A Ghosts That Still Wants To Put On A Show

Shawnee Playhouse

Colleen Grahek

Did you just feel a drop of temperature in the room? Did you hear a whisper in your ear? How about that person staring at you over there? Oh wait, they disappeared. 

Spooky season is just around the corner, and so are the ghosts living in the Shawnee Playhouse. Just 4.5 miles away from ESU, they haunt the ancient walls and interact with the living in their own ways.  

Midge McClosky, the current executive director of the playhouse, has experienced many ghostly apparitions during her almost 20-year position at the playhouse.  

“There is a lot that goes on there, particularly with the lighting and sound booth,” McClosky said. “This past weekend, when we had our most recent production of ‘Cold Feet’, the body mics would not work. The sound board was flashing, indicating that everything was fine. The speakers were on and plugged in correctly, the mic monitor was working. But the mics were not.” 

It was not until the second half of the show when the mics suddenly decided to cooperate. McClosky stated that there was no technical indication that anything was wrong. 

She added that before and during the show, there were reports from the actors about knocking and banging noises coming from the upstairs dressing rooms.  

“There is a light that always comes on in the upstairs back dressing room,” McClosky said. “One of the windows tends to stay open as well. There would be times I would close it at night, come back in the morning and find it open again.” 

 The behind-the-scenes areas of the theatre are not the only places where the ghosts tend to play tricks. 

“In the winter of 2022, one night I was by myself and I had to fix the scaffolding on the curtains,” McClosky said.  

This type of work required her going on a ladder. 

“I know you’re never supposed to go on a ladder by yourself. But I was the only one there and I had no other choice,” she said. 

After McClosky finished her work, as she went to step down from the framework of the curtain to get back onto the ladder, the ladder shifted a few feet over. She was stuck in the upper rafters of the ceiling, 10 feet from the ground. The ladder was just out of reach.  

Very carefully, she had to reach out with one foot, latch it onto one of the ladder legs and carefully inch it back over to a safe enough spot for her to safely climb back down. 

“I was literally hanging in the air saying to the spirits, ‘I will never do that again. I promise,’” McClosky said.  

In addition to ghostly tech booth operators and set constructors, a frequent patron stops in from time to time. An older woman will sit in the second to last seat in the balcony and stare out at the stage.  

“There would be times when I would be sweeping the stage and I feel that I’m being watched,” McClosky said. “I would look up and sometimes see her in that same exact chair. I’m not sure what her backstory is.” 

Despite these encounters, McClosky states that she never feels unsafe there and is never afraid of being alone there at night.  

“I might be a little creeped out from time to time,” she said. “But the spirits know I care about the building and that I take good care of it.”