And technicians (and probably actors) are rife with ghost stories. Nearly every theatre I've worked in has a ghost story, usually with a backstory.
The backstory here (where I work now) is that there's a woman in red who inhabits the basement areas (costume shop, dressing rooms). There was once a tunnel from our building to the (now) restaurant across the street. Supposedly, the restaurant used to be a brothel, and the women would use the tunnel to come and meet patrons after the shows at the theatre. Allegedly, the Lady in Red is one of these women. There are folks here who claim to have seen her, although I have not. The wardrobe staff reports that "she" plays tricks when there is a lead in a play wearing a red dress. (Minor stuff, but annoying, like all of the socks being in the wrong dressing rooms.)
I do firmly believe that buildings (especially theatres) have a certain "aura" to them. Most of it is composed of things like the noise of the HVAC system, or the sound of the rafters creaking. The AMT at Williams was very much like this....it sounded as if the building had a heartbeat (which was the creepiest thing in the world at 2am) until you realized that it was the rythmic thump of the HVAC. On the other hand, totally unexplained things would happen, too, like the night two of us were working onstage late at night, and the lobby doors slammed shut with no one (apparently) there. So, you roll all those things together (including the noise of voices always just out of range, and no one ever in the rooms when you look) and you have a haunted building.
I also think that theatre folks ascribe certain virtues to the ghosts--I've heard of may who are "an old stagehand who was killed a long time ago in an accident"--the idea of dying for your art/craft is compelling, I guess. Maybe ghosts act as a sort of collective conscience?
I did work at a theatre that had no ghost(story). It was a really bad working environment, with a lot of unreasonable expectations by the "senior" management. I think _they_ needed a collective conscience, and I've been heard to blame the bad things about that theatre on their lack of ghost. Or maybe no ghost would inhabit their theatre because of their bad behaviour.
Wow, I took up a lot of your comment page. Sorry about that...
Theatres are rife with ghosts
The backstory here (where I work now) is that there's a woman in red who inhabits the basement areas (costume shop, dressing rooms). There was once a tunnel from our building to the (now) restaurant across the street. Supposedly, the restaurant used to be a brothel, and the women would use the tunnel to come and meet patrons after the shows at the theatre. Allegedly, the Lady in Red is one of these women. There are folks here who claim to have seen her, although I have not. The wardrobe staff reports that "she" plays tricks when there is a lead in a play wearing a red dress. (Minor stuff, but annoying, like all of the socks being in the wrong dressing rooms.)
I do firmly believe that buildings (especially theatres) have a certain "aura" to them. Most of it is composed of things like the noise of the HVAC system, or the sound of the rafters creaking. The AMT at Williams was very much like this....it sounded as if the building had a heartbeat (which was the creepiest thing in the world at 2am) until you realized that it was the rythmic thump of the HVAC. On the other hand, totally unexplained things would happen, too, like the night two of us were working onstage late at night, and the lobby doors slammed shut with no one (apparently) there. So, you roll all those things together (including the noise of voices always just out of range, and no one ever in the rooms when you look) and you have a haunted building.
I also think that theatre folks ascribe certain virtues to the ghosts--I've heard of may who are "an old stagehand who was killed a long time ago in an accident"--the idea of dying for your art/craft is compelling, I guess. Maybe ghosts act as a sort of collective conscience?
I did work at a theatre that had no ghost(story). It was a really bad working environment, with a lot of unreasonable expectations by the "senior" management. I think _they_ needed a collective conscience, and I've been heard to blame the bad things about that theatre on their lack of ghost. Or maybe no ghost would inhabit their theatre because of their bad behaviour.
Wow, I took up a lot of your comment page. Sorry about that...