‘Friendly’ ghost haunts theater
by Diana De Leon, reporter

    The most famous theater ghost is the angel of music, better known as the Phantom of the Opera, a half-crazed musician who lived in the labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera House.

   The phantom was made famous in a novel by Gaston Leroux who believed that the ghost really existed. At the time the story was written, the Paris Opera House was the largest theater in the world. The building consists of 17 floors, a stable and an underground lake. It would be possible to get lost in such a large place.

   Some of the most haunted places in the United States are theaters, and in the tradition of all the great theaters of the world, the NE Campus theatre has a ghost.

   “He was sitting in the audience, and he looked like a real person, not a ghost,” said Debi Blankenship, NE instructor of speech communication.

   Blankenship, a former NE Campus drama student, was one of the first people to see the ghost.

   “I can’t remember who saw him first, but I definitely believe in ghosts,” she said, “because I saw him.”

   Blankenship also remembers the high jinks that were attributed to the ghost.

   “He was walking in the air above the audience,” she said.

"He used to turn the lights off in the women’s dressing room,” she said.

Stacy Schronk, the retired head of the drama department on the NE Campus, reports that many students saw and heard things that were unexplainable.

“Something was there,” he said. “In the men’s dressing room, a figure appeared and smiled.”

Schronk recalls that his wife also witnessed the ghost.

“A white glow came toward her,” he said.

Schronk was there when the ghost sightings started.

“I don’t believe in ghosts,” he said. “It was more like a sense.”

These ghost sightings were witnessed over 25 years ago. The NE Campus theater was built in 1970, and productions began there shortly after.

Actors are known for appearing on stage and expressing anger, sorrow, jealousy, love, happiness and other emotions. The Office of Paranormal Investigation and Research (OPIAR) suggests that residual emotions left behind by the actors are the reason that theaters attract spirits.

There are two types of theater ghosts. One is the stage hand who works behind the scenes. Another type is the actor who, after leaving so much of his emotion in the theater, cannot leave this world without it.

The latter type is believed to haunt the NE theater.

Bill was both behind the scenes as a musician and in front as an actor. Bill Baker was a student who was well liked by his classmates.

He also was a family man with a wife and two small children. Bill died tragically after his car was struck head on by a drunken driver.

It is believed that when a person dies suddenly, as in a car accident, he may not be aware that he has died. The spirit is confused and has lost the concept of time, according to paranormal investigators.

Many paranormal investigators believe that a spirit will stay behind if he or she has unfinished business.

Bill’s ghost was spotted in the NE Campus Theater about three months after Bill’s death. Many people witnessed strange and unusual things that were attributed to the ghost.

“When Bill was alive, he would stick his arm in the girl’s dressing room and switch off the lights,” Blankenship said. “It was still happening after his death.”

The dictionary defines the word ghost as the spirit or shade of a dead person, supposed to haunt living persons or former habitats.

Because Bill spent so much time in the theater, it is logical that his classmates would see his ghost.

“He was a sweet man,” she said. “He could sing, dance and act out any character. He was so talented.”
Blankenship was Bill's classmate and remembers that he was very active in the theater.

"I have been here since the beginning of the theater, and I don’t know how the ghost story started,” Dr. Cordell Parker, chairperson of the communication arts department, said. “In all my years here at TCC, I never noticed anything ghostly.”

The sightings and unusual events can be attributed to the size of the NE Campus theater, according to Parker.

“The theater has many different characteristics; it is big,” he said.

Parker suggested that Bill’s classmates were so distraught over his tragic death, that they kept seeing him in the theater.

“It is an honorable way to remember a nice man,” he said.

Fast forward to 2002, and drama students are still reporting strange and unexplained events attributed to Bill’s ghost.

“Shadows pass when there is no one there,” said Ember Harris. “It could be the lighting; I don’t know.”

Lights flicker, and the girl’s dressing room light is switched off when no one is there.

Some people think these unusual events can be explained by looking at the age of the building and the lighting system in it.

Many students think the unexplained is just the imagination playing tricks on them.

Bill’s ghostly image has not been seen lately, but strange things that are attributed to his ghost still happen. It is, after all, much more fun to believe in a ghost, than in faulty lighting.

There are many ways to attract a ghost. Wearing silver jewelry is said to draw a ghost. Theaters all over the world are said to be haunted. A ghost will often appear at a crossroads between the hours of midnight and 1 a.m. OPIAR suggests this is because witches often practiced magic at a crossroads.

Traditional folklore suggests many ways to protect oneself from ghosts, holy water and salt being the most common defenses. Wearing a silk scarf around the head supposedly protects the wearer until it is taken off.

The NE Campus theater is much smaller than the Paris Opera House, and it is not as old, but to see a ghost or have a paranormal experience, one must first believe in its existence. If the mind says there are no such things as ghosts, then a trip to the NE Campus theater will not be scary.

Maybe the ghost of Bill Baker is haunting the NE Campus theater, but there is no need to fear, for Bill is a friendly ghost.