Talk:Ghost light (theatre)

Why?

I'm not sure there were sets in Eliz. theater, but more recent theaters might well use ghost lights to protect the sets from damage by intruders or naive employees, who could easily underestimate the damage they might do by running into them in dim light, or overestimate the difficulty of navigating in a space whose layout would make no sense if reproduced as off-stage rooms.
--Jerzy•t 08:10, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

Refs

Removed

One suggests it goes back to the time of William Shakespeare, where a candle would be left burning after a play to ward away the ghosts of past performances. <ref>"Theater Superstitions: Ghost Lights". Retrieved 2008-02-09.</ref>

The cited source rewords, with greater specificity, a vague source that attributes its version to a so far untraceable source: Googling

"ghost light" site:www.krannertcenter.com

gives zero hits. (And in contrast Sidney Berger (many refs included), Director for University of Houston Theatre, has the light doing the haunting.)
And the fact tag on

One practical reason for the ghost light is to indemnify a theater from any responsibility resulting from injuries sustained by anyone who might break into the space after hours. Should a prowler find himself unwittingly pitching forward into the orchestra pit and subsequently inclined to sue the theater, he may be less likely to receive compensation for his injuries if the ghost light was in fact burning at the time of his accident.

has been ignored near 18 months.
--Jerzy•t 08:41, 13 November 2009 (UTC)