Hello and welcome to my episode 251 of Real Life Ghost Stories, and I have two spooky stories

for you today and the last story comes from January the 3rd, 2023, and story number one comes from Joe.

My name is Joe and I am the Marketing Assistant for Lakewood Theatre in Lake Swego, Oregon.

On January the 6th, the theatre will be hosting the world premiere for an original play, the Ghost of David Bellasco,

a comedy based on the famous New York playwright. New and original productions always struggle with finding an audience right out of the gate.

And as we are coming off multiple set out performances of Elf the Musical, I wanted to keep that momentum going into the next show as much as possible.

I consulted with Natalie the artistic and festival director for Lakewood, with different possibilities for generating interest in the show.

And in the literal spirit of David Bellasco, we came up with the idea of inviting a team of paranormal investigators to inspect the theatre for ghostly activity.

The investigation was held on December the 19th, and although the team has not yet examined all of the footage they collected that night, what they have found already is eye opening.

The Lakewood Theatre was started in 1952 as a performance group that moved from venue to venue for its first several years before settling into a vacant Methodist church, then finally moving into its current building in 1979.

A former grade school built in 1929.

Natalie and I agreed that after almost a century of constant activity, with countless number of people coming through the doors, there was a high probability that something supernatural may be cohabiting our space.

I conducted a search for paranormal investigators in the area and immediately found the exact right people for the job, sinister coffee and creamery.

A local woman owned coffee company who also conduct supernatural investigations.

I'm a caffeine addict and Natalie has boundless enthusiasm for the supernatural so the combination was too perfect.

After one call to sinister co-owners Michelle and Kelly, they were 100% on board and we immediately scheduled for them and their colleague James to take a preliminary tour of the site so they could get a read of the place.

We gave the trio full access to the building, prop rooms, wardrobe, the boiler room, office space, the auditorium, the whole ship-bang.

Natalie and I were very careful not to tell the three investigators anything beyond basic facts as to not influence their feelings.

We both have heard stories from other staff and a few performers about their own creepy experiences in the theater.

If the crew had similar experiences without any prior knowledge, then we knew we were on to something.

During the tour Kelly mentioned that normally their team would have to pick and choose what equipment to bring but considering the size of the venue and the different locations where ghosts could be lurking, she said, we might have to bring everything.

The date of December the 19th was chosen as we didn't have any shows going on that night.

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