SHEBOYGAN — Lights flashing, late-night music playing, and strange walking sounds when no one's around — those are the types of things that have earned Sheboygan’s Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts a haunted reputation.
"Our staff and our patrons definitely notice different things that happen around the theater,” said Executive Director Katy Glodosky. “There's a reason why we leave the ghost light up at night."
The ghost light is a stand topped with a single light bulb. Staff places it center stage every evening. They believe it welcomes the good spirits and wards off the bad ones.
The nearly century-old building was originally known as the Sheboygan Theater. It was built in 1928, during the Roaring 20s era, in response to the demand for entertainment.
“So you’re thinking bathtub gin, The Prohibition, speakeasies and jazz…” Glodosky noted.
The building closed in 1992 but then reopened in 2001 after a major renovation.
And even through all the change, locals say the history has stuck around, and not just the structure of the theater.
Glodosky noticed something odd in the projection room last year, snapping a few photos, and when you zoom in, a figure is positioned in the window, looking out onto the stage.
"Does that freak you out, personally? Or do you welcome that?” I asked her.
“I don't know if I necessarily welcome it but it's just part of the historic theater,” Glodosky responded. “It's part of the history of this place. You kind of sign up for it when you join the team."
Technical Director Julian Jetzer grew up with the Weill Center. He said it holds a special place in his heart.
“We’d stand on the sidewalk all the way around [the block] because they’d have 25 cartoons in a row on Saturdays. And that was probably when I was 8 years old.”
Jetzer proposed at the theater to his wife of over 60 years, and he’s worked there for the last 25.
During that time, he’s had his fair share of ghostly encounters.
"About two or three months ago one of the alarms went off and I turned on the camera from home. And there was this white, foggy thing moving around in the theater,” Jetzer recalled. “I've never seen anything like that before and there were no lights on in the theater or anything."
He said one cleaning staff member was so scared by one of her own paranormal experiences, she left her job.
Watch: The nearly 100-year-old Sheboygan theater that may be home to ghosts.
“We like to believe that any of the entities that have been here with us for nearly a century are happy and positive and not hurtful,” Glodosky said.
A paranormal investigation from last weekend confirms that it’s all good energy.
I got a message the following Monday saying they picked up several spirits.
Here’s what the group said:
We had lots of activity…a small girl who likes when kids come to the theater for the plays. We identified a pair of string musicians from the 30s, one of whom was looking for the ladies’ lounge in the balcony. There was also a gentleman who seemed to still hang out by the old men's smoking room and when he was present the group smelled cigarette smoke. Most notably, one of our volunteers brought trigger items of her grandfathers who used to work at the theater. When we channeled our energy and thought about him, the music box started playing and the lights flashed at that exact instant.
The Weill team encourages people to embrace the magical, strange and unusual on the stage as well as in the theater halls.
"We know that live events are special,” Glodosky said. “They really bring out the opportunity to have these shared moments and connections.”
Jetzer added: "If there are ghosts, I think that's where they'd want to be."
