History & local legend
Cambria Heights High School's Clair J. Urich Auditorium opened its recorded performance history with West Side Story in 1971. A theater legend associates its helpful backstage presence with a boy who was meant to take the lead in that production.
In March 2009, a contributor asked their father about the story. He remembered attending school with the original lead and said the boy became ill before opening night, requiring a replacement.
The auditorium legend goes further, describing a presence that helps performers who miss their marks or stumble. It also attributes falling objects and noises in the overhead spotlight room to the absent actor.
Sources
- StrangeUSA, auditorium legend and March 19, 2009 family account from the child of a Cambria Heights contemporary
- Cambria Heights High School, its own performance history at Clair J. Urich Auditorium, beginning with West Side Story in 1971 and recording a separate 2001 revival
- Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission, 2019 school-building inventory, Cambria Heights Senior High constructed in 1970
- OpenStreetMap, GNIS point for Cambria Heights Senior High School