The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-04-29
SUPERSTITIONS OF The STAGE

iously, II thought you were in Buffa-
To-"
l replied easily that l had begun to
feel lonesome, and thought I would
come on. But this did not seem to
satisfy him. He observed that look
ed excited, and asked what was the
matter.
ooh, just out of breath, coming up
the stairs" I said. I made my way
to the back of the theater, deeply
mystified, hoping to get some infor-
nation concerning this strange hal
lucination, if it was really that. But
everything was going on smoothly. I
asked myself if it was possible that
my brain, hypnotized by fear and
anxiety, had worked that strange eff
feet upon the printed sheet
Very carefully and smilingly I led
up to the subject with the stage man
ager. Quite indifferently I observed
to him that I had been surprised TO
see at the station a three-sheet to the
effect that Monday evening was to be
LAS You Like It."
EYES," he said, Eve saw that, and
we all threw a fit-'As You Like It
tonight, and Mary Shaw in Buffalo.
We had a beautiful time-mental tur-
moil to beat the band-for half an
hour. Then we got to the theater,
and found that the printer had
| thrown off a few sheets wrong; but
that most of the printing was all right
and also the stuff in the newspapers. y
I asked him about what time it was
that the mental turmoil" had occur
red, and found that it was identically
the time I had suddenly been seized
with that unaccountable uneasiness in
Buffalo.
Everybody has some prevailing
form of nightmare. But with the ac-
tor it is almost always a dream of
being somewhere and unable to get
to the theater, although he feels that
it is time to ring up the curtain. An
other common nightmare is that Of
being in the dressing room in the the.
alter and having no clothes to put on
and no way of getting any, while one
hears the lines march steadily on
towards his cue, and everybody is
yelling and shouting to him to come
on. All actors dread this dream, and
they almost all have it. Each indi-
vidual actor interprets it according to
his particular dread, either in a bust
ness or in an artistic way. 1t some
times visits them before the produc-
ton Of a play, and they are then in
clined to construe it as a warning of
failure, either of the play or of the
dreamer's particular part. 1t is clear
that the actors nerves at this time
make him sleep badly and dream, and
it is natural that the fear that per
vades everything should shape the
nightmare
Actors are generally charged with
being superstitious. Whether or not
they are more superstitious than 9TH
er persons, I really do not know They
have some very strong superstitions.
however; but these have been on the
wane during the last fifteen years.
When | first became an actor the in
huence of superstition in the profess
sion was very powerful but, as I had
a somewhat sensible and analytical
mind, I saw beyond or back of many
of these beliefs, and used to do re-
form work in trying to show how lit
tie mystery there really was in them,
after all,
One of the most powerful of the ac-
tors superstitions is that it is bal
luck for two persons to look into a
looking glass at the same time. The
result Of such a thing is that one or
the other will meet with disaster. At
first this seemed quite occult. But
when one stops to think what nuis-
lnce It can become in a dressing
room for two or three women to be
on looking in one glass at