08/25/2013: Thank you to the anonymous former worker at Dave Finkelman Auditorium for sending in first-hand paranormal experiences at the theatre. The witness heard footsteps and spoke to another tech who also heard someone walking on the catwalk. These events seemed to happen when they were alone in the building. Interestingly, the contributor says the ghost is actually that of a former theatre patron, not a former director as has been previously reported.
I worked at Dave Finkelman in college and have some first hand experiences with the ghost. First off, the ghost wasn’t a former director, he was a man who died while attending one of the performances. He was heckling the actors pretty badly and halfway through, started making a loud snoring sound. When the show ended, it was discovered that he had suffered some kind of heart attack and subsequently had died.
The ghost himself is of the noisy variety. You can hear him walk up and down the halls. He scared the piss out of me one night when I was there alone. I had locked all the doors after a rehearsal let out and heard the clear sound of footsteps coming up the hallway. I called out, thinking a theatre-goer was still there and I had turned the lights out on them. The footsteps come right up to where I’m standing in the light coming in from the street and just stop. Nothing, no one is there! I turned on all the lights, searched the theatre and it was just me there.
Another night I heard him walk down the stairs and right up to the door of the director’s office (I was again alone during rehearsals). This became commonplace after a while. One of the other theatre techs mentioned hearing the ghost come up onto the catwalk when he was alone there at night. I never experienced the pipe smoke you mentioned and I worked there for three years.