Whether you know the name or not, you’re probably familiar with the theater’s faithful ghost light—one solo light burning alone on an otherwise empty stage. But what is the point of these ghost lights? When did they start being used, and why are we still using them today? Let’s illuminate the answers by putting a spotlight on the stage’s spectral secret.
Traditionally speaking, a ghost light is a single lightbulb that is left on the stage when everyone has left the theater for the night. Beyond that, even the origins of the phrase are unclear, although the Oxford English Dictionary dates it back to 1849.
Most theaters have ghost lights, from rural community theaters all the way up to Broadway houses. They even became popular iconography during the pandemic as a symbol of the resilience of the theater industry. They’re also sometimes called Equity Lights—a name that seems to imply that they were, at least at one time, required by the Actors’ Equity Association, but it’s impossible to find any reference to such a rule.
That doesn’t mean that keeping the stage lit isn’t ever required, of course. Disney Theatrical’s vice president of operations, Dana Amendola, said in an interview with Playbill that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration actually requires the New Amsterdam to keep several lights on when the theater is empty. (Is the lack of a proper singular ghost light one of the reasons that the New Amsterdam is among the most haunted of Broadway theaters? You have to wonder…)
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OK, so why do theaters use a ghost light? Again, it’s a straightforward question with a shockingly unstraightforward answer. Here are some popular theories.
1. It’s a holdover from old infrastructure.
In the Historical Dictionary of the American Theater, theatrical scholar-professor James Fisher claims that the ghost light originated in a time when theaters were lit by gaslights, and leaving a dim ghost light on overnight was necessary to relieve pressure on gas valves. While this would explain why ghost lights were first used, it doesn’t answer why they persist more than a century after gaslighting (not to be confused with “gaslighting”!) has gone out of fashion.
2. It wards off ghosts.
Though this might sound goofy at first, you have to think about just who you’re dealing with here. There’s no way around it—theater people are superstitious. Combine the fact that a single shining speck happens to look a little ominous with the unsettling name “ghost light,” and is it really any wonder people’s minds run wild? Some people believe that the ghost light originated as a way to ward off ghosts (or, according to some takes, keep them company). If it’s the former, it may not be working too well, since Broadway theaters are reportedly teaming with spirits.
9 Theater Superstitions3. It keeps people safe.
The conventional answer (and frankly, the most likely one) is that ghost lights are used for safety reasons. The auditorium of a theater is, by nature, a big, dark room with no windows. Shut off all the lights and this can become hazardous pretty quickly. But leaving a ghost light on the stage ensures that nobody gets hurt because they can’t see. It’s especially helpful for preventing stagehands from walking off the edge of the stage or crashing into the set.
There’s a popular urban legend that the ghost light was invented not to prevent this from happening but in reaction to it actually happening. This seems plausible enough, although the plot twist of the unfortunate victim being a burglar who went on to sue the theater seems… less so.
A solo ghost light also makes sense from a budgetary (and environmental!) standpoint. It’s better to leave one single light on just in case than to leave the entire (empty) house illuminated at three in the morning for nobody but supposed ghostly inhabitants.
The safety issue answers a lot of questions about the practicality of the ghost light, but not so much about the name. Why not call it the “safety light” or, if that urban legend is to be believed, the “burglar light”? Pure speculation on our parts here, but maybe the name has more to do with the ghostly way a single lightbulb looks onstage.
In the age of electric lights, burglar alarms, and increasing skepticism when it comes to things like ghosts and the paranormal, questioning the use of ghost lights in theater might seem fair, if not for one thing: tradition. It appears nobody knows exactly when or why we started putting out ghost lights, but it seems unfathomable that we would stop, either. This antiquated tradition links us to the theater people of yesteryear… and maybe their ghosts, too.