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Well-bred bats savor our valley�s dinner theater By Dani Dodge It had to happen. In Ashland and Jacksonville, even the bats are highbrow. The flying mammals have been spotted at Oregon Shakespeare Festival�s opening night of "Hamlet" as well as Natalie Merchant�s concert at the Britt Festival. In other parts of the country, bats are most often noticed at sporting events. Here, the bats are such regular theater-goers that some consider their nightly dances part of the performance. "The hard thing is getting them under contract," OSF executive director Paul Nicholson moaned. The bats show up just after dusk and rarely stick around for ovations or encores. They are most likely big brown bats, according to audience members, although bats can be darned difficult to identify in night flight. Eleven species of bats live in the Rogue Valley, says local bat expert Steve Cross. These culturally clued-in bats might also be Brazilian free-tail bats, he said. The Shakespeare-loving bats are most likely partaking in a little dinner theater � between soliloquies snacking on insects drawn to the bright lights. Cross, a professor of biology at Southern Oregon University, said he�s pleased that both festivals are sensitive to the importance of bats in the ecology and don�t try to shoo them away. "People are realizing how beneficial they are as natural insecticides," Cross said. "So as long as you don�t pick up a sick bat there�s no problem. They don�t carry diseases any more than any other animal." These are no ordinary belfry bats. They buy into high-priced real estate of Jacksonville and Ashland, places that draw tourists to the arts like moths to spotlights. Some roost right in the Britt Festivals gardens, while others hang out in the quaint Elizabethan architecture of downtown Ashland. But what really differentiates these bats from their blood-sucking brethren is their thirst for culture. The bats are even more bold in their desire for artistic fulfillment than the people who peek over the fence to see performances, said Arthur Wait, the marketing director at the Britt Festival. It�s been difficult for local arts organizers to determine their musical or theatrical preferences. "There are nights that go by that I don�t see them, but if they are being selective about their music we haven�t picked up the musical preferences," Wait said. "We should keep more careful track." Britt general manager Ron McUne said he�s never gotten complaints about the so-called flying foxes. "They are sort of like the deer � they are part of the wildlife scene here," McUne said. "People will notice them and point at them, but no one has ever freaked out. They seem harmless enough." At OSF, theater officials are just pleased the bats are protecting other theater patrons from mosquito bites. Bats do sometimes cause audience members to point at the sky instead of directing their attention to the stage, they say. Still, most actors and directors say they haven�t been bothered by having the creatures sporadically steal the show. "I occasionally notice the bats, but they cannot hold a candle to the flying squirrels we used to have at American Players Theater in Wisconsin," said OSF actor and director Kenneth Albers. "When one sees one of those creatures sail thirty feet or more through the air from light tower to light tower, one�s iambic pentameter can suddenly include inappropriate exclamations like, �To be or not to be ... WOW! ... that is ... GEEZ! ... the question.�" Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA