As a supernumerary in an opera, your evenings are forfeit for almost a month, you earn only gas money and reside at the bottom of the opera hierarchy. What you’re offered in exchange is the chance to walk in off the street and work alongside musicians at the top of their profession, and to be part of a production that (hopefully) you’ll remember for years. There are a lot of unwritten rules, however…
 

Thou Shalt Not

  1. …Make an entrance without a stage manager's cue, unless overridden by thy director. (Director trumps stage manager every time.)
     
  2. …Play with the props or sit on the sets, lest they tilt or fall and make loud crashing noises offstage. (Your injury is secondary to the noise.)
     
  3. …Question thy director's instructions except to get clarification.
     
  4. …Make creative suggestions to more fully enrich and motivate thy part, unless encouraged by thy director.
     
  5. …Talk back to thy director.
     
  6. …Talk to the soloists on stage (depending on the soloists & director), or overly intrude upon them. They have much more to think about than thee.
     
  7. …Talk when thy director is talking.
     
  8. …Talk (or sing!) on stage during a production, regardless of thy inspiration from the soloists and chorus.
     
  9. …Make noise in the wings, or any place offstage where it might be heard onstage.
     

  10. (Dost thou get the impression talking is generally a bad thing?)

  11. …Leave the house until dismissed and thou knowest the call for the next rehearsal / performance.
     
  12. …Loiter in the wings during scene changes, lest thou sustain injury from a tree, rock, wooden horse, dragon, or busy stage hand.
     
  13. …Leave backstage in costume. It is disconcerting for audience members to see a helmeted Gibichung sit down next to them during dress rehearsal, or smoking a cigarette outside the stage door.
     
  14. …Wear eyeglasses or jewelry when in costume onstage.
     
  15. …Position thyself to see the audience from backstage - for verily, if thou canst see the audience, they canst probably see thee.
     
  16. …Walk along the backdrop. Thy passage creates a pressure wave that ripples across the backdrop, clearly showing thy passage to the audience.
     

Thou Shalt…

  1. …Always be where thou canst hear thy stage manager's instructions - e.g. not in the house (in advanced rehearsals).
     
  2. …Decide ahead of time how much “feedback” to take from thy director before walking off the production, so though canst better achieve #6 above.
     

Other Maxims