![]() ![]() When, in 2008 the Pegasus City organization moved into its 1914 venue, after a complete overhaul that replaced the entire interior, the electrical room for the elevator was located near the mainstage. Midland Community Theatre isn’t the only Texas company with a rogue elevator. ![]() It was her way of saying, ‘Break a leg.’” Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Dallas “We also believe she wasn’t there to scare us, but to give us luck. “We believe the ghostly nature of Edgar Allen Poe’s stories coaxed Christine to the mainstage,” she says. ![]() Even so, Cook suggests the otherworldly presence was a benevolent one. Lott says that in her numerous productions as a Pickwick and elsewhere, she never encountered the elevator issues, or the cast getting spooked, the way she did in Night Chills. “The catwalks of the proscenium space had very few access points, and all were watched. “Everyone at the theatre was accounted for,” Cook says, also noting the difficulty of reaching the catwalk in the first place. The assistant stage manager checked on all the performers and found no answers. “Going on the catwalk during a show would get you kicked out of the organization and the stage manager would easily see you and call you out.” “Pickwicks going on the catwalk during a show was forbidden,” she says. This was forbidden during the performance, and the stage manager assumed that some teenager was playing around.” Lott underscores the gravity of the alleged offense. The majority of the unexplained occurrences, Cook observes, took place during the segment that dramatized “The Tell-Tale Heart.” One time during that portion of the play, notes Cook, “The stage manager angrily and urgently told the ASM to go around and account for all actors immediately, because she could see someone’s lower legs and feet as they scurried across the catwalks. “Additionally, odd clanking sounds began to come from the grid above the mainstage, an area where Christine never roamed.” Another cast member, Barbara McNealy Lott (she/her), remembers that wasn’t the only peculiar activity during the run: “The elevator that normally always worked perfect during the day would shut down on odd floors.” “Backstage we began to hear moans during the show,” she says, and the noises weren’t coming from the sound system or the other actors. “There were many reports of strange sounds, footsteps, and moans from the catwalks of the studio theatre-and all were attributed to Christine’s ghost.”ĭuring her time as a Pickwick, Cook says the apparition never made its way to the cavernous proscenium space-except during Night Chills. “While playing on the newly installed light grid, she fell and died,” says Cook. As the story goes, Christine, the daughter of a contractor charged with constructing the space, met her demise there. in Dallas, recalls the legend of a ghost named Christine, who allegedly occupies MCT’s studio venue. Cook, now managing director of Cara Mía Theatre Co. When Ariana Cook (she/her) was a member of the Pickwick Players, the west Texas company ’s teen acting troupe, she expected the frights of their 1999 production of four Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, Night Chills, to be confined to the fictional world of the play. Have no fear: The response to our call for contributions was as thrilling as ever, and we hope this collection of bone-chilling tales can help raise your spirits. ![]() With everything going on inside and outside the theatre community, we didn’t know if folks would be interested in sharing anecdotes for our annual Halloween roundup of theatrical ghost stories. Because the past several months have been filled with so many horrors, both natural and human-made, the so-called “spooky season” feels different this year. ![]()
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