Jennie Jones confronts ghosts in theatres – Part I

Photo from Harrogate Theatre webpage

I’ve met more than my share of ghosts in Britain’s theatres, thank you very much. In Harrogate Theatre, where I performed a number of plays, musicals and pantomime, there was Alice, who apparently fell from the top balcony to the stalls and to her death a lot of years earlier. At the time I was doing my stint at Harrogate Theatre, this balcony area was used for the sound and lighting box. The guys up there knew Alice well. They said they saw her all the time (the poor sausages, although they didn’t seem to mind). 

Photo credit: edfielding, Flickr

One lunchtime break on a day when we were rehearsing in the theatre itself (which hardly ever happened until the Tech - the Technical Rehearsal, which took place a day or two before the Dress Rehearsal, which took place a day or two before Opening Night), so it was exciting to get behind the proscenium arch, I was alone in the auditorium. Alone, I say. A seat flipped up behind me, then another (note: the seats were a dull red back then, not the elegant aqua they are now). 

Photo from Harrogate Theatre webpage

I checked, but there was nobody there so I presumed they occasionally flipped all on their own, being so old. Then… one by one, slowly at first, more seats flipped, until they were flipping up behind me like firecrackers. I did what any girl would under such frightening circumstances – I ran.

Nobody knows who dear Alice was - but take a look at this article from The Guardian newspaper about Harrogate Theatre and the lovely Alice. I have to say, during all those plays I did at the theatre, I never had a hint of her 'aroma' in the corridors. But I certainly felt her presence in the auditorium that day and I have a feeling she was laughing at me joyously as she flipped those seat. Go, Alice! Haven't known anyone say they didn't like you - even those lighting and sound technicians, and we all know how down-to-earth cool those guys are.

Sure, I ran from Harrogate Theatre auditorium that day - but not as fast as I ran when I was performing at the Theatre Royal Brighton where I confronted their ghosts!

Part II coming soon.
Jennie x (and Alice)