Note: All this week, 10 On Your Side is spotlighting different haunted locations in Hampton Roads. In this episode, we visit the Wells Theatre in Norfolk.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — In downtown Norfolk, the Wells Theatre is believed to be haunted by several dramatic spirits.
Built in 1913 by Jake and Otto Wells, it was originally a vaudeville theatre. In the 60s and 70s it became an adult movie theatre, and then —
“In the 1980s, our current board, they started a fundraiser to bring this theatre back to life and renovated the theatre in the 80s and we started 47 seasons ago,” said Jeni Schaeffer, director of design and resident costume designer for the Wells Theatre.
The Virginia Stage Company now calls it home. But they have to share it with some otherworldly characters. Like the one they call “Boots.”
“He was believed to be trampled in a fire escape from the third balcony,” Schaeffer said.
However, they say the young boy is spending his afterlife being a bit of a trickster.
“He’s a little boy who lives up in my costume stock, which is way at the top of the theatre,” Schaeffer said. “He likes to play games. So he’ll hide pieces that my staff is looking for. And then I’ll go up and he’ll just put it out in the middle of the aisle or pull it out from a rack so it’s right there as soon as I walk in the door, but they have spent hours looking for the thing.”
They believe a former sailor also met with an untimely end while working the ropes and pulleys in the fly system above the stage.
“And the story is that Ned was leaning over to check out one of the lovely actresses, fell and got tangled in the ropes,” said Virginia Stage Company Producing Artistic Director Tom Quaintance. “Ned now is our on-stage ghost who, when things are not going quite right with something, it’s like, ‘Hey Ned, help us out here.’ And Ned is, I think, mischievous, but ultimately, a theater lover.”
Speaking of theater lovers, they say a former actress can often be seen lurking in the second balcony — the famed ‘Lady in white’.
“Oftentimes, from the stage there will be a, ‘what is that out of the corner of your eye,’ and there will be a sort of flash of white,” Quaintance said.
But sometimes, they say, she’ll make an appearance to watch over the production of a show.
“For Beatty, who was playing Scrooge, he looked up and actually saw someone,” Quaintance said. “So it’s both — the, you think you see something, [and] for him, he saw somebody — turned to say, ‘Hey look’, and she was gone.”
It gives a whole new meaning to the ‘ghost light’ left onstage, a tradition in all theatres.
“The reason there’s so many ghosts in theaters is we are creating stories of people’s lives every performance,” Quaintance said. “You have a tremendous amount of life that is brought to life onstage. And I think that energy just sticks around.”
Want to go?
Starting Dec. 3, the group will be performing “A Merry Little Christmas Carol,” in which they plan to incorporate many of the ghosts that have been reportedly seen and felt around the theater. Buy tickets here. And to see a list of all shows coming to the Wells, visit their page here.
And to see a list of all shows coming to the Wells, visit their page here.
Source: https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/haunted-hampton-roads-wells-theatre/