Ghosts and Ghost lights

Ghosts and Ghost lights

Tales of haunted theaters abound, not only in America, but also in Europe. Almost every theater in fact has an unexplainable occurrences that some attribute to ghosts. Jim Whitherell, who was head of the COS Theater Department for over 30 years, has one as well. It happened when the COS theatre was fairly new. One of the acting students had been killed shortly before this incident in a car accident. The stage lights flickered on and off throughout one dress rehearsal, when the lighting booth was inaccessible. Many theaters even attribute much luck to any one who sites one of their theater's apparitions. Anyone who sees the Drury Lane Ghost in London, England is supposed to have extraordinary success in acting.

Ghost lights are another interesting superstition. The generally accepted definition of a ghost Light is “… a single bare-bulb lamp left burning in the middle of the stage all night.” (Knapp) There are many ideas about how the practice of ghost lights came to be. There is everything from an urban legend about a burglar in a theater who sued when he fell off the stage in the dark, to that simply it is an equity mandate. (Primrose)

The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts gives this background on their ghost lights; “There is a special light on a pole that can usually be pointed out easily in this theater. This is known as the ghost light. There is one in each of the four theaters. They are there for two reasons- one more practical and the second more fun. The first reason for the ghost light is so when someone walks into backstage of the dark theater they don't trip over set pieces and hurt themselves or accidentally walk off of the edge of the stage. The second reason is that back in Shakespeare's time candles were burned in theaters to scare away ghosts from old performances. Many theaters burned down from the simple fact that fire and wood don't mix but since we now have electricity, that is really not a problem.”

We do not have a ghost light on the COS theater stage--not yet anyway. Fortunately, we do have light switches next to all the theater entrances, so that fumbling in the dark does not occur. Recently, I found that our neighbor, the Southern Oregon University theater stage does have one. They have even named it--Helga.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

N.B. ~~ At the Memorial Celebration, while setting up, I asked Joe about the hat tree. Though it had always been there, it wasn't. He found the Ghost Light, and arranged Edwin's hats and one scarf on that. Some time during the service, several people noticed that because of the stage lights, the Ghost Light with Edwin's hats cast a shadow on the wall to the side. From Agatha's post this morning at HEP:

"Tracey Denton was there and spoke from her heart. Tracey is the head of DFNYC, and during the Dean days, she blogged as Tracey in Hell's Kitchen. I think she and Edwin are similar in that they can both be absolute professionals and wonderful human beings without a seam present, simply because they are both very real.

"She was very sad and moved, and she was also struck by a certain shadow. puddle had Edwin's hats and a scarf arranged on a pole onstage. It created a shadow of what I would describe as a man with his back to the audience, very present and there but technically facing forward. Interesting. Edwinesque?"

When I looked, it wasn't "a man," it was clearly Edwin: The edge of the cheekbone, the collar, the shoulders, hair, Was about two thirds back, one third right side of the face. Not quite profile. The presence of the shadow was electrifying to say the least. Whether he actually arranged it or not, I'm positively sure he enjoyed it!

Bon voyage, Sweet Heart. I love you.