“The Scientific Ghosthunter” by Christopher Tillman
(c) 1998, revised 1999, 2002, 2024
Concerts, plays, pageants, and musicals. The drama of daily life is reflected and performed year-round in theaters all over this country. The extremes of human emotion and conflict keep audiences enthralled and coming back for more week after week.
Every state in the Union holds within its borders a handful of theaters – some old, some new – that are home to some sort of haunting activity. You can’t open a book of ghostly folklore without coming across at least two or three stories involving the supernatural infestation of theaters. It’s unavoidable.
Week after week, patrons flock to these cultural centers of the performing arts for an evening of quality entertainment, never suspecting that an entirely different performance may be playing itself out behind the scenes.
Theater workers, performers, owners, and promoters all have their tales to tell involving after-hours phantoms or disembodied voices during rehearsals – perhaps even the applause of an unseen visitor during a well-delivered soliloquoy. It’s believed that the ghosts belong to long-dead stagehands; former actors and actresses seeking to relive past glories; or even deceased theater-goers who could not stand to say goodbye. And, so they remain, locked within the aetherical confines of the one place on Earth that held such a prominent place within the hearts and minds.
Experiencers report all manner of phenomena from casual encounters with luminous apparitions to echoed voices rippling through an empty theater.
The theater season seems to be the high-point of activity, but ghosts still make their presence known year-round, with or without a packed house. From the lobby to the backstage area and catwalks, theater ghosts and the stories attributed to them are as fascinating as the performances they look down upon and, perhaps, still long to be a part of in the afterlife.
