Rumor has it that there’s a ghost living in the Little Theater. It cannot be seen. It cannot be heard. But it is always there. Although the performance students have not yet encountered the ghost this year, they anticipate future incidents and recall past run-ins with the spirit.
The ghost never fails to keep performance students on their feet. It waits in the Little Theater for its next victim, taunting those who are skeptical and reminding those who have forgotten it. Some are firm believers while others have their doubts, but students can all agree that a supposedly haunted theater is one scary place to be.
Gretchen Stewart, who has been teaching drama at Inglemoor since 2010, said that over the course of her six years here, many ghost stories have surfaced.
“Creepy things happen,” Stewart said. “Some of the kids swear there are ghosts.”
Senior Megan Hershgold shared an experience from her sophomore year that convinced her of the Theater Ghost’s existence.
“It was bad,” Hershgold said. “There was a chair sitting completely upright [on the side of the stage], and it just completely toppled over. No one was in the left wing. No one was around. It was the scariest moment of my life.”
But the students are not completely afraid of the ghost. Hershgold said she does not consider the spirit malicious in any way.
“I think it just likes to give us a little scare before a show,” Hershgold said.
Some students even enjoy having the ghost around. Maddie Swift, a senior in her second year of performance, said it is fun knowing that a spirit is there, but it can also be terrifying.
Once, after going into the theater alone, she felt a presence with her in the room.
“Then, all of a sudden, I felt an arm grab onto me and pull me, so I ran back into the drama room in tears, actually crying,” Swift said.
Many of Swift’s classmates remember this incident and how it changed their own beliefs about the spirit. Senior Garrett Stanley explained the story from his perspective.
“Maddie screamed and then came running into the classroom from the theater. She grabbed my arm, and she squeezed it tightly, and she looked directly into my eyes, and she had this look of fear,” Stanley said. “We’ve heard about things moving in the theater ever since then, so now I believe in the theater ghost.”
Because of these scary stories, performance students find that it is better to travel in pairs when entering the theater, especially when the lights are out. They say the Theater Ghost could strike at any moment.
“After my experience,” Swift said, “I don’t go back into the theater alone.”
