Something Weird At The Wayside
By Erica M. Stocks
Ghost hunters searched the old theater in Middletown, Virginia for signs of spectral activities.
Doors will slam shut, buttons in the control room will move on their own, and footsteps are heard when no one is around.
“We have a lot of people here who see a lot of stuff,” said Thomasin Savaiano, an actress and teacher at the theater. “But we have people here who never see anything.”
On Sunday night, the Wayside Theatre on Main Street in Middletown, Virginia opened its doors to the D.C. Metro Area Ghostwatchers to learn if there is an otherworldly explanation for the bizarre activities. “I’m sure there’s something going on here,” Savaiano said.
Image: Paranormal investigator Jeff Dalton of the D.C. Metro Area Ghostwatchers takes readings in the basement of the Wayside Theatre in Middletown
Lead investigator John M. Warfield and his crew of three ghostwatchers arrived shortly after 7:30pm and took a walking tour of the theater. Savaiano showed them areas of the building where employees say mysterious activities happen.
The investigators planned to work for eight hours, into the wee hours of the morning, in the building that was constructed in 1942 and occupied by the theater for 45 years.
Warfield, whose daughter interned at the theater two years ago, said he has some familiarity with the building and its rumored hauntings, having been there before and experiencing something strange.
“This is where I was standing when I heard footsteps,” he said as he and his ghostwatchers toured an area of the basement. “There was a woman upstairs working and I thought it was her, but when I looked, no one was there.”
As Warfield and the crew toured the theater’s basement, costume room, stage, and control booth, the ghostwatchers searched for paranormal activity using electromagnetic field meters.
Savaiano said the theater has a resident ghost named George, who is the spirit of a black usher who worked for the then-segregated movie theater in the 1940s.
George lived where the back porch off the costume room is now located, and he died in the theater, Savaiano said.
“We’ve had doors rattle in here, and we don’t know if it is George or not,” she said.
Savaiano said theater employees have also seen mysterious things out of the corners of their eyes.
Despite the suspicion that there could be a resident ghost living in the theater, Savaiano said Wayside did not request the ghostwatcher investigation.
“We didn’t seek them, they sought us,” she said about the group that investigates ghosts, hauntings, and entities in Washington, Northern Virginia, and Maryland.
Warfield, who served in the military, said he has been in the ghost-hunting business for two years.
“I had a mid-life crisis and decided to do this,” he said. “But I wanted to come to the Wayside Theatre to do this.”
After taking a walking tour of the building, Warfield and and his crew set up their equipment and cameras throughout the theater to document the investigation.
“Right now, we’re just getting the wiring set up before we start the investigation,” Warfield said Sunday night as he set up a command post with video monitors to view the hunt.
For further information:
http://www.waysidetheatre.org
http://www.winchesterstar.com/
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