TUPELO, Miss. - People have been making memories in Tupelo's Lyric Theatre for years. They've laughed, they've cried and this weekend they'll likely scream.
"If you are familiar with the building, you won't be familiar when you come in at night," Tupelo Community Theatre Volunteer, Steve Miller explains. "We have yards and yards of viscuen hung up just to redesign all the rooms, to make pathways where there's no pathways. We have eight rooms of hauntings."
From the voodoo chambers to the cemetery, those in search of a good scare will see ghosts, ghouls, and goblins; and they could possibly encounter their worse fear.
"We're standing, actually, in the spider room right now," Miller says, pointing to the webs.
But like most Halloween spectacles, the scare tactics inside the Lyric are all make-believe.
Except for one.
Legend has it a real ghost has been lurking in the theatre for more than 70 years.
"Antoine is our resident ghost or spirit," Miller explains. 'The story has changed a little bit but my best recollections that he died in the tornado of '36. We don't know if he died here, but he did die in the tornado of '36 and he's taken up residency here.
Built in 1912, the Lyric Theater is one of only two downtown buildings that survived the 1936 tornado. It was used as a make-shift mortuary in the aftermath, making it no surprise that a spirit roams the halls.
"He comes out, we notice mostly, when it's unexpected," Miller says. "When we come back for something or forget to turn lights off. We startle him and he definitely startles us."
Whether or not Antoine will add his own personal touch to the Lyric's Halloween haunting is unknown, but organizers say there's no doubt that he's present.
"Antoine has made his appearance already, he's moving things on us," Miller says. "I'll put something in one place and look back and it's gone and I'm the only one here, so..."
The Tupelo Community Theatre's 'Haunted Theater' will open Friday (Oct. 23) at 7:00pm and the screams will continue through 11:00pm. They'll also be open Saturday night (Oct. 24) and Halloween weekend (Oct. 30-31) during the same hours. On Thursday (Oct. 29) they'll open from 7:00pm until 10:00pm.
Tickets are $10.00.
Children under age 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
