“In the auditorium at high school, where all the plays were performed, we would have rehearsal everyday after school leading up to a performance. So there were two techies back stage right after school before any of the actors or any other crew members had come. So they started opening up all the doors downstairs like any normal rehearsal when they saw this little kid on the stage. They knew that the kid was not supposed to be there so they were gonna try to find out where the kid came from. One techie asked, ‘Hey, kid, are you from the elementary school? We’re not trying to hurt you but you can’t be back here so we’ll just take you back…’ and he started to walk towards the kid. But the kid ran across the stage to the opposite side, behind a curtain, and started wrapping himself up in the curtain. The techie said, ‘let’s just get you back, you won’t get in trouble or anything…’ But by the time he had reached for the curtain to open it up, there was nothing in the curtain.”

Kristen first heard this story about four years ago when she was in high school. The techies who had experienced this first hand had told her about it shortly after it happened. They were shaken up by the experience and had doubted whether or not they had really seen a little boy on the stage. Kristen said they told the story with such conviction that it was hard not to believe that they had really seen a ghost.

Kristen had also experienced similar spooky happenings in the auditorium or downstairs backstage in the costume room. She believes that there are spirits that haunt the high school and especially the auditorium area. She feels that hearing stories like this are not intended to make you feel paranoid that the place is haunted, but more of a coming to terms that there are other beings occupying the same space as the living. She said that hearing and experiencing similar ghost stories confirms the possibility of spirits and the afterlife. She believes the significance lies in coming to terms with the natural cycle of life and death, as well as the possibility that other forces are at work.

I went to high school with Kristen and was involved in the school plays as well, so I have also experienced these eerie ghost stories as well. Other than awakening a consciousness of the afterlife, or twilight zone, I feel that these experiences became more of a bonding ritual for the kids in the theatre. It was almost as if it was an unofficial initiation rite that you truly know what it means to be part of the St. Monica Catholic High School Performing Arts Department if you have seen one of the ghosts that haunt the theatre and backstage areas. It helped to forge friendships when you started experiencing these rattling incidents together.