Folklore of Enid's Performing Past:

"Spirited" Stories Surrounding the Places and People of Enid's Oldest Theatres.

A Project for Mythology & Folklore, by Brady Henderson

 Stories of the EHS Auditorium: What Happened that Night

Late on night in the old Enid High School Auditorium, a student and drama teacher remained after a long play practice.  The student, who was the resident "techie" of the school, decided to stay and focus the lights while the teacher finished up some other matters for the upcoming show.  The lights that needed work were accessible from the dreaded "catwalks," fifty feet above the seats of this huge auditorium.  These lights were set in a row of portals cut into the ceiling of the hall, and so they were actually accessed by climbing an old steel ladder with missing bolts, only then coming to a fire door set into the wall with no ledge, about 1 1/2 feet from the ladder, then swinging over onto the doorframe, still fifty feet above the floor, finally coming into the "attic" and walking on paths of old 2x6's being careful not to step off the thin boards onto the insulation and ceiling tiles as this was a sure ticket to a fifty foot fall onto wooden seat backs and concrete.

 

And so the student climbed up, jumped into the doorway, and carefully made his way to the lights where he began his work.  About this time the director, who had been working on the stage yelled "I'll be back in a minute," and went to put some costumes in her room, leaving the student all alone.  Suddenly, with no one else in the school, and the teacher gone, the student heard a loud beating noise over and over, as if the whole auditorium were a base drum being struck in rhythm.  As he pondered what could be going on, the lights abruptly went out.  Not just the stage lights, but the work lights and house lights too.  It was pitch black.  He could neither see where the paths were or hear himself think above the racket, with seemed to grow louder and louder!  It was then that the "attic," a place renowned for its heat, suddenly grew cold as the student felt an icy wind whirling around him.  This wind began to swirl around producing a deathly squeal, like a dying animal in its last throws of life.

Lights mounted like those at EHS.

In vain he called out for help but there was no one there.  He knew he had to get down though, and so praying aloud the whole way, he began to feel his way along the path, bracing against the truss cables so as to hold firm against the wind, which seemed determined to knock him off the path to his death.  Somehow he made it to the ladder and climbed his way down still firmly bracing against the swirling icy wind.  As he came to the bottom and jumped off the last rung, it stopped.  The wind, the beating, and the darkness, all stopped.  As the lights returned to normal, the teacher again walked in the door, and it was as if non of it had ever happened.

[From an informal interview with Shawn Mathis, age 16, of Enid Oklahoma, conducted in October, 1998, by Brady Henderson, and an interview with Chris Trojan, also of Enid, conducted in October, 1998, by Brady Henderson]