Please welcome guest author Judi Tarowsky. She is a member and past president of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild. She has been a professional teller for about 12 years. Her original career was as a newspaper reporter in the Upper Ohio Valley. 

Old theaters are lively places. They hold the energies of countless audiences and performers. Sometimes that energy can’t contain itself, and manifests in ways we cannot always explain.

Northern West Virginia is home to a number of old theaters that remain in use. Two of these theaters are lively places – whether an audience is present, or not. 

The Strand Theatre in Moundsville is a beautiful old theater located at Fifth and Jefferson streets. The theatre originally opened in 1920 and operated as a vaudeville venue, then later as a movie house. It closed down in 1996, but through the efforts of the Strand Theatre Preservation Society, it was restored and reopened in 2014.

One winter, the preservation architect stopped at the theatre to check on several items, accompanied by his teenage daughter. The pair climbed into the lofty projection booth that still was filled with a desk and other equipment. While they were there, the dusty phone on the desk began to ring. After several rings, the daughter said, “Dad, aren’t you going to answer it?” Her father picked up the cord for the phone. “It’s not connected,” was his answer.

Who was calling? And who would answer? A local paranormal investigator may know. An electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) he captured on his recorder in the booth growled, “GET OUT!”

As the architect says, “It’s an old building. Stuff happens.”

The Gaslight Theater at 719 Wells St., Sistersville, south of Moundsville, is another 1920s theater that has been restored by Terry Wiley. It hosts concerts and plays – and unexpected guests.

The West Virginia Storytelling Guild was presenting a Halloween program, and Terry went all out decorating the stage for us as a “séance parlor.” As we were preparing for the show, he brought up an image on his computer that he had downloaded from his camera the night before. He had aimed the camera at the seats and caught a slightly transparent image of a man in one of the seats.

“That’s the former owner,” he said. “He shows up here, and in crowds during parades in town. People find his image in their photos.”

“That’s pretty interesting,” I thought. 

Meanwhile, Jason Burns, a fellow teller, and I had taken our places on stage. We were seated at a round table at stage left, up against the back curtain. My husband was seated in the audience front row, just below us.

Suddenly, I felt the right side back of my chair being tugged. 

“Jason!” I hissed. “What did . . .”

But he had done nothing. My husband had seen me react to the movement – and Jason indeed had not moved. Well, I thought – someone sneaked behind the curtain. I pulled back the curtain. It was covering a solid brick wall. No one could have been behind me.

“That’s pretty interesting,” I thought. 

After the show full of ghostly tales, we were gathered in front of the stage for photos and farewells. Storyteller Donna Wilson and I obligingly hugged each other so storyteller John Mullins could snap our photo.

The next day, John posted a photo on Facebook. “Look what was sitting on Judi’s purse!” he wrote. And smack on my purse that was hanging on my right was the biggest, brightest blue orb you ever wanted to see. Someone apparently liked my story.

Who – or what – was it? It may have been the former owner, seeing as he was hanging around the night before. Or, was it a former performer who happened to like our show, and wanted to join the crowd?

Who knows?

But as our preservation architect friend says, “It’s an old building. Stuff happens.”

More Judi Tarowsky tales for the spooky season:

More West Virginia ghost stories:

Haunted Tunnels: The Silver Run Ghost, and the Lost Tunnel(Opens in a new browser tab)

Ghostlore – collected by Ruth Ann Musick(Opens in a new browser tab)

Treason, Murder, and Ghostly Lights(Opens in a new browser tab)

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