San Diego's 1935 Shakespeare replica in Balboa Park, twice destroyed by arson and twice rebuilt — actors and crew report footsteps, costume rustling, and shadows on the empty stage.
1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego, CA 92101
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by production. See the Old Globe website for current shows, prices, and availability.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved paths within Balboa Park to the theater complex. Accessible seating available.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1935 · Regional Theatre Tony Award 1984 · 1935 California Pacific International Exposition · Twice rebuilt after arson
Richard Requa's 1935 design for the California Pacific International Exposition produced a faithful replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, where companies performed 50-minute adaptations for exposition visitors. When the exposition closed, local theater advocates formed the San Diego Community Theatre to preserve the building, and the remodeled theater officially opened on December 2, 1937 with 'The Distaff Side.' A young actor named Craig Noel appeared in that first production; he would go on to serve as the theater's defining artistic director for decades, until his death in 2010.
In March 1978, the theater was destroyed by arson. The company improvised a temporary outdoor festival stage to complete the 1978 season, then undertook a full reconstruction of the main building, which reopened in 1981. Three years later, a second arson attack damaged the outdoor festival stage; the rebuilt replacement became the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. In recognition of its recovery and regional significance, the theater received the Regional Theatre Tony Award in 1984.
Today the Old Globe complex comprises three performance spaces with a combined capacity of approximately 1,470 seats. It produces around 15 plays and musicals per year, drawing regional and national audiences to its Balboa Park campus. The park's setting — institutions, gardens, and historic buildings within walking distance — makes the Old Globe one of the few major regional theaters with a true civic-park context.
Sources
Theater ghost lore is its own genre, and the Old Globe participates in it. What distinguishes the reports from generic haunted-theater accounts is who is doing the reporting: actors and production staff working regular shifts in the building, not visitors seeking a frisson. The footsteps on an empty stage, the costume rustling in wings just checked empty, the peripheral shadows that resolve into nothing on approach — these are the accounts that surface from the Old Globe's working community.
No specific incident anchors the tradition. There is no named entity, no documented death in the building, no single event that the accounts circle back to. The 1978 arson — which destroyed the structure where the theater company had worked for forty years — and the 1984 attack both left physical and psychological marks. Craig Noel, who spent more than seven decades in the building and died in 2010, is the figure whose presence most often comes up in informal discussion of the theater's atmosphere, though no specific paranormal claim names him directly.
The ghost light burning on the darkened stage is the theater industry's oldest superstition: a single lamp left on to appease the spirits of the dark house, and to prevent the living from walking into the orchestra pit. The Old Globe maintains it. In a building that has been rebuilt twice from arson, the light carries additional weight.
The Old Globe presents approximately 15 productions annually across three venues — the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, and the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. The main indoor stage, rebuilt after the 1978 arson and reopened in 1981, is where most staff paranormal reports originate. Between performances, a single ghost light burns on the darkened stage.
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