The Haunted Actor: An Exploration of Supernatural Belief Through Theatre

By Alex Matsuo

With the paranormal becoming so mainstream in the last decade between television, books, and movies, is the craze actually brand new? Before there was the entertainment industry that we know of today, plays and musicals were one of the primary forms of expression and reflections of societys beliefs of their time. This book will cover an analysis of the belief in the supernatural throughout the course of humanitys existence and showing that in a way, the paranormal has always been normal. Using elements of theatre as the research vehicle, as well as establishing the relationship between acting and the unknown, this book examines the rich relationship between theatre and the paranormal.

Finally, this book will challenge the reader to consider the possibility of using theatre as a method for researching and investigating the paranormal. Readers will be asked to consider what would happen if investigators and ghost hunters took on the role of an actor and the haunted location becomes a performance space, thus welcoming communication and activity from the other side.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491849804

Alex Matsuo

Alex Matsuo is an actor, dramaturg, and playwright by day, and a paranormal researcher and investigator by night. She has researched and investigated the paranormal for nearly a decade, and is the founder of the Association of Paranormal Study, which specializes in private home investigations and consultations. She is also an honorary member of Evermore Paranormal in Virginia. Alex received her Master of Arts in theatre arts from San Diego State University in 2011 and currently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina. You can follow Alex on Twitter @alexmatsuo.

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© 2014 Alex Matsuo. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Edited by Kasey Cassells

Cover Design by Justin Warren Martin

Published by AuthorHouse 01/20/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4982-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4981-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4980-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014901123

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1   The Spiritual Influence On The Origin Of Theatre

Chapter 2   Supernatural Belief In Elizabethan England

Chapter 3   The Ghosts Of Japanese Theatre

Chapter 4   The Theatre And Spiritualism

Chapter 5   A Brief Overview Of The Portrayal Of The Supernatural In Contemporary Theatre

Chapter 6   Performance Magic

Chapter 7   Witchcraft And The Stage

Chapter 8   Acting Techniques As Portals

Chapter 9   Ritual And Performance

Chapter 10   The Actor And The Shaman

Chapter 11   Dramatic Curses And Superstitions

Chapter 12   Performance As The Catalyst

Chapter 13   Creating A Production Out Of Investigating

Epilogue   All The World’s A Stage…

Bibliography

About The Author

DEDICATION

For the dreamers and the believers who know

there is something else out there that cannot be explained.

For the skeptics who question everything and make the believers accountable.

For the successful.

For the failures.

For the hurting.

For the healing.

For the strong.

For the weak.

And finally, for the ones who are in their darkest place and can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. One step at a time, no matter how slow, will get you closer to the light.

It will get better.

I promise.

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,


As I foretold you, were all spirits and


Are melted into air, into thin air:


And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,


The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,


The solemn temples, the great globe itself,


Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve


And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,


Leave not a rack behind.We are such stuff


As dreams are made on, and our little life


Is rounded with a sleep."

William Shakespeare

The Tempest: Act IV, Scene I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been made possible without the generous donations from those who believed in this project. I want to express my utmost gratitude to Suzanne Sorrell at Evermore Paranormal and Marc Tetlow at Ideal Event Management, who funded the majority of this book while asking for nothing in return. Your graciousness and generosity has humbled me and has forever changed me, and I hope that my work will make you proud. This book is dedicated to you.

To my dear friend, Joy—through thick and thin, you have been my rock throughout the process of writing this book, and in my journey in my paranormal career. Not only that, but you have shown me the meaning of unconditional love, and that no matter what, whether there are problems or turbulent times, the love of friends and family will always prevail.

To Justin—I can’t tell you how much your love and support has carried me throughout this process. You went from graphic designer to my personal cheerleader and kept me going when I had a hard time believing in myself.

To my mother—I’ve learned how to be strong by watching you as I grew up, and now that I’m an adult, I’ve learned how to be someone who can be tough, yet gentle. I know you will continue to give yourself to those you love with no expectation of anything in return, and that will always continue to inspire me.

I especially want to thank my dear friends and family as they were the ones who were my support team when the times got tough and were there to not only give me inspiration, but invaluable encouragement. You are my unseen angels.

And finally, I want to acknowledge and thank the people who didn’t believe in me or attempted to kick me while I was down. You gave me a new level of drive that I never thought possible. The book is published!

INTRODUCTION

Once, as I was working a late night at the theatre where I was in rehearsals for a musical, I kept getting the sense that I was not alone. Of course I really wasn’t alone as the technical director (TD) was there, and he was perturbed that the director and I were still at the theatre close to midnight. But I was alone on the stage and couldn’t shake the feeling that someone else was watching me from the wings. As my rehearsal concluded, I helped the TD bring out the ghost light. As I watched the ghost light shine on the stage, I walked slowly to the lobby, intending on making my way to the doors where I would make my exit. As I stepped outside, the doors locked behind me and I realized that I had left my keys in the lobby. The TD, who was standing outside with me, didn’t want to go back in, so he threw me the keys and told me to make it quick. I unlocked the front door and ran through it into the hallway, and through the next door into the dark theatre. Using my phone as a flashlight through the house, I saw my keys sitting on the side of the stage where I had left them. As I grabbed my keys, I got the feeling again that I wasn’t alone. I walked back into the hallway, locking the theatre door behind me. As I opened the second door into the lobby, I saw the faint illumination of the ghost light at my feet. Turning, I saw a shadow as the door I had just locked was now slowly closing. I was the only one in the theatre, who could it have been? I assumed the TD, but as I relocked everything and stepped outside, there he was sitting on a bench finishing a cigarette. Then I realized he had been outside the entire time and I had his set of keys.

When one hears the words, paranormal or supernatural, the thoughts of reality television shows, the Scooby gang, and Casper may come to mind. Reality programs with bad camera angles in night vision mode and images of people screaming in the dark and talking about ghosts and demons have become increasingly popular in the last ten years. Our fascination with the unknown has been a part of our human society for as long as we have existed on this Earth.

Death is inevitable and something that we must all face. Because no one has been able to die and come back and be taken seriously, there is the fear of what’s to come once our bodies stop working. For thousands of years, mankind has held a fascination with life after death, and where we go after our physical bodies are no longer functioning. The idea that once we die we cease to exist is a hard concept to swallow. But the idea that some parts of us survive after death has driven us on a quest to seek the proof for ourselves. We, as a society of the human race, have been desperate to discover something bigger than ourselves and seeking out the unknown has turned into a form of church. Participating in or watching these programs about paranormal investigations is a metaphor for us seeking God in one way or another. We want to know if someone up there is listening to us, watching us, and guiding us. Just the idea of knowing someone is out there watching out for us brings some sort of comfort, whether it is a deity or a deceased loved one. We are seeking some sort of confirmation that there is a divine purpose in what we experience in our lives, as well as hoping to find explanations of the unknown. Spirituality is an act of faith that has declined since the rise of science, but even science cannot explain everything, and that is the truth that we are seeking.

Before science, there was religion. When events would happen that couldn’t be explained, man looked to deities for explanations and answers. But how religion came to existence can be associated with many variables. Not knowing the answers to our existence is terrifying, but giving the explanation that we were created by a divine being is much more comforting. When bad things happen to good people, there must be a plan behind it. When loved ones die and the crops don’t pull through, something must have been done to anger the god(s). Religion and spirituality provided the answers to the questions that plagued the human psyche, and gave a reason for events that happened. If the harvest was plentiful and babies were born, someone above was pleased. The desire to please these deities by singing, dancing, and speaking to an unknown being became the foundation of what we know today as theatre and performance.

The things we cannot see have the capability of scaring us more than what we can see in our physical mind. The unknown, coined as the supernatural or the paranormal, continues to intrigue us because it begs to be sought out. There is a truth out there that we do not know about and are desperate to discover. Even before the boom in paranormal reality television, we were fascinated by what we couldn’t see and what scared us the most. This fascination goes back to a time even before the peak of Ancient Greece and the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

As time has progressed and the rise of scientific explanation came about, the belief in the unknown and religion is now perceived more as an act of faith. But science still cannot explain everything when it comes to supernatural occurrences, and that is the faith of those who believe in the unknown. The unknown could mean a plethora of different things, such as God, ghosts, spirits, demons, our very existence. When the impossible occurs and a miracle happens, science is lost when it comes to explanation and faith wins. But back in the early days of man, science was not there to provide explanation, it was the answer to the why by explaining how things happened, such as the creation of man and the universe. As man evolved and science came into play, there was still an established relationship between spirituality and science and they were more interconnected, much to the contrast of today’s perceptions that the two are now mutually exclusive from one another. But how does science relate to the darkest part of ourselves that only a few dare to explore?

As humans, we have the natural instinct of expressing ourselves and exploring our curiosity with our feelings and beliefs. Expression comes in many forms whether it’s painting, writing, drawing, dancing, singing, acting, playing music, etc. Expressing our belief in various deities has been an act that has followed our existence since it first began. Under our modern day terms, the horror films, the paranormal reality television, the act of seeking out the unknown through religion, ghost hunting, etc. is our way of expressing our belief and hope in the existence of the unknown. While all of us might not use performances as a form of exploration of faith and God anymore, it’s certainly used as a way to explore what makes us human. One of the key aspects in this expression is in the relationship between the unknown and performance. What we are watching on the screen is a performance, even in reality television. There is a favorable perception that we have of ourselves that we desire to be seen by the wider audience, whether it’s work, friends, or entertainment. Every day, we are performers in some capacity or another. Our personalities change and alter depending on our present company. Even those who are paranormal investigators are performers. This doesn’t mean that they are faking their experiences or any supernatural occurrence. It means that there is a certain decorum that we all follow in life, and it has evolved from performances for the gods to investigators and researchers seeking out the unknown in a haunted house.

The purpose of this book is to outline the relationship between the belief in the supernatural and the theatre, using theatre as an expression of this belief and culture over the course of hundreds of years to our modern time. The best source material for commentary on society is plays, as they explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of our identity and our history. This book is intended for those who are not familiar with the theatrical world as well as for those who are not familiar with the study of the supernatural or the paranormal. This is meant to be a brief overview, since thousands of years of history in the relationship between the theatrical field and the paranormal field cannot be covered in a single book. For the purposes of fluidity, the terms paranormal and supernatural will be used to describe what we as humans perceive as not normal, or some force that is beyond our level of understanding or explanations of scientific nature. I hope the information here will arouse interest in one or both of the topics mentioned, and that it will serve as the start of a wonderful journey as you embark further in your studies.

It’s important to note that this is based on research and theories. This book is by no means a scientific study nor is it meant to prove or debunk supernatural phenomena with scientific evidence, as I am not a scientist. This is an exploration of our belief in the unknown that has spanned for thousands of years and how it is expressed through the stage. One of the strongest pieces of evidence of the evolution of our belief in the unknown is shown through theatre.

It has been said many times before that theatre holds a mirror up to society and exposes our flaws, weaknesses, strengths, and accomplishments. This isn’t exclusive to only the living society, but also to the society of the dead, and the paranormal is certainly not excluded. It has been said that ghosts and spirits are our voices of the past and in a way, we can see ourselves in the past, like living history. And like theatre, spirit communication exposes our own fears and vulnerabilities as we take a chance of communicating with something that in reality, we don’t know that much about. There is no reason why the theatre and the paranormal should be mutually exclusive from one another.

In fact, the paranormal has been used as a source of inspiration in the arts for thousands of years, and elements of the field are connected in the world of theatre. How much do actors contribute to their own paranormal experiences? Do these experiences follow them home after rehearsals are over and the curtain is closed? Is Macbeth the only play that is associated with a curse? And speaking of the Macbeth curse, is it a true phenomenon of bad luck or is it a self-fulfilling prophecy set off by the actors and the production teams? Actors have a lot of superstition. But I feel actors do not focus on superstition, and it is not our mission to thwart bad luck or potential paranormal situations.

I don’t think I even remember a time I wasn’t interested in theatre. When I was a young child, I was envious of a girl in my class who was in shows on a regular basis, while I begrudgingly went to figure skating practice after school. The only thing I enjoyed about figure skating was that during performances and competitions, I was the center of attention. Perhaps it is time to admit that I was rather vain and selfish in my upbringing. Being an only child made me the center of attention and it was something I craved in my childhood. Even to this day, my mom comments on how she should have put me in acting classes much earlier.

Time passed and I got to finally join a local children’s theatre when I was 11 years old. My first play was Grease, and I was in the ensemble as a chorus girl singing the chorus of Freddy My Love and walking in rhythm with toilet paper rolls on my head to the heartthrob ballad, Beauty School Dropout. I was proud of that moment and from there, the rest is history. Chorus roles soon turned into lead and supporting roles, and finally that turned into a thirst for more knowledge as I got my bachelor’s degree in performance, and then, finally, a master’s degree in theatre. During my time in graduate school, I became fascinated with mankind’s beliefs, whether religious or based on human instincts. And since in the past neither television nor the movies existed for entertainment, there was the theatre. The theatre continues to be a source of entertainment and has gone through a complex evolution over the span of thousands of years when it was first created. That creation, you could say, was an evolution and not necessarily a conscious decision for creation.

As I grew up from the timid child and became an adult in the theatre, I was exposed to hundreds of theatre ghost stories as well as dealing with my own paranormal experiences at home. Every theatre I walked into, there was always a story. What I have found so far is that the older the theatre, the richer the story. It seemed that the supernatural was something I could not escape even within the walls of the stage. That was my experience in the paranormal. My experiences alone can fill a book, so I won’t elaborate here for the purposes of staying on topic. But my experience in the paranormal shaped me into the person I am now. These experiences have influenced my spirituality and beliefs into what they are today.

The stereotypical myths and legends of theatres are that they are haunted. With each new theatre I go to, I always want to talk to the employees and ask them about the local ghost stories. Popular culture has us convinced that every theatre has a ghost, whether it’s a woman in white who was once a living actress or the dedicated technician who will never leave his post. There are many theatres out there that are legitimately haunted. But I want to go further than just the statement and find out why these theatres seem to be haunted. It goes much deeper than a failed actress who committed suicide, or an understudy bent on getting the part. The very explanation lies in the artists themselves and the history of the performance space. And what I want to explore is a reason why this is the case.

History aside, there is a rich relationship between the paranormal and the theatre and it goes deeper than the typical haunted theatre story. Based on personal experiences and testimonies of theatre practitioners, there seems to be a connection between the energies that are generated onstage and ghosts. Between the surge of electricity to power the production and the energy of the actors, there is a buffet of energy for spirits to feast upon. It is also fair to mention that the audience is a provider and receptor of energy during performances that actors will often work with, and the energies of the audience members and the kind of energy they emit is a response to what they are seeing onstage. One of the most popular theories in the paranormal field is that these entities feed on energy in order to manifest themselves and create paranormal phenomena. If this theory were true, why wouldn’t a spirit hang out in a theatre to not only enjoy some entertainment, but feast on plentiful energy as well? Energies from the actor are abundant since it takes a lot of energy to put on a performance, and that performance invokes energies from the audience in the form of emotional responses. Whether the audience is enjoying the performance or not, some form of emotional response is taking place.

This book is broken up into three parts. The first part of the book will explore the origins of the supernatural’s involvement in theatre and the paranormal phenomena and legends that surrounded their respective time periods. The plays from the past can tell us a lot about each culture’s beliefs in ghosts, demons, spirits, and other mythological folklore of the time period in which they were written, and in the case of historical plays, the time period that they were written about. The second part of the book will focus on the actor, and the different