History & local legend
The Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale opened as the Geyer Opera House in 1900 and later operated as a movie theater. By the time Kathleen Clark worked in its second-floor office, staff and volunteers had accumulated stories about both the balcony and the earthen basement beneath the stage.
Clark recorded a technical director’s experience of cleaning up late at night. A voice said, “Nice job, William.” He looked for whoever had spoken, but no one was there. He also recalled a power surge and a puff of smoke in the lighting booth during a production, which he associated with a girl said to haunt the balcony.
Volunteers called the basement the dungeon. During the summer of 1990, one teenager working there heard someone breathing and ran out in fear.