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The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, Ont.

(Paranormal and Ghostly activities at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival)

I was asked by a few people to expand on the Stratford Festival from my last episode into the paranormal. When I was asked to do this I was only too happy to comply. Now, turn the lights down low, snuggle deep into your favourite blanket and read if you dare the paranormal of Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival (SSF) is not only known for Shakespearian plays where Canadian actors received their huge breaks in the entertainment field. Actors such as William Shatner and Christopher Plummer both received one of their first acting breaks here. Plummer still graces the stage with his larger-than-life presents here. he festival is also known for spirits as well.

George, the ghost is a familiar name to a lot of the staff noted Jay Klassen who was a head stage carpenter at the festival from 1988-2002. "In the early days I was frequently there alone in the theater late at night. I heard noises, inexplicable noises and I could never find anybody and that raised the hair at the back off my neck a little bit," said Klassen during a telephone interview.

When he mentioned his experiences to another older employee he was told the strange tale of George who many believe was Ambrose Small who suddenly disappeared many years ago. Small owned a large chain of Vaudeville theaters in the early 1900s. For some reason Small was known as George.

The story goes that when the Avon was a cinema George was a janitor who was down on his luck and managed to make a small apartment in the theatre. The manager of the theatre was using the theater as a place for a rendezvous with someone's wife. "George either stumbled across them or were aware of this going on and that the manager murdered him at the theater and that's why his spirit is on the prowl," recalled Klassen.

A lot of people working by themselves have heard noises, he said.

After the construction of 2000-01 of the Avon Theater he never heard the noises again. "After the reconstruction was completed, I no longer heard the noises. If there were any truth to the story, I guess the resting place of the ghost was sufficiently disturbed by them." This article can't be officially closed without the Ghost Light. "The Ghost Light is just a bare light bulb with a cage on it that stands on something like a coat rack. It has a base and a single pole. When you finish at night you bring it out onto the stage and leave it light until the next day. It's there so the ghosts are not in the dark," stated Nora Polley, archives assistant at the SSF.

The staff takes the ghosts at the festival very seriously. In the question of to be or not to be, some souls continue to be or at least still want to be. That is their final answer.

There are plenty more Canadian paranormal questions and answers and they will be reported in Things That Go Bump In A Canadian Night.