In my defense, what Chris fails to mention is that was probably the tenth time that night I had been sent by him to quiet down the "chatty" actors. Also worth noteing is that calling a conversation between Puke and Coker "chatty" is akin to calling a Husquavana chainsaw "a mild hum." That not withstanding, I did later feel bad as the offending party in this case was as I recall Pat Tabor, who was normally quiet as a church mouse.
Working with Chris and company was an interesting experience to say the least. We had no budget for props, so we found ways to manufacture what we needed from what we found laying around. A cane was required for Dracula to break a mirror in one scene, and we had to obtain both from what we had on hand. We stole the mirror from an apartment originally used for the night watchman, and as it was broken each night it became smaller and smaller, until in the end it was the size of a postcard. As it was taped to it's backing to prevent glass from flying into the crowd it became harder and harder to break. The cane began it's life as the coat rack in the lobby. Each night Chris and I would steal another section and I would take it home and lovingly craft it into a gentleman's cane, which was broken the next night trying to smash an increasingly smaller mirror. In addition, we needed a gunshot to coincide with the attempted shooting of Dracula. For this we used caps and a 12 lb. hammer we had found amongst the tools in the back room. Every night Chris complained that the gunshot was not loud enough, so that in the end we had about 6 rolls of caps duct taped to the head of the hammer. When I struck it to what we used as an anvil, the shock was so strong it blew the hammer out of my hand, and that night's shot was followed with the sound of the hammer slamming into the floor.
Then there was the day of the crickets. The Olde West was teetering on the brink of finacial disaster at the time, and so to sell more tickets they had matinee shows for one of the local middle schools (Blountville I think). Instead of having dinner for the kids, the theatre served free popcorn. Imagine 250 children eating popcorn in unison, and then imagine trying to preform or hear stage ques in what sounded like a room full of gigantic crickets.
Until reading Chris's posting I had not thought of Dracula in years. Now I remember why.....