’They speak to that great unknown:’ Why we love tales of Colorado’s haunted theaters

Ghost stories have been on Heather Kelley’s mind for a long time. Kelley is an actor and educator at University of Colorado Boulder where her research focuses on dark tourism, ghosts as manifestations of trauma, and haunted attractions, to name a few. Since the early days of her acting career, Kelley has heard no shortage of haunting tales about the theaters and venues where she’s performed, beginning with her time as an undergraduate student at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. 

“Before I even got there, I had been warned that the place was haunted, that there was a ghost there by the name of Lucy, and that all the people that had worked there for years not only believed in Lucy, but made decisions based off of like, what Lucy would or wouldn't like,” Kelley says. We sat down with her this past Halloween to unwrap that strange feeling some of us get when we spend time in old theaters and other storied places.

You can help Kelley deepen her research by filling out this theater ghost survey. And you can do your own research at one of the many Colorado theaters that Kelley says are believed to be haunted: the Boulder Theater, the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, the Dickens Opera House in Longmont, and the Rialto Theater in Loveland. 

NOTE: This is an encore of our podcast from Oct. 31, 2023.