John Pemble, the President of Broadstone Players, tells this story about the group he was with in Kent during the days of frequent blackouts. The play they were doing was an oldfashioned play, probably LADIES IN RETIREMENT, and the lights failed on the first night, just before the curtain was due to go up.
They rustled up a supply of candles, which were spread along the front of the stage like footlights, and in fact every flat surface on stage which could accommodate a candlestick or candlebra. The effect was eerie, but as there was a murder at the end of the first act it made first class theatre. Fortunately the lights came on during the first interval and saved the audience from going blind.

Ken Greaves, a longstanding stage manager at Ferndown drama, says the when the group were doing OUR MISS FLINT, a comedy/thriller by Robert Churchill, part of the set consisted of a trellis covered with flowers and creepers. There was a point in the action where they go all dramatic and one of the characters points to the trellis and says, "Look" - as soon as the gaze of the audience and cast were directed to the trellis, a butterfly chose that moment to fly out and flit around for a moment before disappearing up towards the lights. It caused a tremendous laugh, but unfortunately they were unable to repeat the incident on succeeding nights.

Robert Powell tells a story about Zefirelli, the legendary Italian film director, during the fiming of JESUS OF NAZARETH. Before one dramatic scene they had been discussing lunch, then the filming restarted and the cameras rolled. Ian MacShane, playing one of the disciples had to go to the door - turn and look back rather poignantly, turn and go out. When the scene rolled, Ian got to the door, turned and then said, "Let me see, it was 1 hake, 3 haddock, 6 cod and 4 mushy peas." The cast collapsed. When order was restored Zefireeli said, "What are these mushy peas?".
The apocryphal story about Z and that film, however, was when he was talking about the apostles. "How many were there?", he said. "Twelve", they said. "Too many", he replied, "can't we just have six and double up?"