About 75 minutes into the opening night of A Girl With Sun In Her Eyes last night (June 30), peals of thunder rocked The Second Stage, the Wrigleyville storefront theater playing host to the world premiere of Joshua Rollins’s play.

Then the heavens opened for a short, violent cloudburst, but it was all over by the time the cast took their curtain calls 15 minutes later … except for the three inches of water that had flooded the basement dressing rooms, pouring in under the backdoor and down the stairs.

However, nothing could dampen the spirits of the all-pro company, which was celebrating not only an opening night, but also the first production by Pine Box Theater after a three-year hiatus, and now operating under an Actors Equity Association contract as well.

Going ‘way back to playhouses of the late 18th and 19th centuries, dressing rooms traditionally were located in the flood-prone basements of theaters, which is how the superstition began that it’s bad luck for actors to leave their shoes on the dressing room floor.

Actors always put their shoes up on a shelf.

See? Some superstitions are true!