Boneyards EVP Log – 10/20/13

Ghost: “Come to us.” Before proceeding I urge you, gentle reader, to read and view the previous show’s (10/17/13) seance summary as there is a direct carryover with this one culminating in my effort to conduct a “Buddhist exorcism,” for lack of a better description, on the 2-year-old “V,” a recent arrival at the synagogue and not one of the 12 original ghosts at this location that I call the Synagogue Saints.

All caught up now? Great, you may proceed.

Before proceeding I urge you, gentle reader, to read and view the previous show’s (10/17/13) seance summary as there is a direct carryover with this one culminating in my effort to conduct a “Buddhist exorcism,” for lack of a better description, on the 2-year-old “V,” a recent arrival at the synagogue and not one of the 12 original ghosts at this location that I call the Synagogue Saints.

All caught up now? Great, you may proceed. At the show’s climax audience volunteers Eric and Kristen personed the board. We at first assumed we were speaking with an adult spirit (or subconscious ideomotor impulse, depending on your beliefs) but then it kept spelling MAM, MAM, MAM over and over. At first we thought it was their initials but it told us NO.

Do you know anyone here? YES.

Who? LAURA.

Yep, there was indeed a Laura in the house who looked decidedly freaked at seeing her name spelled out on the Ouija board. How do you know Laura?

The response was more MAM over and over again.

LAURA: I don’t know anyone with those initials.

ME: It’s talking like a child saying the same word over and over. I think we’ve got a kid here.

MY USHER SUSAN: Do you mean MOM? YES … MAM, MAM, MAM.

Indeed the repetition was childlike and rather sad. We imagined a young child calling for its mother over and over and not sure how to spell it. This is extremely similar to my encounter with young MALA/MALALA 2 years ago during BZ:ABOTD who wound up following me from the Blue Grotto in West Philly to Plays & Players Theatre and taking up residence there but that’s another story. In short, it seems children who have died violent deaths are particularly frightened and stuck, not sure how to move on. Heartbreakingly, they especially want to find their mothers.

Where’s your real mom? KILLED.

Who killed her? Continue reading “Boneyards EVP Log – 10/20/13”

Boneyards EVP Log – 10/17/13

IMG_2813After a month’s hiatus we’re back online, folks. Boneyards is back from the dead to rock your underworld just in time for Halloween. Only 3 shows left–10/20, 11/2 and 11/3. Last night’s 10/17 show was the kickoff. Read on–

Something quite phenomenal happened at last night’s seance that closes every show.

After a month’s hiatus we’re back online, folks. Boneyards is back from the dead to rock your underworld just in time for Halloween. Only 3 shows left — 10/20, 11/2 and 11/3. Last night’s 10/17 show was the kickoff. Read on —

Something quite phenomenal happened at last night’s seance that closes every show. In short, a dead kid needs our help and I intend to help her. Will you join me? At first, our two Ouija volunteers Kathryn and Geoff (with verbal help from Questioner Karen and myself) got the planchette to tell us its initial, V, and that it was 2 years old. This has happened to me before but rarely; a child spirit that has been around for many, many years will take on a certain adultlike maturity even while remaining childlike in its answers and overall behavior. This was borne out as V, when answering a question, would point to the star shape on the Ouija board rather than spelling a complete word, just like any 2-year-old might. In a different context it might have been adorable. V did confirm that she was standing to my right (I held out my right hand and asked if she was near it or near my other hand), and that she was not alone. This didn’t surprise me as I already assumed that the 12 Synagogue Saints, as I call them, were in the room with us. But V told us that only 5 were present. I don’t know why, but I feel that V was a little girl although gender was never specifically discussed.

I crossed the room and fired up the P-SB7 spirit box.

Meanwhile at the Ouija board, the planchette moved to YES and stayed firmly planted; not just sitting there but refusing to move. If you’ve used a Ouija board a lot you know what I mean. We switched Ouija volunteers numerous times in an effort to “warm up” the board, like tuning in a radio, but the result was always the same. The planchette was firmly planted on YES. Prior to this, the planchette had also been moving extremely slowly and we cracked jokes that maybe it was an old woman who has visited us in a previous session. At that the spirit box called out “Lazy!” loud and clear across the room (see the full EVP video and transcript below).

But there is a larger picture unfolding here, readers. This kid, this perished toddler, V, is frightened and asking for our help. Some of the spirits around her are also asking us to help her. I’ll tell you what I plan to try in the upcoming show this Sunday, but first get the full picture–

As always the raw footage is 5 minutes long. I’ve cut it down to the most audible highlights. Every EVP has also been slowed Continue reading “Boneyards EVP Log – 10/17/13”

THE TALKING DEADS in Philly

Performance dates are 10/17, 10/20, 11/2 and 11/3. Thanks so much for your consideration and for supporting independent theatre in Philly.

Boneyards Reopens 10/17/13

Press Contact: info@shiva3.com

10/14/13 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Philadelphia, PA –A real seance with real ghosts. But we don’t need to tell you that, you’ve already seen it. There are lots of Halloween events being promoted right now, especially of the big budget “haunted” house/prison/hayride/forest/valley variety with a cast of dozens of monsters/zombies/vampires/murder victims and we love those and patronize them as much as the next guy and gal every year, but why not consider something different for you or your friends eager to freak themselves out while also being profoundly moved on a spooky October night?

Jeffrey Stanley performs death ballads “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones, “Louis Collins” by Mississippi John Hurt and his own original “American Sadhu” in BONEYARDS.

Transcripts and videos from previous shows are online for you and your colleagues’ perusal. We recommend you start here . You might also want to check out the first EVP recording made in the 118-year-old synagogue that is the show’s location when New York City playwright and Drexel University Performing Arts faculty Jeffrey Stanley held the world’s first ghost auditions. Stanley, who often writes about religion for the Washington Post, will be discussing seance as performance art in that publication later this month.

Performance dates are 10/17, 10/20, 11/2 and 11/3. Thanks for your consideration and for supporting independent theatre in Philly.

Thine,
Your friends at Shiva3 Productions

Boneyards is Back for 4: 10/17, 10/20, 11/2, 11/3

Philadelphia, PA – The ongoing seance-as-theatre experiment continues. After a successful run in the 2013 Philly Fringe BONEYARDS is back from the dead to rock your underworld just in time for Halloween. Same autobiographical, spooky show, same mouldering location, same real ghosts. 4 dates: 10/17, 10/20, 11/2 and 11/3. Tickets $10, seating is limited to 20.

Later this month Jeffrey Stanley discusses seance as performance art in the Washington Post. Stay tuned.

Press Contact: info@shiva3.com

10/7/13 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Philadelphia, PA – The ongoing seance-as-theatre experiment continues. After a successful run in the 2013 Philly Fringe BONEYARDS is back from the dead to rock your underworld just in time for Halloween. Same autobiographical, spooky show, same mouldering location, same real ghosts. 4 dates: 10/17, 10/20, 11/2 and 11/3. Tickets $10, seating is limited to 20.

The hilarious, eloquent and haunting follow-up to Stanley’s 2011 hit “Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead,” this true to life romp resurrects the cadaverous–from Philly’s Laurel Hill Cemetery to a British colonial graveyard in India to ancient Greek tomb worshippers. Paranormal activity guaranteed.

Times, tickets, photos, press, playbill, and real voices from the dead here.

About Your Destination
Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and beyond crowded South Philadelphia in the 1880s. They pushed south from the original “Jewish Quarter” near South Street, opening Jewish schools, hospitals and some 140 synagogues along the way. Hard to believe today, eh? In 1909 Continue reading “Boneyards is Back for 4: 10/17, 10/20, 11/2, 11/3”

BONEYARDS: Unfringed

BONEYARDS is back from the dead to rock your underworld just in time for Halloween. Shiva3 is proud to announce the return of Jeffrey Stanley’s solo show BONEYARDS which was a hit in the 2013 Philly Fringe. The 80-minute show will again be performed in the dark, dank coal cellar of the century-old storefront Shivtei Yeshuron Ezras-Israel Synagogue, also known as “the little shul” (part of the June 2013 Hidden City Festival) at 2015 South 4th Street in South Philly near Snyder Avenue for 4 performances.

BONEYARDS is back from the dead to rock your underworld just in time for Halloween. Shiva3 is proud to announce the return of Jeffrey Stanley’s solo show BONEYARDS which was a hit in the 2013 Philly Fringe. The 80-minute show will again be performed in the dark, dank coal cellar of the century-old storefront Shivtei Yeshuron Ezras-Israel Synagogue, also known as “the little shul” (part of the June 2013 Hidden City Festival) at 2015 South 4th Street in South Philly near Snyder Avenue for 4 performances. Stanley’s solo show is a followup to his 2011 Fringe hit BEAUTIFUL ZION: A BOOK OF THE DEAD. Stanley is also a dramatic writing faculty at New York University Tisch School of the Arts and at Drexel University Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. He is a religion blogger for the Washington Post.

About the Show
A funeral for the living. A coming-of-age embalming. A suicidal decapitation by coal train. A cross-dressing hillbilly named Doodlebug. This metatheatrical, taphophilic, true-to-life monologue resurrects and converses with the cadaverous– Continue reading “BONEYARDS: Unfringed”