The BEST thing happened today in professional development at work today. We’re all in the theatre listening to a lecture I’ve already heard, and us Performing Arts teachers are in the sound booth with the window open and working on things while listening. We’re creative minds so we’re constantly thinking while listening and usually an idea or two will pop into our heads and we collaborate. If you’re familiar with the Macbeth Curse, you know to NEVER speak the name Macbeth in a theatre. Even though I’m a musician I respect the rule. I don’t even remember where I’ve heard it before so I’ve just always have known it. Now, the speaker was talking about student engagement and he was giving an English example. I wasn’t fully paying attention because I was busy writing down an idea, but he spoke one word that I picked up instantly: Macbeth. If you’ve been around PA teachers, you know we’re loud. We have to be. Our choir teacher is a classically trained soprano and can be heard across the quad, I’m a band teacher so you can hear me across the football stadium, and our theatre teacher- who was sitting next to me- can be heard down hallways. I haven’t actually heard someone say it before in a theatre, so I naturally just froze. It took our theatre teacher two seconds to realize what he had said and once she did, she ROARED before rushing out of the sound booth. The poor presenter had no idea what he had unleashed because if you’re familiar with actors, they take the curse seriously. So as I’m dying of laughter on the floor of the sound booth, our theatre teacher chases him outside to do the counter curse before coming in to give a brief lecture to the rest of the startled staff why you must never say Macbeth in a theatre. Best professional development ever.