![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
LJ Idol Topic 5.6 A Ghostly Tale
Oct. 29th, 2008 10:16 pmI have to admit that I have gone back and forth on the ghost question for most of my young life. I went from believing they were real to being a serious skeptic a couple of times. But then something happened to me that made me a believer in ghosts because I saw one.
It was my second year at the Yale School of Drama (which we called the Yale School of Trauma an awful a lot. Some day I will tell the tale of that place but I digress). I was the assistant stage manager on the main show at the Yale Rep.
We had finished the Saturday night show and it was down to me and Mo the Stage Manager in the building. I had just gotten finished putting the ghost light out on the stage and was heading back to the stage manager's office to see if there was anything else needed. I had done a walk through the theater and the dressing rooms to make sure that everyone had left the building. I checked the locks on the dressing rooms and then I heard something stage right. I crossed over to the staircase and out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman in a red dress running up the stairs. I went upstairs and there was no one on the stage.
I walked across the stage and down the stage left staircase. Still no sign of the woman. I didn't hear the stage door open and close so I know that they didn't leave the building. I checked around and then went back to the stage management office and told Mo what I had seen.
"Are you sure she was wearing a red dress?" Mo asked.
"Yeah. It looked like something out of a Chekhov play." I said, "and I don't know of any group doing Chekhov right now."
"Meet me at the Costume shop after class Monday." She said.
I figured it had something to do with the show we were working on since we were still in previews. So we finished up our paperwork and left the building.
On Monday I met up with Mo at the Costume Shop. Now in the costume shop there were sketches from various shows that have been done at the Rep. A lot of famous costume designers have a sketch up on the walls. Mo asked me if I saw the dress in any of the sketches. I looked around the designs and saw the dress I had seen the other night at the Rep. I pointed and said, "That one."
"Are you sure?" she asked carefully.
"Yep. That's it."
"Congratulations. You have seen the Yale Rep ghost."
Apparently, she was the wife of the dean of the drama school who was an actress. She was in a production of the Seagull and was on her way to a show when she was hit by a car and died. The red dress was her first act dress in the show. Ever since then she has been seen by various people running up those stairs apparently trying to make a curtain that she will never make.
And that encounter made a believer out of me about ghosts.
This was written for the LJ Idol season 5. I hope you liked it. I have only told this story a couple of times since it happened but this seemed like a good time for it
It was my second year at the Yale School of Drama (which we called the Yale School of Trauma an awful a lot. Some day I will tell the tale of that place but I digress). I was the assistant stage manager on the main show at the Yale Rep.
We had finished the Saturday night show and it was down to me and Mo the Stage Manager in the building. I had just gotten finished putting the ghost light out on the stage and was heading back to the stage manager's office to see if there was anything else needed. I had done a walk through the theater and the dressing rooms to make sure that everyone had left the building. I checked the locks on the dressing rooms and then I heard something stage right. I crossed over to the staircase and out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman in a red dress running up the stairs. I went upstairs and there was no one on the stage.
I walked across the stage and down the stage left staircase. Still no sign of the woman. I didn't hear the stage door open and close so I know that they didn't leave the building. I checked around and then went back to the stage management office and told Mo what I had seen.
"Are you sure she was wearing a red dress?" Mo asked.
"Yeah. It looked like something out of a Chekhov play." I said, "and I don't know of any group doing Chekhov right now."
"Meet me at the Costume shop after class Monday." She said.
I figured it had something to do with the show we were working on since we were still in previews. So we finished up our paperwork and left the building.
On Monday I met up with Mo at the Costume Shop. Now in the costume shop there were sketches from various shows that have been done at the Rep. A lot of famous costume designers have a sketch up on the walls. Mo asked me if I saw the dress in any of the sketches. I looked around the designs and saw the dress I had seen the other night at the Rep. I pointed and said, "That one."
"Are you sure?" she asked carefully.
"Yep. That's it."
"Congratulations. You have seen the Yale Rep ghost."
Apparently, she was the wife of the dean of the drama school who was an actress. She was in a production of the Seagull and was on her way to a show when she was hit by a car and died. The red dress was her first act dress in the show. Ever since then she has been seen by various people running up those stairs apparently trying to make a curtain that she will never make.
And that encounter made a believer out of me about ghosts.
This was written for the LJ Idol season 5. I hope you liked it. I have only told this story a couple of times since it happened but this seemed like a good time for it
