Jim Horgan: Pouladuff, Theatre, Superstitions

Jim Horgan: Pouladuff, Theatre, Superstitions

Life History:

Jim (born 1960) grew up in Croaghtamore Cottages, Pouladuff. His father was a draughtsman with Cork City Council. He was also an amateur film-maker, who made films with Jim and his siblings as actors. Some films required significant splicing by hand. His mother acted in the community as a kind of unofficial welfare worker. Jim became a photographer and graphic designer. He later became a fashion photographer, shooting models for the Fidelma Supple Agency in Cork.
As a graphic designer for Musgraves, he designed fliers by hand in the days before computers were used. He recalls the introduction of computers and new technology.
As a teenager, he preferred reading to sports and made great use of the library. Croaghtamore Cottages had been built on the site of a market garden, and the soil allowed him to conduct some amateur archaeology; he found old clay smoking pipes.
After leaving school he became involved in amateur drama and theatre, firstly with the Penny Youth Theatre; he was also involved with CAT (Cork Arts Theatre) and the Blackrock Players.
He talks about theatre superstitions.

9 October 2012

CFP_SR00424_horgan_2012

Cork, Ireland, 1960s-2000s

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Cork Folklore Project

English

Sound

1 .wav File

76min 10sec

Farranferris, Cork

.wav

24bit / 48kHz

The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material for this interview or other interviews please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com




RC: Have you ever come across any theatre superstitions in your time?

JH: Oh yes plenty you know theatre is full of superstitions. I suppose you know most people involved in theatre for any length of time would be aware of them and it’s not that they are particularly Irish in nature or in Cork for that matter I think they are just in theatre generally. So there are the usual ones, you never whistle you know it’s bad luck that’s what we’re trying to avoid. We are trying to avoid the bad luck but you never whistle in a dressing room and if you do you have to go outside the door, turn around 3 times and then come back in. And I’ve had to do that (laughs) many times because you just forget you know especially if you're involved in musical and you might start whistling one of the tunes and everybody would go “Outside the door!” and turn around. So there’s that one the obvious one you’d never wish anybody good luck you always say “Break a leg”. I don’t know where that came from, I’m sure somebody knows but one of those things you just never do you know? You just say “break a leg”. The other ones that I’ve come across over the years would be that you never say the name of the “Scottish play” as it’s called, Shakespeare’s Scottish play.

RC: Mmm.

JH: No, no I won’t say it but it’s..I know why you don’t say that because I did read up on it and it’s simply that in those times when Shakespeare’s plays were you know being toured around in theatres that when they weren’t doing very well they needed a hit. They would always roll out the Scottish play because it was a guaranteed hit because people loved it and it was full of gore and witches and everything else. So they would always roll that out so it’s not that the play its self is unlucky it’s just that if you're doing it, it’s a sign that the theatre group or company isn’t doing very well so that’s why it has this tag of being an unlucky play.

RC: But you still won’t say it.

JH: Still won’t say it because I’m in a theatre at the moment and I’m not going to say it here but no you’d avoid saying that. What else is there? Trying to think now there’s a lot more. Oh, you never give…you give flowers to the leading lady but you never give them before the show, before the show opens because again it’s bad luck because if you like the leading lady hasn’t earned them at that stage. You would give them immediately after the show but never before because it’s bad luck. So there’s, there’s lots of things like that, that you just don’t do you know? And it’s not that I’d be in any other aspect of my life that superstitious but when it comes to theatre I just adhere to the traditions you know? And these are the traditions, so it’s part of what you do and I suppose it’s out of respect as well for the theatre traditions that are there and to continue them you know?

RC: You would view it more as a tradition than a superstition maybe?

JH: Well I suppose it’s mixed because again even though as I said for me it’s the traditional side of theatre. I still will you know if necessary go out and turn around 3 times and come back in.

RC: Even if no one tells you too?

JH: Even if no one tells me too you know I still will because theatre is you know that sort of profession where fear goes along with it and fear is an interregnal part of it. You know the fear of will I remember my lines, will I make a fool of myself or will it go, will it be accepted? So and that fear is necessary to have an acceptable performance, you need some level of nerves. So it’s an interregnal part of it and people involved in theatre just live with fear and thankfully it only relates to when we’re in the theatre but the fear is there and the traditions the superstitions if you like that raise their heads every so often are part of that. That if we don’t it this way then it won’t be as good as it could. The last show I was involved in it was funny to see backstage the people all had their little rituals you know and again it’s part of the rehearsal thing that we do. Everything is repetition, everything is getting it right down to the last detail and people had their little rituals where they’d have everything in its place in the dressing room and you know God forbid if you moved it you know that’s the place for it and that’s where it is. Then you’d have people walking up and down backstage pacing because that’s what they do just getting into the role. There are little things that you know are technical things that we need to do as actors before performance and part of that is trying to loosen up the face, the muscles in around the mouth so there are little exercises that we can do which sort of stretch the mouth into you know very contorted shapes at times and I remember one instant where there was an actor in the wings doing these contorted faces and the exercises and someone thought they were actually having a heart attack because it was so strange looking but these are the things unless your involved with theatre you do think they are very strange but anyone involved in theatre thinks it’s quite normal you know so it does have it’s own quirks but yea I mean even though we accept that the fear will always be there and should be always there we're still quite happy to do you know because it is it’s very fulfilling at the end of the day.