COUNT DRACULA
(1975-76)
As the writer of a review in “The St.Croix Courier” so eloquently put it, “Count Dracula” was “a bloody good show”! Our production of “Count Dracula” provided chills and thrills throughout the performance as bats “flew” over the audience, Dracula leaped into the unsuspecting theatre patrons provoking many a scream, loud gunshots were heard suddenly, and the proverbial “buckets of blood” flowed at times during the show. As the writer said: “Pure entertainment. Let’s have much more of it. (please see the Courier review in its entirety).
The bat that “flew” over the audience was on a transparent nylon guide wire that took the bat from the back of the stage to the theatre balcony - flying slowly over the heads of the audience. The bat was in place on a hook at the back of the stage set and was to be released from the hook on a certain cue line...the controllers of the bat’s flight were to “reel” the bat along the guide wire until it reached the end of its flight. One performance the stage crew member whose job it was to release the bat from its hook failed to hear the cue line...the flight controllers started reeling the bat but, of course, it wouldn’t move. The controllers panicked and started reeling the bat harder.....the wire got tighter and tighter then, finally, the crew member realised his mistake and unhooked the bat which rocketed out of the scenery, zoomed over the audience and broke all speed records for bats flying in a theatre!!!! The bat did, however, provoke the required audience screams and as our stage manager so eloquently put it, “the bat flew over the audience like a bat out of Hell”
