Just a housewife who sees dead people

[Althalus]

Mike Barnett, facilities supervisor at the Renaissance Theatre points out the sconce that he repeatedly had to adjust nightly until he announced he was leaving every night.

Chris Woodyard has a dubious gift. She sees ghosts. The 49-year-old writer was in Mansfield recently to walk through the old Renaissance Theatre in search of hair-raising experiences and otherworldly events.

"It's an old theater. Theaters often have ghosts, and I thought I might as well check it out," said the Dayton-area resident. "And, of course, Mansfield has many, many ghost stories and good ones, too -- Oak Hill Cottage, the Reformatory, Ceely Rose, the Bellville Opera House."

Author of the "Haunted Ohio" book series, Woodyard had been in Mansfield before but not in the 75-year-old Renaissance. Her first time inside the former vaudeville theater, she found what she was looking for. Up in the balcony, she sensed someone sitting near the front rows.

"From the back, I saw a woman sitting on the right side of the balcony ... and she was wearing a hat. It was kind of an old-fashioned hat ... sort of widens at the top and had a feather at the top."

When Woodyard shared her balcony experience with Renaissance director of marketing Martha Fort, Fort told her she recognized the woman instantly as a former orchestra member and benefactor.

"It was almost like an image from the past rather than an actual ghost ghost," Woodyard said.

"The same thing happened at the top of the balcony. There's a little tiny stool where I saw a woman usher sitting there in modern clothes sleeping like she'd been an usher and was sitting there during a performance, and she'd fallen asleep." News Journal