Riverside Theater Works

Massachusetts · United States · Theatre

An old French opera house at Hyde Park that burned and was rebuilt. The children in the productions describe a woman above the lighting rig.

Riverside Theater Works in Hyde Park, Massachusetts occupies what was once a French opera house. The building burned and was rebuilt.

The presence named in every account is a woman called Esmeralda, said to have died in a chair in the house during the fire.

What is unusual here is who reports her. This is a theatre that runs productions with children, and it is the young participants who describe her. According to the accounts, one or more of them sees her during every production, floating above the lighting on the stage, with one red eye.

She has also appeared to a small number of them when they sit in the purple painted chair she is said to have died in, which the company has kept.

Children in a theatre generate a great deal of shared imagination, and any adult who has worked with a cast of them knows how quickly a detail becomes canon. What is worth noting is how stable the description has stayed across different intakes of children who did not know one another.

FAQ

Where is Riverside Theater Works located?

Riverside Theater Works is in Massachusetts, United States.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.