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Theatre Royal - Nelson City

31-10-2007 - Theatre Royal - Halloween Special with guests ZM Radio Crew Jaz & Jeff.

'The Oldest Operational Wooden Theatre in the Southern Hemisphere'

Equipment used:

The Investigation

It was an honour to investigate at the Theatre Royal Nelson as we were the first investigation team ever to have had the privilege. We started setting up the gear and testing the day before the investigation with Caleb giving me a hand to rig up cameras in the different areas we wanted to cover based on reports of what has been seen, heard & felt.

I setup the equipment and cameras using the wrist watch walkie talkies that we use sometimes to give us hands free at times, because when you are investigating the major thing you find a lot is lack of hands to carry equipment. When we go out investigating usually I have around 2/3 bags hanging around my neck with all sorts of equipment and gadgets. Sometimes its good just to be able to have what you need in your pockets so you can concentrate more on the investigation rather than what instrument is in which bag.

It was quite handy having our base station available with lots of viewable angles so that if a lock off was in place and we heard sounds, we knew where everybody was.

We started the investigation when all had arrived. We had ZM FM Radio Crew with us for the evening but a lot of us found we had battery drain in cameras, night vision cameras etc, even down to digital audio recording devices so some of the gear that the ZM Crew had was not usable after a while. We carried on regardless as we still had night vision DVR cameras up and running as well as other night vision cameras and digital cameras. We were also joined by the team from the Theatre who came to help and see how things like this are done. It seems quite exciting at first but when your walking around waving a magnetic field detector around for an hour or so that can ware off pretty quickly. It's only when you start to feel things or hear things, even see shadows in the dull light, that's when the adrenalin kicks in and you kick into chase mode.

Sadly it was a quiet night at the Theatre. We tested the areas that we were told about for temperature changes as well as EMF and we took pictures around those areas. We did catch some things on digital cameras and at one point the monitor in the HQ was picking up a purple area's on one of the cameras. This was interesting as these cameras switch to night vision in low light and when that happens they transmit in black and white so its odd to have a purple colour turn up but one of the Ghosts supposed to frequent the Theatre is the Purple lady. Spooky huh!

We walked around in different groups, mostly in two's checking on different areas. Mostly by either walking slowly trying to take all of the senses in around us, or by sitting quietly in an area to see if we could pick anything up.

We all thought that below the stage would be the worst place to be but in fact it was quite the opposite. If you get over the fact you have to bend over all the time and it's dark, dusty and a bit of a rabbit warren, then if you sat down it actually felt quite and comfortable, unlike certain areas around the side of the stage where you tend to feel that someone is behind you. This was an interesting feeling in that area only and it's a spot that if you're in the Theatre business you'll know, it's a place where the audience can't see you but you can see the stage.

This was very interesting to me but the only problem is that there is a circuit breaker right at that point, and usually 8 times out of 10 they have quite a high EMF reading because of the amount of electricity passing through them. That side of the stage was also the lighting control box which had many wires coming into one spot where it could be controlled by the lighting operators.

I found also that the stair well leading up to the second floor from the main central lobby was also strange near the top and around the corner, Im not sure if its because its a junction and you feel vulnerable or what but that also felt quite weird.

Whilst upstairs I went from row to row checking the EMF readings until we got to where the Purple Lady was supposed to have fallen to her death after protesting against her husband kissing the leading lady in a play. In some areas of that upstairs tier you do feel quite open, you tend to look to the corner of your eyes to double take if you saw anything and this is what we call 'corner of the eye phenomenon'. Sometimes you even feel as if someone is standing next to you even though you don't see them and you almost go to turn and say 'hello' or 'how's it going' expecting a crew member or guest to be at your side.

The investigation stopped sooner than I had hoped at around 1am, as some of the ZM crew felt ill early on in the investigation. Whether this was caused by feelings being projected onto them or if they just had an upset stomach we do not know, but we saw the change from energetic people coming in, to winding down and being a quiet person when leaving. Was this the atmosphere affecting the people's emotional and psychological well being?

Another member of the ZM crew helped at the end with my wife to pack everything up and away but we left some of the gear behind until the morning to finish breaking up the setup and packing away cameras. I did go round once more on my own just taking in the atmosphere of the Theatre and I imagined it as the scene in the film Titanic where the robot submarine is going into a window and you can see how old, rusted and bare everything looks but then it fades into how it looked when it was built.

I walked around in the basement to double check things and didn't feel too bad on my own, knowing that everyone else was outside.

In general the Theatre has a kind of 'smokey' feel to it, you kind of think that it's misty but it's not, it was a wee bit gloomy but the lights were on, dimmed most of the time, and of course the old girl had seen many people pass through her doors and seen many plays rehearsed, played and moved on. But she still keeps a certain sense of mystery.

Theatre Royal Nelson Summery:

Probable paranormal activity. Would like to catch more of it on hard copy to show others before declaring it definitely has some paranormal activity.

I think the next time we are allowed to investigate we will concentrate more on what types of paranormal activity are going on whether its intelligent (i.e. it communicates with you / interacts with you), residual (a bit like a tape recorder playing in a room, it doesn't know your in the room its just going about its normal routine unaware that anything is different) or structural (this is where the building its self effects the mind and emotions, a little bit like small cramped corridors and small rooms can effect someone with claustrophobia).