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Stage Manager’s Tale: Cold Spot
In January [2009] I was very fortunate to be able to work on the show ‘‘Private Lives’’ with a great cast and crew.
During the first read-through the group was sitting around the table in the main hall. The weather was not extremely cold outside even though most of us did bring coats. The interior temperature of the main hall was at a setting enabling all to have their coats laying to the side. After introductions we started to read through the play when all of a sudden a horrific cold spot came over me to the extent that I had to rise and get my coat off the couch and put it on. This change in temperature seemed to have not affected any of the other guests around the table, even though our proximity was very close. There was no apparent cause for this and we continued on with the production.
Several weeks later while the show was in in the final run, I was working back stage and setting up props for the nights performance. I noticed that a fork we used as a prop was missing. Thinking that one of the other stage hands may have misplaced it I spent several minutes looking around for it. Not to be found I went to the kitchen and got another fork to replace it. The show went off without a hitch. All the props were put back in place. The next day I went in to set up the show. I went to the prop table and now noticed three forks. I asked the other stage hands if they put the missing fork back into place and they looked with surprise at the sudden reappearance of the fork. The prop table is set on stage right where reports of strange activities had occured before. -- Chuck Colson
The Board Member’s Tale
I think it was the May [2008] Board meeting. I was sitting at the table [in the lobby] with other Board members discussing Guild matters, and as I looked over to the hallway that enters enters to the kitchen, I saw a face very briefly right near the door frame. It was a skin color face and vanished very quick. I could only see eyes. -- Ray Saur
The Audio Tech’s Tale: Stairway Stomping
I was the first one to arrive before a show one evening and was up in the audio booth getting the pre-show music together when I heard someone walking up the stairs. Very loudly, almost stomping. I looked over and didn’t see anyone. So I walked over to the foot of the stairs and looked down but didn’t see anyone. The problem was.....the footsteps were still walking up the stairs. They stopped in front of me and that’s were they ended. I stood there for about 30 or so seconds then walked (ran) out of the building and waited for other people to arrive.
The Propsetter’s Tale: High Heels
About 6:45 p.m. on Saturday evening 6/21, 2008, I was sitting in the Green Room eating my dinner. Don and Debbie Love and two patrons were sitting in the lobby. I suddenly heard what definitely sounded like high heels walking on stage left. I thought one of the cast members had arrived and was checking props. Debbie came into the Green Room and I asked her if any cast members had arrived and she stated ‘‘No.’’ I then told her what I heard. Needless to say, we were both definitely spooked!!! -- Ginny Austermann
The Cooper’s Tale: The Kicked Seat
It was in the seat in the front row by the [south] wall. We were sitting there [watching a play], and it felt like somebody kicked the center of the seat right fom behind. I looked around, looked at the wall (I thought it might be a pipe banging or something like that). I checked my cellphones. They were all off vibrate. No missed calls or anything on the display to indicate I had missed anything. I looked behind me. The entire second row was empty! I looked at Bill [sitting next to me] and asked him, ‘‘Are you messing with me?’’ He said, ‘‘What? What do you mean?’’ I said, ‘‘Did you kick my chair?’’ ‘‘No, I didn’t do anything. What’s the matter?’’ ‘‘You didn’t feel that?’’ ‘‘No.’’ The rhythm was different than a cellphone. A cellphone buzzes 3-3-3. The kicks went 3-2-3. They came from behind, and up from under dead center. Bill could tell I was scared. He knew I wasn’t joking. -- John Cooper
The Actor’s Tale: The Turning Page
We were on stage rehearsing with our scripts in our hand. The AD’s script was lying on a speaker at the foot of the stage. When we all turned our page to go to the next,a page from the AD’s script turned with us. AT THE EXACT SAME TIME THAT WE TURNED OURS. This happened in front of the whole cast. We checked for a draft to see if it could have been that, but we couldn't find one. -- Matt Holtmann
Don's First Tale: Dark Descending Damsel
On three occasions, while locking the front door, the corner of my eye caught a glimpse through the window of something descending the staircase.
Don's Second Tale: Wandering Pencil
A few years ago, I was working alone at the Guild one afternoon, setting lights for an upcoming show. The director had placed a card table in front of the right-hand section of the audience seating. The tabletop was covered with junk. I had a small stub of a pencil, and was about to set it down on the card table, when it occured to me that something that small would be really easy to lose in all that junk. So I got a gel holder (that’s a folded piece of sheet metal with a big circle cut out of the middle), put that on the table, then set the pencil down dead center in the big circle, right on the colored plastic. Easy to find, right? I went off, did some work, then needed the pencil again, and came back for it. But it wasn’t there. I thought, ‘‘You dummy! You picked it up, and forgot to put it back!’’ So, I found a different pencil and used that. When I finished, I came back to put the second pencil on the gel holder. But the original pencil stub was now back in place -- dead center , on the plastic. That’s when I knew I was being played with. I looked around, then told the air: ‘‘Good one!’’
Don's Third Tale: Man in a White Suit
The actors in The Philadelphia Story were showing director Beth Hill their proposed costumes, for her to make decisions as to what they should wear. I was in the aisle, and turned towards the nearest seat. Out of the corner of my eye, I detected movement. I figured one of the actors wanted to speak with me. I turned. I expected to find someone standing next to me. Instead, I saw someone way in the back of the auditorium, standing in the aisle, in front of the seats and window just outside the booth. It was a man in a white suit -- off-white, actually, sort of ivory in color. The lapels and tie made me think of gangsters in very old movies. I did a double-take, and he was gone. I didn't get a look at the face or shoes, my attention in that brief moment was on the tie and jacket.