There’s an old tradition that one does not whistle backstage in a theatre. Like most theatrical traditions, you don’t question it, but nevertheless I often wondered about it.
And for years I taught the reason for this in my Intro to Theatre course; I don’t know if I read this, or just made it up, but here it is.
Theatrical rigging is similar to sailing ship rigging. Sailors would have been hired to work backstage on the theatre’s rigging when they weren’t at sea.
On a ship, someone would blow a whistle to signal changes in the orientation of the sails.
And so: If you had sailors backstage and someone whistled, but not everyone heard it, some of the crew (because we call the backstage people “crew” as we call personnel on a ship) would start hoisting while others did not. This could make for an uncomfortable moment when a part or half the set changed and the rest didn’t. It would be like that scene in the Marx Brothers’ movie A Night at the Opera when Harpo goes swinging around the overhead ropes and various elements of scenery fly in and out at random.
Again: I don’t know if this is true and I read it somewhere or if it’s just an educated guess. But it makes sense.
And as I always told my students: question everything and everyone, including me.
MUSOFYR 