By Mary Wozniak
Lots of actors are known for their stage presence.
At the Arcade Theatre in downtown Fort Myers, there just might be a presence on stage.
It's no surprise that the stage in question is creaky: That's normal in a 99-year-old building.
But other activities that occur in the home of the Florida Repertory Theatre are not so normal. They may even be paranormal.
Enter the Lee County Ghost Hunters, also known as Southwest Florida Paranormal Investigations.
The ghost hunters were at the Arcade Theatre last Friday night into the wee hours of Saturday morning, checking out past reports of strange goings-on.
The reports included the sound of voices that didn't belong to anyone at the theater ? and touching.
Touching?
"Like an actual person touching with hands, or a push," said Morgan Beall, the ghost hunters' executive manager and the lead investigator on this case. The group investigates reports of paranormal activities here, throughout Florida, and occasionally out of state.
"It doesn't necessarily mean ghosts, spirit entities, Bigfoot, UFOs. It's a general term," said Beall. "We investigate the abnormal. Things that can't be explained readily, immediately."
The ghost hunters are volunteers, all with full-time occupations. For this work, they use scientific methods and equipment. Their services are free.
"It's sort of a passion, I guess you could say," Beall said. "We simply observe and record the phenomenon. Many paranormal phenomena are actually unexplained natural phenomena."
About 90 percent of the time, the phenomenon is either unverifiable or explainable, he said. "Every now and then we catch so much evidence in one place that we're convinced that place has some sort of activity."
Some reports of paranormal activity at the theater date back four years or more.
Rachel Burttram, the Florida Rep director of audience development and an actress, was the company manager for 2002-2003 and often worked alone late at night. When turning out the lights before leaving, she used to run past a second floor office that seemed to give out eerie vibes.
"It was really scary," Burttram said. "It was so, so dark."
Oddly, that's one of the spots where paranormal activity has been reported, Beall said. So is stage left.
Burttram remembers standing in the wings several times recently, waiting for her cue. "I thought another actor walked up beside me, and turned to say hi," she said. "No one was there."
Jason Parrish, the theater's associate director, has been in the building at night with the doors locked and something happens.
"The front door makes a very distinct noise when you unlock it," he said. "There are times when I think I heard someone open the door, and I'll wait for them to come up the stairs. But no one comes up the stairs. I'll notice something like that, something that makes me think, 'I'm not alone here tonight.'"
"We've come here to see if we can verify any of that or debunk any of that ? either way," said Honey Archey, who founded the ghost hunters in 2000 with a group of friends.
The ghost hunters have investigated hotels, restaurants, cemeteries, old Cracker-style houses, government buildings, even a beauty salon.
First, the hunters establish a detailed history of the structure and map it. They interview witnesses and try to find out if any unique incidents ? such as a crime or a death ? ever occurred there.
Then they take preliminary measurements with an electromagnetic field meter and a team does a walk-through of the building, in pitch dark, carrying the meter, a voice recorder and a camcorder.
The voice recorder is to catch EVPs, or incidents of electric voice phenomena. That's a word, sentence or sound made by someone who is not in the group or on the team, said Richard Ramsey, operations manager for the group.
Last weekend, Archey walked through the darkened theater asking questions.
"Who are you?"
"What is your name?"
"Do you want us here?"
"Can you move something?"
Archey led the team through the theater, onto the stage, through the upstairs offices and the balcony. They shot video, recording audio and collecting data on the building's temperature, humidity and electromagnetic fields.
Other team members watched the activity on a bank of computer monitors set up in the theater lobby.
The result: So far, inconclusive. The group is still going through hours of data, Beall said. They caught a shadowy image on stage on video and are still going through audio.
Beall said he'll have a report in about a month, which will be posted on the group's Web site.
The ghost hunters are getting more and more calls for investigations, Ramsey said.
People who previously have experienced activity and kept it to themselves are starting to come out of the woodwork because of popular TV shows on ghost hunting and mediums, he said.
Does Ramsey believe in ghosts?
"I believe there's something out there that's paranormal. Do I actually believe in ghosts? I'd have to meet one first."
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