbor Day concert in 3rd grade, I was in charge of greeting everyone and telling the history of Arbor Day. My hands were shaking while I was speaking! It got on tape as well :/
5. I played Adella (one of Ariel’s sisters) as while as an unnamed Princess in The Little Mermaid Jr. I accidentally sang one of Flounder’s solos in “She’s In Love.” It wasn’t really noticeable though 🙂 Someone misplaced Scuttle’s mic during tech, but we did find out.
6. My middle school did Grease twice (it was the school edition but we still had to cut some things out, even though I think Grease is too risqué for any middle school) One of the girls playing Patty Simcox lost her shoes and later one of the guys who alternated between Kenickie and Sonny admitted that he misplaced them.
7. Willy Wonka Jr, fall 2013. We double casted this show as well. The girl who played Candy Man played a child on her off night. She yelled something offstage about the director before the Candy Man song on her mic.
8. Annie Jr, fall 2014. We used 2 dogs for Sandy: a Labradoodle and a Havanese (similar to a shih tzu) The Havanese dog sometimes ran offstage during rehearsals and I think one show as well! The girl doing photography had to catch him! Note: Don’t use small dogs for Sandy!
9. Lucky Stiff, freshman year of high school, fall 2015. It’s an off broadway musical about a Jersey chick who falls in love with a corpse who turns out to be the uncle of a British shoe salesman as they meet up in Monte Carlo. During the opening song, the corpse (played by a living guy) ‘s last will and testament to his nephew was supposed to play in the middle of the song. The choreography was that everyone had to stay in place. We literally just stood there for like 20 seconds while we waited for the last will and testament to be played! It was the last show as well 🙁
10. Sound of Music, freshman year 2016. The Captain forgot his shoes during the party, Rolf had his phone onstage and fell offstage during 16 going on 17 as Maria had to kick it under the bed, the church bells played instead of the door bell and finally, the computer in the tech booth literally just shut down and restarted. I don’t know if someone said the word.
11. Guys and Dolls. The freshman boy playing Harry the Horse had an allergic reaction to the shellfish at Carabba’s. The understudy went on and did a good job! But when the original boy came back, he was hyper after the adrenaline meds!
12. Shrek. The boy playing Young Shrek misplaced the Pied Piper’s flute on the last night. We did find it right before PP came on stage with the tap dancing rats. Don’t let child actors mess with the props!
13. Aladdin Jr (my most recent show) one of the boys playing the Princes kept singing along to solos in Prince Ali. I had a solo and tried to project over him. (he was pretty obnoxious and often getting into trouble) and as a guard I had to climb up a structure, jump, and arrest Aladdin. I wore long pants, and one of the legs got caught on the top of my boot. The other guard was late to jump off, and I was running to get him I tripped. I hurt my shin (but no bones broken/spraining) and had to ice it between shows. We were talking about it backstage. The parents working backstage were worried about me. I’m fine now.

By: Ella

Ella — Tue, 01 May 2018 10:47:58 +0000

We’re in tech week for into the woods at my theatre, and a bunch of the other actors keep saying it ( I think just to get on my nerves.) So far I have twisted my ankle ( and I’m Rapunzel so I have to climb the ladder to my tower with a twisted ankle) and then a level fell on the same ankle. The show isn’t over yet, so we’ll see what else happens!

By: Sonya

Sonya — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 16:26:03 +0000

In a production of Jane Eyre, my friend said it and one girl’s shoe broke, my parasol broke (I was Adele) and one person forgot the lines to their song!!!!!

By: AshieLovesYou

AshieLovesYou — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 07:06:30 +0000

I don’t believe in the macbeth thing, but i always avoid saying it because it upsets my castmates. I was creeped out one time though, because I was doing Disney’s Snow White and at the end of a run, one of the dwarves said it. Everyone was really upset at him, but some didn’t think much of it. The next show, our Doc walked in on crutches and we had to last minute change the choreography. Our director called up the costume designer who had to quickly come down to the theatre and look through past props after props until they found a walking stick from a show 6 years ago. Basically, the entire thing was madness.

By: eric

eric — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 03:12:14 +0000

In reply to Abby. A lot of people ensure the offender has to knock before entering the theatre again

By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 02:25:35 +0000

In reply to Abby. It depends on who you ask, but the one I've always heard is that you run around the theatre clockwise three times, spit in the direction of the director, and say the foulest curse word you can come up with. It's brutal, but it's worth it if it means your show is saved.