Who haunts DeKalb’s historic Egyptian Theatre? Staff says paranormal is normal

Editor’s note: Whether or not you believe in ghosts and hauntings, this is one of several spooky tales of local lore that Shaw Local News Network will be sharing with readers in the spirit of Halloween.

DeKALB – It’s a Friday night at the historic Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb. In your seats, the lights dim. The show begins.

A movement from the corner of your eye catches your attention, prickling the skin on the back of your neck.

You turn to look. It’s a woman in a long, green dress standing on the balcony. You see her. The person next to you, however, does not.

Thousands of souls have been guests at the theater in downtown DeKalb since it opened almost 100 years ago, and some say a few souls still roam the building to this day.

No, theater employees don’t believe evil is afoot. They say, however, that there’s an abundance of paranormal activity inside the building that’s hard to explain.

Alex Nerad, executive director of the Egyptian Theatre, said working in theater for the past 20 years has made him believe in the paranormal.

“We certainly have a lot of unexplained, kind of playful, rambunctious activity throughout the theater. I think all historic buildings tend to collect spirits and stories,” Nerad said. “With that comes a potential for paranormal activity. And I always like to state [that] personally I don’t know if I believe in ghosts, but I believe in paranormal – meaning there are lots of things we can’t even begin to explain.”

I find it interesting to think about what spirits, what stories we have lingering around our halls and what stories they have to tell us.”

—  Alex Nerad, executive director of the Egyptian Theatre

Jeanine Holcomb, the theater’s marketing and communications director, said there are six separate paranormal activities that continue to occur throughout the building.

The balcony is the most haunted place in the 93-year-old building, Holcomb and Nerad. There, the shadowy figure of the green-clad woman has reportedly been seen by numerous performers, guests and employees.

“I’ve had an artist come up to me after a show and ask me who the woman in the green dress was in the balcony, and I didn’t believe them because I’d always heard someone saying that had happened before. But I’ve only been at the theater for six years, and even I’ve had that happen, where an artist comes up and goes, ‘I thought the balcony was closed, who was the woman in the green dress?’ ” Holcomb said.

The woman’s not the only ghostly visitor, some say.

In 1988, Northern Illinois University associate professor of journalism Irvan Kummerfeldt died of a heart attack in the top row, aisle one. Patrons say they’ve briefly seen an image resembling Kummerfeldt near where he died, theater employees said.

The theater’s website boasts a photograph taken by a paranormal investigator who may have captured what some say is the image of Kummerfeldt’s ghost.

The theater also hosts flashlight tours, where groups are given curated tours of its hauntings with only flashlights to guide them.

Nerad said it’s not uncommon for tour members to experience their own brushes with the paranormal.

Shadow figures, green auras or mist, unexplained noises and heavy doors moving on their own all have been observed in the building.

“Our box office door, pretty much all of us on staff have heard or seen the door move on its own. Any time of day – it will happen in broad daylight, it’ll happen late at night – and it’s one of those things that’s extremely hard to explain,” Nerad said. “I want to be able to rationally, logically explain it, but it’s a heavy old door that does not move easily on its own. So, when you hear it slam shut or open and close with nobody having touched it for quite some time and nobody near it, and no possibility for air to have moved it, that’s where we are left kind of scratching our head trying to figure out how that would have happened.”

Nerad said every single paranormal investigator who has come to the theater over the past 20 years has left with some kind of evidence.

Two audio files created by paranormal investigators while at the theater purport to show evidence of lurking ghosts and spirits: An unidentified voice was recorded after being prompted by an investigator in one file, while unexplained noises were heard in the other.

“I find it interesting to think about what spirits, what stories we have lingering around our halls and what stories they have to tell us,” Nerad said.

One of the other areas known for unexplained spooks is beneath the stage, where a tunnel connecting various rooms runs.

On Oct. 3, Daily Chronicle photo editor Mark Busch went to take pictures of the tunnel but found himself dealing with unexplained camera troubles: His freshly charged camera battery mysteriously lost power when he went into the subterranean tunnel. When he put in a new battery, that one didn’t work for a brief time either.

Nerad said Busch wasn’t the first to experience battery issues in that space.

“That is a very common occurrence down there,” Nerad said. “We get cameras that will turn off on their own, people with brand-new batteries and flashlights or cellphones fully charged that will just drain very quickly.”