“My hand keep itching. That means I'm getting ready to come into some new money. The bottom of my feet itching, unless it's raining, then you're paying it out.”
Every culture has sayings, spells and superstitions. Artistic Director Nate Jacobs has woven many into a new musical comedy inspired by his mother and grandmother.
“Because in every culture, every race, the women of our races, they carry that thread of culture through life,” said Jacobs.
In Jacobs’ experience, it’s the role of the matriarchs in Black society to pass along tales and traditions to their progeny and their offspring.
“We grew up around that,” Jacobs added. “We hear those exchanges through life. Whether we decide to propagate it in our lives, that's a part of culture. It's a part of life.”
Many of the old wives tales and superstitions that Jacobs features in his musical cross racial and ethnic divides. Jacobs finds that refreshing.
“At the end of the day, we are very much alike,” Jacobs observed. “We all dream and we all hope. We all cry. We all hurt. We all experience joy. We experience heartache. We are more alike than we will ever be unlike each other.”
“Lies, Spells and Old Wives Tales” runs in the Donnelly Theatre through May 17.
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“Lies, Spells and Old Wives Tales” celebrates the spirit, identity, and cultural essence of a people. The show spotlights the sayings, beliefs, values, fables, stories, and traditions that are passed down from generation to generation and become the fiber and foundation that establishes the conventions and traditions of a people.
Whether reiterated on front porches, at Sunday dinner or beauty salons, some of the more enduring superstitions passed down through the generations in Black culture include:
- If your ear is ringing, someone is talking about you.
- If you keep making funny faces, one day you face will get stuck that way.
- If you break a mirror, you will have seven years of bad luck.
- It’s bad luck to cross a black cat’s path.
- Never buy your boyfriend or husband shoes as a gift because he’ll walk out your life with them.
- Knock on wood to avoid bad luck.
- A bird flying into your home signals bad news.
- An itchy foot means you are about to travel. So if your foot will not stop tingling, pack a bag.
- Do not put your purse on the floor or else it’s money out the door.
- Dreaming about fish means someone is pregnant.
More about the musical and WBTT’s ‘Soul of a People’ season
The musical is a father-son collaboration. Nate Jacobs wrote the music and lyrics with his son, Michael, contributing the book for the musical, which the elder Jacobs also directs.
This is the final production of Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe’s “Soul of a People” season.
“When we woke up into this thing called life, we were who we were,” Jacobs observed. “And so I think the best thing for us to do, which I hope the season here at WBTT would inspire this kind of consciousness, is that we really continue to work on understanding each other and getting along here in this one thing we call the world before we move on and then other people show up. But what kind of values and understanding or unity, thoughts and encouragements of unity will we leave behind us for our children and grandchildren?”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
