Post by Joanna on Dec 31, 2014 18:35:50 GMT -5
'Year of the Ghost' at Kings Playhouse
GEORGETOWN, Prince Edward Island, Canada – Santa wasn’t the only recent visitor to the Kings County capital. It could have been the ghost of Christmas past, present or future, but when the clock struck 1 a.m. on Christmas Day, the spirits returned to the Kings Playhouse.
“It seems that three turn up every Christmas Eve,’’ says Randall Fletcher. And the chairman of the board of the theatre operation isn’t kidding. Throughout 2014, the well-known ghost, or ghosts, of the Kings Playhouse made a number of appearances and were recorded and documented at two paranormal monitoring events – including contact with a psychic. “Given the experiences I’ve had, plus the things uncovered last summer and during the fall, there is no doubt in my mind that the theatre is haunted by at least one spirit and possibly two,’’ says the board chairman.
Fletcher admits he’s always thought the ghost story was simply for fun and a way to add some spice to the heritage of the old building. But after this year, he’s no longer a skeptic.
Last summer, Light Workers Paranormal Investigators from Halifax held a research event and then staged an overnight vigil during Halloween. “There is simply no other explanation for the things that have happened,” offers Fletcher, who spent the night in the theatre.
The Kings Playhouse has long been known to be haunted. The theatre even has a special chair in the auditorium exclusively for the ghost. Whenever a patron has accidentally sat in the chair – lights flicker or machinery turns off and on.
During the summer investigation, a voice was heard on the recording saying “the flag holds me here.” During the Halloween night investigation last October, lights went on and off and a piece of equipment used to project hundreds of laser lights in a hallway did some strange things.
Fletcher says: “The paranormal investigators were great and involved everyone in different aspects of the night. The whole thing was a huge success and I have lots of people wanting us to make it a yearly event.”
More than 60 people signed up for the spooky event, but only the first 30 were allowed in due to space limitations inside the Victorian-style building. The “Spirit Box,’’ used by the paranormal investigators, picked up a voice saying “Peter” or possibly “Pierre” around 3 or 4 a.m. A voice was also recorded saying “Stop it.”
Two people who installed brand new batteries in their recording devices found them completely drained – a common paranormal phenomenon. Fletcher turned off his cellphone for the night and on two occasions, it sprang to life.
The theatre was originally built in 1887 and served for town council meetings and community and cultural events for almost a century. During a storm in March of 1983, the Playhouse burned to the ground. The community wasted no time raising the funds to rebuild using the original plans and reopened the following year.
“The paranormal group brought a psychic with them and at dinner before things got started, she said she was picking up someone named Charlie or Charles associated with fire,” said Fletcher. In 1983, when the Playhouse burned, the mayor of the day was the late Charlie Martell.
“I asked the psychic if she could find out the name of the ghost,” Fletcher said, “and she said not right now, there’s a spirit demanding my attention, saying ‘you’re paying attention to the wrong one, I’m the important one.” The psychic described the spirit was bossy, tall and thin, and a very old spirit. “She asked the spirit who was running the theatre and I was totally shocked when it told her my name,’’ said Fletcher. “Then the spirit told her it was named John or Jonathan and one of the paranormal workers told her there was a Jean Pierre Roma associated with the area ... at the point the spirit said 'thank you.’”
The events of 2014 have convinced Fletcher that spirits do inhabit the Kings Playhouse, and that opens the doors to all sorts of future possibilities.
Source: Steve Sharratt, The Guardian, December 31, 2014.