What an Opening!

In the spring of 2002, I had my first outing as director with "Dial 'M' for Murder." I remember sitting up in the light booth with the light operator - I think it was Megan Baznik - on opening night waiting for the show to start when we noticed the audience reacting to something on the floor we couldn't see from our vantage point. Turned out it was a sick and/or injured bat that had somehow, some way gotten into the auditorium and was crawling across the floor. The most surreal moment was when it started making its way across the front of the auditorium. From the booth, it looked for all the world like the audience members in the front row were doing the wave, but with their legs and in slow motion. Some resourceful person - I think was Maryhelen - saw to it that the poor thing got scooped up and removed safely from the theater, and the show went on. That's an opening I'll never forget -