I am a rigger/stagehand in Santa Barbara and have been for many years. Being a rigger means we are the people who climb all the way to the top of the theater and hang points for shows that hold sound, lighting trusses, and whatever is needed for the show. We go places that no one in the theater ever goes. The ghosts hang out up there sometimes, mostly.
In my experience at the Granada, there are three ghosts there. Two of them are very friendly, and the third is friendly but grumpy sometimes and a trickster. I don’t know their origin, but they are there. I have seen one and heard the other two, as well as felt their presence. They just hang out and watch mostly.
What is interesting is one has been there for a very long time and was there before the renovation. The two others are new after the renovation. Maybe because they dug so deep down to put in the new dressing rooms and everything in the basement?
The grumpy trickster ghost has been there at least since I was 19, and I am now 47. The old stage manager and I called him Gorge because both of us have heard him kinda tell us his name. I don’t know how to explain it, but he has a way to communicate if you are open to that kind of thing.
If Gorge is in a grumpy mood or pissed off, weird things will happen. Nothing ever dangerous, but he will do stuff, mess with the dimmers for the lighting, and slam doors.
We can have a show and everything is working perfectly, everything is ready. Then, all of a sudden, usually about 5-10 minutes before the curtain goes up, lights start flickering. They come on and off randomly, and it has nothing to do with the lighting console or the dimmers. They are all in working order. I have trouble-shot the lighting console and dimmers during these moments, and everything is fine technically. He does something?
It freaks the touring people out because they don’t have control of the lights the way they have programmed into the lighting console. They can bring up their lighting cues, but random lights turn on and off by themselves or flicker randomly. It drives the tour light directors crazy because technically there is nothing wrong. It all worked fine literally a minute ago.
The stage manager and I would tell the touring lighting directors that it is just Gorge and everything will be fine right before the show starts. They look at us like we are crazy and we both laugh. Sure enough right before the show starts, everything goes back to normal and the show goes off without a hitch.
Gorge is a very sensitive ghost and if you piss him off he will do these things. If there is a disrespectful stagehand on the touring crew or house crew he does these things. He never interrupts or interferes with a show once it starts, so I believe he was once someone who worked in theater. As the stage manager and I would say, well, someone pissed Gorge off today.
Later, I became the Assistant Facilities Manger and I would be the last person to leave the theater every day, show or not, making sure everything was locked up. I had my lock-up routine and it always ended up on stage right where I would make sure the ghost light was on — it is a safety rule in theater so you can see the edge of the stage — down stage center. Then I’d set the automatic lighting system to a complete blackout on stage and in the audience area.
Okay, I am not making this next part up!
There is one door that exits to the audience from the elevator house left to the top of balcony seating, and I would shut it in part of my closing procedure. When I set the whole theater to black, I would casually say, good night, Gorge, and he would open the door a little bit so it kinda slammed and the ghost light would flicker a little. That meant Gorge was happy! He did not do this every time but usually once or twice a month. If it was a great show he would do the door light thing, so I think he watched the shows, too?
This never freaked me out, but I found it fascinating and kinda comforting to know he was always there. There is no scientific way the door could open and close itself and for the light to flicker at the same time.
The other two ghosts don’t do much compared to Gorge, but they just watch and are present sometimes but not always. They hang out mostly in the basement. I have never seen them, but I could feel them when I was down there doing maintenance by myself, especially if I was fixing things with tools, especially power tools. I think they are fascinated by tools?
Anyway, those are my ghost experiences from the Granada. I have encountered many ghosts in many theaters all over the country, and I am also very familiar with the ghost at the Lobero as well.
When I was a kid I saw ghosts in our below-ground TV room in Goleta. I have never been afraid of them. Maybe that’s why I can feel and see them sometimes. It turned out that the below-ground room in Goleta was a Chumash burial site, and that would make sense.
